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Rare Bird Thread


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Custom ordered Standard. A dynamite looking guitar, but I just never bonded with it completely. Maybe

I'm getting jaded, cause if was 25 years younger, I'd been creaming my jeans every time I picked it up.

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Hell, I creamed my jeans just looking at the picture! :):P

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Serial, that's a bad ass guitar. I like it.

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More oddities....

The confusingly named "prototype Prototype."

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Andy Summers' Phantom w/ three interchangeable fingerbaords.

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A 1993 B12M in BlackBurst...from back when Hamer insists they didn't make medium scale 12vers or do trans black finishes. I love this bass....ebony board, one-piece figured body on a unique slab of wood that is flamed/quilted/spalted, custom electronics. Even the back of the neck is bursted.

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A four-digit "Three Coil Bass"...a long-scale neck on a Prototype Guitar body.

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The ONLY B4A ever made (for Kelly LeMieux of Goldfinger) that ws also featured in the Hamer catalog (1994-95.)

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I remembered this guitar. Someone sold it on eBay about two years ago. No idea at this point who the owner is, but I think it's one of us (not me though). Anyway, here it goes. This is an 80's Vector, sporting a factory Kahler and a quite unique Zulu finish. You bet this is a rare (and colorful!) bird:

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Andy Summers' Phantom w/ three interchangeable fingerbaords.

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I'm sure you've explained this before, but how the hell did the fingerboards stay in place?

-

Austin

They stayed on Magnetically. There was a company back then that also retrofitted guitars/basses with this system (by Novatone) although Hamer did a number of factory original ones like this Phantom, also using Novatone systems. I also have an early 80s Cruisebass (lefty) with magnetic fretted & fretless fingerboards.

It appears that the patent on these fingerboards was sold and someone is still making them.

http://www.afn.org/~sejic/rankin.html

http://www.friendsoffreedom.com/Friends/Ra...ark_Rankin.html

http://www.nonoctave.com/forum/messages/7850.html?n=6

Three possible approaches [Tuning, instruments]

Aside from the traditional solutions of fishing line and zip ties, there's three ways I know of that have addressed microtonal fretting for more than one scale so far.

The most well known is Mark Rankin's interchangeable fretboard kit. These were invented by a gentleman named Tom Stone who subsequently sold the patent for his system to Mark. The kit comes with magnetic frets and a steel plate. You have the frets removed and the steel plate installed on the neck. Then you have a set of magnetic fretboards that snap onto the steel plate. I do not know the details, but people have hired Buzz Kimball to install them in the past, so perhaps that is enough to get started. Here is the contact information I found for Mark, from both Denny Genovese's site and Charles Lucy's current site:

Rankin Interchangeable Fretboards

P.O. Box 201

Alderpoint, California 95511

[email protected]

I've not met Mark Rankin and don't know much about the fretboards except they exist. Might be worth a try to look into. If you find out anything, please report back.

The second method was invented by Marc Jones, a composer from New York who is one of the most accomplished microtonal guitarists of all time. He built a system of removable double-sided plywood fret boards into which he used a dremel tool to cut the frets out, then locked into place on the neck with bolts. The guitar had first been defretted. He had a set of dozens of these boards representing the entire scale tree series of equal temperaments starting with 5+7=12, which he then arranged in the canonical pattern on a tree of neck mounts on his wall. Mark had limited funds; this system allowed him to add fretboards at "fifteen cents" each plus considerable labor. Marc could both play in any equal temperament and also could recognize any temperament by ear.

Third, Wim Hoogewerf has a guitar with completely movable frets on a string by string level. I'm not sure exactly how it all fits together, it looks pretty intricate.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Custom order with a Humbucker & P-90 Combo

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That is sooo hot!

:D

This is my favorite Special, ever!

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My first custom order, and the only one I no longer own - an Artist Custom in trans purple.

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As always, quality stuff Badger Dave! :) Interstingly, my graphic Special is the best special I've ever played as well.

Custom Vector, 1988 (pointy headstock, stadium logo, gold hardware, OBL pups, pearl white finish, boomerang inlays):

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Camo Vector, 1981 (I was told this very guitar was at the Hamer booth in NAMM '81 and that it was pictured on Guitar Player that year, but I haven't confirmed so ; one of these days I might go to the library to see what I find):

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Blueburst Vector, 1984 (this is the best sounding electric guitar EVER, and I haven't seen this finish very often):

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All my "rare" items end there, as at this point I "only" own those three USA Vectors + two Czech Dean Vees.

Those are nice 'points' bro!

I well remember the camo Vector. I think my brother John Hamer came up with the idea. It was at one of the shows and may have led Tom Petersson to order a camo bass. Paul Hamer

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1-off radio station and Hamer promo...from 1980

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And forsale in another thread...

:D

Wow! Sky Daniels makes his way into an HFC board topic! Blast from the local past, innit?

I forgot about this one. Steve Dahl who was the number one DJ in Chicago was a friend of mine, he was on The Loop. He use to do a live radio morning broadcast with a studio audience at the Esquire Theater in Chicago. When John Belushi was in Chicago shooting the Blues Brothers we supplied the instruments and amps for the jam sessions that took place at his private club, which was across the street and down a one person wide alley to a building hidden behind the street front store, from Second City where John had previously worked. One of Steve's friends was Joe Walsh who in those days had just joined the Eagles. Steve commissioned me to do a guitar for Joe that was painted the colors of the American Flag with the words Joe Walsh for President on it. I had been telling John (probably one among many) he should stop by the Esquire Theater and go Steve's show. Which he eventually did. Later when the Eagles played in town John hosted them at his club and invited my wife and I and Steve to the party. Steve gave Joe his Hamer that night and later I saw it at one of the Hard Rock's. So it was The Blues Brothers, Eagles and Jackson Browne with everyone jamming on Hamer guitars.

This guitar was a giveaway thru The Loop radio station and the above is how we came to be so close to The Loop.

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Here's #1 of the small familyIMG_0609.jpg

try againIMG_0609.jpg

I thought it would be cool to have a thread exclusively for pics of rare Hamers. I'm thinking custom orders, low production numbers, NAMM guitars etc. I'll add a pic or two of my own very soon. What have you got?

here's #1 of a small brooIMG_0609.jpg

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Way back in another thread there was mention of a black sunburst spotted in the Rays music scene in the blues brothers. Did it get thrown in the movie as a kind of tribute to Paul?

I thought that was a Hamer! Way cool!

That movie kix ass....

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Custom ordered premium quilted Studio Custom, with ebony board, tummy cut,

custom pups and a weight restriction w/o chambers.

It is a superb instrument and a real keeper!! :-)

CustomStudioCustom.jpg

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I have two Specials with factory routing for HBs, the cherry one ('95) I bought new from DGS in '97; and the TV yellow ('94) was purchased used, not sure what the pickups are in it, but the HB routing is factory original. They're not particularly rare (a black one sold on the FS board recently), but not easy to find, either. Sorry that the TV yellow one looks kinda 'washed out', my camera hates light/dark contrasts and tends to wipe out the lighter colors, also the background reflection throws the color/images off.

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'96 Standard with one piece body, no pickguard (never had one):

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'97 Standard with two piece body, factory pickguard, case not original:

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'96 RN Standard Custom, found this by chance when I was stationed in Japan in '98:

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Edited so I could post the least crappy photos. :D

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Semi rare Fb that is now owned by some guy in Tokyo and one of only 3 Gibby custom shop LP Axcess in Firetiger. Stock. Thats all I got--

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  • 6 months later...

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