Hamer Scepter Bass with LED inlays

[Guest TommyHahn70]

Is that one yours? I always thought they were pretty cool! I'd almost forgotten about that Hamer Violin bass! By the way, I opened a new discussion regarding selling my Scepter Bass. It should be a few topics down.

[serial]

I got that one and the second prototype-the copper one from Kip five or six years ago. The copper one left pretty quickly (couldn't afford to keep 'em both!), although it was in better shape. I liked this one from the time I saw it in the Hamer/Winger ad back in '89. GREAT bass. The violin basses are pretty rare.

[Guest TommyHahn70]

How many Hamer basses do you have? Any other biggies?

[cmatthes]

Tommy:

Aw man, don't get HIM started!!!

Actually, I'm heading up to hang w/Serial and family tomorrow for a bit, and always enjoy it when he pulls out some of the "good" stuff!

He's got a bitchin' Red FB bass that is a complete monster.

[HamStd]

Actually Jack doesn't have any more Impact basses. The Red one from the Hamer ad and the video was actually a loaner as his equipment didn't show up for the shots. The b&w granite Impact from the Hamer catalog was given away as a present. Here is the Damn Yankee's Impact bass from the "High Enough" video and the Live in Japan concert video.

He still has 4 Blades basses but really only plays the original Prototype blades bass.

Here is the Violin bass he used with Ringo's All-stars and on the VH1 special.

Peter.

[Guest TommyHahn70]

Sorry C! I'm new! I don't know any better!

[serial]

Peter with the cruelty of a small photo! What are the inlays on that Impact? Hard to see on my dinky monitor-looks like stars.

Here's my FBIV. This one was PJ Farley's (Trixter) and is really cool, but won't fit in my car to take to gigs.

[HamStd]

Hi Steve: sorry about that. Only have a shrunken pic of the Impact, I'll send you a better pic tonight.

The inlays are Skull and Crossbones, in honor of Terrible Ted.

Peter.

[mc2]

Geeez, Tommy!!!

VERY IMPRESSIVE that you managed to get Serial, Chris, Greg AND Peter all jumping in on your very first string on the board!!

...That's like getting GWBush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice all jumping in on Irag in a press conference [um, CLOUT & DEGREE of EXPERTISE comparison only, ,NO polital views implied.]

[tobereeno]

on my Cruise bass, I found the lighting problem to be some sort of contact problem...one way to see would be to clamp near the LED and apply pressure and see if it lights up. But if it's been a problem of using 9 volts for the thing, the only repair would be to physically replace the LEDs. In theory, according to a talk I had with Gary Brawer on the subject, you could drill in from the top and replace it that way, but connecting the wires would be a nightmare of microsurgery and no guarantee of success.

[HamStd]

Hey, this is getting fun for an otherwise slow Friday work day (seeing as I don't have a scanner here at work and can't have any fun in that thread).

On the FB celeb theme, here is Eric Brittingham's FBIV from the "coming home" video.

Peter

P.S. Serial, lets start the Serial/Hamstd webpage for wayward stars Hamers....LOL

P.S.S. Sorry to hijack the thread a bit. I"ll go buy a scanner today and get my stapler out.

[serial]

That's a cool one! Love that white powdercoated hardware!

[Guest TommyHahn70]

Wher do you guys get these things???

You know, Tobereeno...I used to have to just tap the dead LEDs to get them to work, but they wouldn't come back on once I unplugged it. Then I had to knock on them. Pretty soon, I took to setting a phillips head screwdriver on the LED and tapping it with a hammer. That worked, too. It was kinda reckless, but it did no damage.

[Guest TommyHahn70]

Here's a better picture of the Scepter bass.

[Tres Aardvarks]

*sigh* Peter and Steve you guys are bastages! I pine, I pine for some of your basses...

[BTMN]

WOW!!

This thread is Star packed! Welcome Aboard Tommy. Nice Scepter Bass.

[mc2]

OK Tommy....just to keep up with Serial's and Peter's FB celeb bass pics...here's my FB8 Tom Petersson.

(Oh...and am I the ONLY guy who finds it annoying that Hamer called the bass version an "FB" for "Firebird" when it really sould've been "TB" for "Thunderbirrd?")

[Guest TommyHahn70]

Well, there are probably some itty, bitty trademark issues with calling it a TB--which I wouldn't object to. Okay...how many Hamer basses--all tolled?

[serial]

The total number would be very difficult (and probably impossible) to figure. Easier to guess on some models. I'd guess that the FBIVs are probably anywhere from 60-200 with the odds being on the shorter end of that range. Scepter basses, WAY lower since it wasn't ever in a catalog or even visible for that matter. Maybe a dozen or so? When you figure that the entire time that the company has been around, they've done just about 55,000 instruments in total (over a thirty year period), that's a little more than 1800 a year on average. Of course there was only 1 in 1974 and maybe 10-12 in 1975, etc...

Through history, I'd imagine that basses would be 10-15% or so of production?

[Guest TommyHahn70]

Are you the one working on the Hamer book, Steve?

[serial]

As we speak, actually.

[tobereeno]

if tapping on the LEDs worked, then it was definitely a contact issue as I had encountered. Pulling the fretboard and then shimming under the dead LEDs with little bits of paper will work. An idea I have (but untried) would be to heat the fretboard around the LEDs, then clamp the area and then let it cool. Maybe the process of softening the fingerboard glue, then having it reset under pressure, will hold the LEDs down and in good contact again.

[Guest TommyHahn70]

Hmmm...that sounds interesting. Heat the board with what? A heat gun? That sounds suspiciously like "asking for it." I wonder if that would work? What might that do to the fingerboard?

UNCLE GREG?? ARE YOU THERE?? WHAT SAY YOU?