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brand loyalty cntd.


landon w

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I posted this in Hamer brand loyalty, but I felt like I needed to make sure it was seen, and get others thoughts on this...........Hope this doesnt seem egotistical, I just would like to get others more specific opinions on the "Love of Hamers" and how deep that goes with each of you individually. Post as originally stated:

Aside from my signature ibanez and my acoustics, i have no reason to buy other brands than Hamer. Ill explain why. I dont like fenders, I dont like gibsons, Except for my Ibanez's, i dont like imports. I dont like guitars with enormous headstocks i.e. Dean...........Cannot f'n stand those huge wingy headstocks.

I dont like bolt-ons, I dont typically like painted instruments, though I have 4. Over the years ive been willing to buy whatever i play that i like regardless of these opinions, but i have found, opinions change over time.

I like thin necks, I like fat necks, I like tone, I like singles, I like hums. I love set necks, and thick deep clear coats and beautiful would grain.

I like heavy guitars, i like light guitars. very much like zorrow, i play all of them. Ive stated this before here, Ive never picked up a USA Hamer that I didnt like.

Ive never had to constantly adjust the necks or action or intination on any of them.............EVER !!!!! They always stay set up regardless of humidity, temp, you name it. I just pick them up and play the shit out of them!!!!

Why would I ever play something else. Ive played hundreds of different guitars, and none of them make me happier or solicit the same excitment and devotion than Hamer has.

Have I had my issues with custom orders like others, YES. did it turn me off? YES for a time, but I came back for all of the reasons stated above. I know other guitars exist that have the same options, specs, looks an appeal, especially if its a custom from some obscure artisans' shop. There is something about a Hamer that is perfect for me.

All of the models I own are guitars that i wouldnt give up for anything........anything!!! Im not new to Hamers and I dont have a blind, nieve love for anything..............I know this was long, but i feel like from my standpoint, it needed to be said.

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For whatever reason I changed pickups on all of my Hamers except the Tally. On some I extended the electronics. Other than that, I am very happy with the craftsmanship and sound.

There is no need for a change though.

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I wish to thank Hamer for its market missteps and all the bruised egos it has inflicted over the years. It has contributed to Hamer not being a household name, and conseqently, kept their resale prices absurdly low. In fact, if Hamer has refused your custom order, only to subsequently build the same piece for someone else, or if a Hamer employee didn't express his everlasting gratitute for your patronage to your satisfaction, I encourage you to express your displeasure by selling all of your USA Hamers at once! Go buy other brands who make you feel better about yourself. Badmouth Hamer on public forums. Shake your mighty fist in the air and let it be known that guitar makers may disrespect you at their own peril!

-Jonathan

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No loyalty for me. All finely crafted guitars get my vote. If it's made well, looks kick ass, plays well, and I'm gassing for it, I'll purchase it. The following brands I do have...Hamer, Gibson, Dean, Ibanez, PRS, Kramer. I've had Jacksons and Fenders in the past which are also great guitars.

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I'll settle on a brand when they get the neck right. Whoever decided the current standard nut width, especially on fender scale guitars, should have his/her nuts hauled in a sack of rough scratchy material. Too frikkin' narrow.

Breedlove, Breedlove, Taylor, Taylor, Hamer, Washburn Custom Shop (damn near perfect but still too narrow), Godin, Frankentele, Yamaha, PRS.

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The reasons I love Hamer are

A. You can buy sight unseen on Ebay etc and 90% of the time come up with an excellent guitar ... you can't do that with any other brand

B. True, pickups sometimes do need to be changed out but thats usually the only thing

C. Considering I'm only an amateur musician I can only justify $1000 max on guitar purchases and try to keep it to 2-3 guitars and one bass at a time. I'd love to have a nice LP but cant justify the expense ... Hamer is the only USA brand that I'm aware of where you can rival or surpass Gibson custom shop quality for a fraction of the price. The other brands out there, Carvin, Dean etc just seem cheap or weird to me.

It's possible that I just haven't run across the better models in person but where do you do that? None of the guitar shops in Southern California or now Portland have a very good selection. Once again, Chinese junk or ultra dollar Les Paul/crappy vintage territory.

D. From my experience the best place to buy a guitar is right here on the board. The Hamers I've bought here (and one Gibson) all ($1000 ea, or less ) have been top notch. Sometimes the seller will even go to the trouble and expense of having the guitar professionally set up before its shipped out. Where else will you find that?

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The reasons I love Hamer are

A. You can buy sight unseen on Ebay etc and 90% of the time come up with an excellent guitar ... you can't do that with any other brand

...

