KAMAN CORPORATION? What's that about?

[Victor (Fret Friend)]

I keep seeing these Hamer Kaman guitars on ebay

Can't find much info on the net about Kaman Corporation. Pardon my ignorance but can anyone shed any light please?

[Jem]

Unless i'm seriously mistaken these are nothing to do with Hamer, just Kaman's own brand Korean shredder's which i pressume they dropped when Hamer started their import line in the early 90's.

[Armitage]

Kaman Music Corporation, (same owner as Kaman Aircraft), started with Ovation in the 60s, and even bought Hamer in the late 80s. They've distributed lots of other guitar and accessory companies and were at one time the largest independent distributor for gear. They sold much of it to Fender in 2008.

[LostArt]

Charlie Kaman started Kaman aerospace he was a guitar player

wanted to buy martin and martin refused.

started Ovation

bought Hamer

KMC now owned by Fender DISTRIBUTES Takamine Latin Percussion Gretsch drums

do a google search

[Steve Haynie]

GTX and Hamer are not related.

[Victor (Fret Friend)]

I never got any notifications on these replies which is odd as I subscribed.

Been doing some reading at Wiki. Not much said about Hamer. Would like to find out more. I do know that some Kaman/GTX guitars are being advertised as Hamers (seen 'em myself on (fe)ebay (that sucks btw). I shall keep digging.

I'm just trying to piece together more history on Hamer (the company) as I've always been a fan of the guitars. My knowledge on this subject is limited & I think it's about time I knew more. Plus, it's always good to blab off at shows when people ask about Hamer hehe

Thanks for the replies...

[Armitage]

I don't know anything about GTX guitars, but a quick search found this.

Maybe Kaman imports them...

[Victor (Fret Friend)]

I was looking for US Hamers recently & came across this. I wasn't impressed so did a bit of digging.

Here's the ad (fe)eBay

This is why my question arose. Also been researching Hamer history & am reasonably 'up' on the info re: Kaman now.

Cheers, Vic...

[Nathan of Brainfertilizer Fame]

In most of the eBay listings, the lister realized that Kaman purchased Hamer, and is trying to draw a connection between the Kaman guitars and Hamers. As has been said, there is no connection.

Adding to the confusion is several of the GTX guitars have a paint scheme remarkably similar to the speckle finish on some Hamer Centauras.

But from my own research, it seems like the GTXs are plywood guitars. Plywood guitars actually sound better than you might think, but will never be worth it to a professional player. And the GTXs are upper entry-level. They put enough bells and whistles to *look* mid-range or even low-end professional, but the trems don't stay in tune, mediocre fret dressing, etc.

[Victor (Fret Friend)]

In most of the eBay listings, the lister realized that Kaman purchased Hamer, and is trying to draw a connection between the Kaman guitars and Hamers. As has been said, there is no connection.

Adding to the confusion is several of the GTX guitars have a paint scheme remarkably similar to the speckle finish on some Hamer Centauras.

But from my own research, it seems like the GTXs are plywood guitars. Plywood guitars actually sound better than you might think, but will never be worth it to a professional player. And the GTXs are upper entry-level. They put enough bells and whistles to *look* mid-range or even low-end professional, but the trems don't stay in tune, mediocre fret dressing, etc.

Yeah, I get that. My Cent is marble finish like that cheapo GTX.

The reason for this thread was that I saw that GTX & thought 'WTF?'

Thanks for taking the time to explain...

[Nathan of Brainfertilizer Fame]

In most of the eBay listings, the lister realized that Kaman purchased Hamer, and is trying to draw a connection between the Kaman guitars and Hamers. As has been said, there is no connection.

Adding to the confusion is several of the GTX guitars have a paint scheme remarkably similar to the speckle finish on some Hamer Centauras.

But from my own research, it seems like the GTXs are plywood guitars. Plywood guitars actually sound better than you might think, but will never be worth it to a professional player. And the GTXs are upper entry-level. They put enough bells and whistles to *look* mid-range or even low-end professional, but the trems don't stay in tune, mediocre fret dressing, etc.

Yeah, I get that. My Cent is marble finish like that cheapo GTX.

The reason for this thread was that I saw that GTX & thought 'WTF?'

Thanks for taking the time to explain...

Oh, yeah. Huh.

I couldn't see the pictures at work, so I didn't realize you had posted just such an example of the paint scheme similarity!

[Victor (Fret Friend)]

No worries Nathan

[gorch]

There is quite a lot of history information available about Hamer USA guitars. To me it looks like the Asian line, available for quite a long time now, appeared in various lines without further information in the sales chain. So, no one really knows what's about a certain line and what's not.

The other day we had noticed that, although said to be discontinued at least in the US, Europe currently is flooded with new XT line models like Monacos etc.