Hamer changes

[adferreira]

...for custom additions for the 2nd half of 2005?

I know that locking tuners are out for some strange reason, but I am not sure of anything else.

Seems like they change things with no good reason and the only way to find out is to ask then and go thru the rounds of:

Customer: "Can I do XXX"

Hamer: "No."

Customer: "But I could last year."

Hamer: "We changed our minds, nya nya nya."

Customer: "That sucks."

Just venting a bit..

[cmatthes]

I haven't heard of anything being dropped as an option, but they did pump the prices up again on 7/1

[Luke]

...for custom additions for the 2nd half of 2005?

I know that locking tuners are out for some strange reason, but I am not sure of anything else.

Seems like they change things with no good reason and the only way to find out is to ask then and go thru the rounds of:

Customer: "Can I do XXX"

Hamer: "No."

Customer: "But I could last year."

Hamer: "We changed our minds, nya nya nya."

Customer: "That sucks."

Just venting a bit..

This constant stress on the manufacturer/client relationship has surely keep the used prices of Hamers artifically low IMO. What makes a 30 year old Epiphone worth $2,000 but a US made Hamer only worth $600? Bad management. While Jol and Company make wonderful guitars, that does not mean they make great business people as well. Exceeding expectaions in one area does not necetitate excellence across the board. Why do companies like GE have a marketing department that is seperate from sales, that is seperate from R&D, that is seperate from finance? Larger corporations realize that for the greatest success they must have people excelling in all aspects of the business model to compete effectively, something Hamer has never figured out. So in a nutshell, if Jol wakes up in a bad mood and decides Hamer no longer does "xxx" that is it, end of story.

[Kurt L]

So in a nutshell, if Jol wakes up in a bad mood and decides Hamer no longer does "xxx" that is it, end of story.

But the flip side of your observation is that it's really cool to have someone who REALLY knows the product in charge. I met Jol at the Dallas Guitar Show and talked with him for 15 - 20 minutes.

It's obvious he knows WAY more about guitars than most of us and is extremely passionate about making great instruments. I could tell he was really proud of the Monaco III. They make great guitars, and that's not "bad management" to me.

Bad management is GM, where sales and marketing have to make up for lousy cars.

I'd much rather have Hamer the way it is than have a marketing/sales weasel in charge. Leo Fender was an eccentric genius too. The world needs more of them running things, not less.

Just my opinion.

[Guest teefus2]

This constant stress on the manufacturer/client relationship has surely keep the used prices of Hamers artifically low IMO. What makes a 30 year old Epiphone worth $2,000 but a US made Hamer only worth $600? Bad management. While Jol and Company make wonderful guitars, that does not mean they make great business people as well. Exceeding expectaions in one area does not necetitate excellence across the board. Why do companies like GE have a marketing department that is seperate from sales, that is seperate from R&D, that is seperate from finance? Larger corporations realize that for the greatest success they must have people excelling in all aspects of the business model to compete effectively, something Hamer has never figured out. So in a nutshell, if Jol wakes up in a bad mood and decides Hamer no longer does "xxx" that is it, end of story.

i would disagree with this statement. even though hamer is by definition "a custom shop", they make more money by making less changes to their current production schedule. the less time involved in pulling a guitar out of production to make sure it gets the special features the buyer/orderer wants the more productive they are. they seem to be pretty accomodating anyway though. you can get a couple of different inlays, pickups, colors, woods, bridges, controls, headstocks, shapes etc. it's a good compromise. it doesn't make sense to have "might farts cause brain damage" inlaid on the fretboard just because someone has $800 to do it (thanks to john elwood i have never forgotten that phrase). they buyer ends up with a guitar he couldn't sell if he had to because it was too eprsonal and specialized and no one would order custom hamers as you could get them on the used market for nothing.

[Luke]

they make more money by making less changes to their current production schedule

Actually this is completely the opposite of why Hamer was so profitible last year, it was the the windfall of custom add ons that resulted in the profits. If you can only produce three guitars a day, it is in your interest to maximize the profit per unit, and the way to acheive that is to have customization. You are speaking in terms of economies of scale, which is not an issue at three guitars a day. Want gold pick-up covers on those Seymour Duncans, add $200 MSRP or $100 to Hamer's income. The upcharge from SD for the covers is probably $10 for a set of pick ups, so $90 profit realized for no extra work. How much extra work are crown inlays that they have done a million times versus the three piece victory inlay? Crowns are much easier and faster to inlay, but now they will also add $200 to the MSRP. So your crown inlay, gold pick up covered customized guitar saved Hamer 2 hours in inlay labor, and added $190 to the profit via sales price, so a net gain of $240 when you figure in items like social security and medicare contributions saved by the employer. No you are looking at it from the wrong business model, that square peg does not fit this triangular hole.