C. Considering I'm only an amateur musician I can only justify $1000 max on guitar purchases and try to keep it to 2-3 guitars and one bass at a time. I'd love to have a nice LP but cant justify the expense ... Hamer is the only USA brand that I'm aware of where you can rival or surpass Gibson custom shop quality for a fraction of the price. The other brands out there, Carvin, Dean etc just seem cheap or weird to me.

It's possible that I just haven't run across the better models in person but where do you do that? None of the guitar shops in Southern California or now Portland have a very good selection. Once again, Chinese junk or ultra dollar Les Paul/crappy vintage territory.

+1

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I wish to thank Hamer for its market missteps and all the bruised egos it has inflicted over the years. It has contributed to Hamer not being a household name, and conseqently, kept their resale prices absurdly low. In fact, if Hamer has refused your custom order, only to subsequently build the same piece for someone else, or if a Hamer employee didn't express his everlasting gratitute for your patronage to your satisfaction, I encourage you to express your displeasure by selling all of your USA Hamers at once! Go buy other brands who make you feel better about yourself. Badmouth Hamer on public forums. Shake your mighty fist in the air and let it be known that guitar makers may disrespect you at their own peril!

-Jonathan

You do realize that only buying used Hamers for "absurdly low" prices does little if anything to keep the brand afloat.

Come to think of it, the same goes for alienating people who are willing to plunk down big bucks for a new Hamer by refusing their easily executed custom order requests (and doing so with an attitude, no less).

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Thats exactly what else I wanted to get to, is the character of people who buy Hamers. We dont do it because "so and so" from suck nut band on rock 105 point whatever plays em'.

We buy them because we love a fine instrument, and we love to play them (most of us) And typically none of us have a bazillion dollars to drop on customs or vintage stuff (which in all honesty, holds no appeal to me)

Then to take that further, its not that we want a cheap guitar or we'd all be playin used schecters. We're willing to spend $1000 or more for something nice and we all have a shit load of them!!!!

If we dont have more than 2 or 3, we want to. I certainly would'nt be on this forum if I didnt love Hamer. Ive been on other guitar forums, and havent found one yet without a half a dozen jerks on there, which makes it very unenjoyable.

this is the place, and all you guys are for the most part :( , cool to talk with.

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You do realize that only buying used Hamers for "absurdly low" prices does little if anything to keep the brand afloat.

Who said "only"?

Hamer's existence is unlikely to be affected by anything I have done or will do. Your analysis can be turned on its head: if Hamer was more successful marketing its instruments, there wouldn't be absurdly low priced used Hamers available.

My love for Hamer guitars has little to nothing to do with their marketing strategy. It has everything to do with their attention to detail, their skills as designers and craftsment, and their love of making great guitars.

-Jonathan

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Hmmm..."Loyalty"...

I am currently at 10 USA Hamers. I've been playing for 33 years, and those years have seen incoming

and outgoing. I stumbled across my first Hamer a mere 4 years ago, a 95 Studio Wraptail. I "thought"

it was just one of those freaks of nature, the shop guys were in a good mood that day, the planets aligned,

the gods smiled down upon it and "boom", a little piece of magic made its way to my hands...At least that's

what I thought until I got my 2nd one, and found similarities. I won't bore anyone with a play by play, and

which of the 10 is my favorite (as frankly, I can't decide), but, the Hamer "loyalty" is not so much loyalty

to the brand as much as a "hey, I found something that FITS ME!". They just feel "right", they sound "right",

they play "right"...Should my playing style, tastes, preferences change and they're no longer "right" for me,

shit yeah, I'll sell 'em all and buy what works for me. It's all about "me" after all. Screw the logo on the

headstock. For the time being however, I have no need or desire to look at anything else.

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...

C. Considering I'm only an amateur musician I can only justify $1000 max on guitar purchases ... Hamer is the only USA brand that I'm aware of where you can rival or surpass Gibson custom shop quality for a fraction of the price. ...

True for me, and also true for me if you substitute "G&L" for "Hamer" and "Fender" for "Gibson."

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Of the 7 G&Ls I've owned, 3 were bought sight-unseen including the orange bass. Another was a Legacy Special that I really wish I had back.

Oh yeah, and here's my Gibson Zoot Suit SG:

Giant_Lolli.jpg

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I can understand having faith in a brand, but if I were to sell everything I have but Hamers I'd be missing some great instruments.

I own several Hamers, but I've (seriously) owned $500 guitars that played every bit as nice as any Hamer or Gibson CS or _________ guitar I've played. As mentioned before in other threads, my "standard" when it comes to playability is a 1980 $215 (w/case) bolt-on Gretsch BST. It feels better to me than anything else I've picked up at any price point.

For me used Hamers offer a higher end guitar at very reasonable prices but I'll never buy a new one.

This sounds a whole lot like the Chevy/Ford truck discussions I've heard.

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Will I blindly buy one brand over another? No. But I'll always lean towards the brand that's proven itself. And there are certain brands I won't even consider if I've had an overly negative experience with them before.

Buy guitars by feel. Put on a blindfold and pick. Hamers just happen to consistently feel real good, but I have other brands too, because variety is............

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After reading a lot of this, my initial move towards Hamer was maybe a bit different. I had about 15 guitars at the time, no more than 2 from any one maker. I liked the Hamers the most, and having a "mechanical memory," i wanted to move to a single platform when gigging.

Let me back up: For the past 10 years, i play out once maybe twice a month, and some months, not at all. In other words: Not a lot. Back in the day when i was in an actual band, i rarely, if ever, looked at the fretboard or looked down while reaching for the vol controls. They don't move, why should i have to look?

But gigging as little as i do now, and with so many guitars with control layouts all over the place, i was back to looking. I didn't like that.

So, i wanted a "single platform" that i could get buckers, P-90s, hawg, korina, chambered, solid, etc, etc, etc, but have the feel of the guitar and the control layout consistent.

From what i played, had, and saw, i narrowed my choices down to the PRS McCarty line, and the Hamer Studio / Artist line. I liked the Hamers a little more, and i already had a DT and a Studio, so there you go. Obviously, quality, consistency, affordability, etc. all played into this decision. Availability? Not so much. (No local Hamer dealers, and you can't throw a stick without hitting a PRS dealer...)

So i now have 3 "go-to's" that have the same layout: Korina P-90; Chambered Korina Studio with buckers; and a solid Hawg Studio with buckers, that are all consistent. I have two or three other guitars that hit the rotation a lot (Huber Dolphin, Hamer Mirage, Gibson HRF), but usually at least one of the three Hamers are with me on a gig.

Not sure if that makes much sense, but it's my story, and i'm sticking with it. :(

Thanks for reading. Unless you didn't get this far, than screw you too! :lol:

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I'm confident in Hamers because its a brand that I know I can get a great instrument sight unseen. Thats important for a lefty, we can't just run out to the local store and try the new XYZ model to see how it plays and sounds. If there was something that played and sounded better for less money I'd be playing that but it just doesn't happen. Maybe its not a perfect instrument or a perfect company (I'm not even sure what that would be) but for me its as good as I've ever found.

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I don't have any particular brand loyalty, but I do take an opposite tack at times: Certain brands and companies (and retailers, for that matter) have been so aloof and/or unprofessional that I am not interested in doing business with them.

There are more Ford trucks around than there are Lincolns, and if I was considering a (new) utilitarian instrument, I would probably gravitate, perhaps surprisingly, towards Peavey first, because Hartley's mantra still seems to be "quality equipment for working musicians at fair prices", as it's been for decades. Factors into that orientation would include my minimal musical talent (I don't need anything fancy), + most patrons at most venues where most of us play don't know or care about the name on a headstock + I play bass, and Peavey basses have a good reputation over their history, if one looks at what the company was/is trying to accomplish + Hartley Peavey's done me a coupla favors and I would want to try to reciprocate by purchasing and using his company's products.

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I don't own any Hamers, at the present time. I love them, but there

are other top quality instruments out there. I've owned 2 or 3 Hamers at a time, and

have no regrets about it. But personal tastes change sometimes. Some need to graze on that grass, on the other

side of the fence.

I don't buy new guitars, simply because they're higher than a cat's back. I can find a used "like new" guitar for

60% (or less) of the new cost. The CS Strat I purchased a month ago goes for $3000 new. NO WAY I'd spring

that kinda of $$$ for a new guitar. It was manufactured in June of this year. I got it for less than 60% of that.

I have a Hamer custom order that I'd love to see made, but I ain't paying $3000 + for

a guitar that will for all intents and purposes, be worth around half that price, the day I pop

the UPS delivered box open. If I came across a similarly spec'd used piece, I pounce with all fours on it.

I don't see it as my responsibility, to pay an inflated price to support a company.

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thats what is so unfortunate about US built guitars. Big $$$$ for new retail. These outsourced guitars can have the same quality but for so much less that we've gotten used to being able to buy at a certain price point.

Now, instead of the us market adjusting, i think they are trying to retain the "quality of the brand" in maintaining their high prices. If you drop the price, you must have dropped the quality, right?

So, what do you do if you are an american manufacturer that needs to maintain brand, but not price yourself out of the market and at the same time try to compete against the big 2 or 3 who havent lowered their us built or custom prices either?

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