'82 Special Basket Case...

[kkeller]

So, I find myself with an '82 Checkerboard-logo Special that I purchased from eBay a few years back. The shipping, as I recall, cost more than the actual guitar, but I took a chance because the pic on the auction looked like the original pickups were intact. It was missing the bridge and looked to be in really deplorable condition. I received the guitar and it had an unmistakable funk about it, was beat to death and was basically just junk.

The guitar had been routed (badly) for a Kahler Pro, and many of the screws attaching the hardware had been replaced with things like sheetrock screws.

But...The guitar had no breaks and the pickups were undamaged and actually worked! I brought it into the shop with the full intention of bandsawing it up and cutting my losses.

I just couldn't do it. I started talking to the techs in the shop, we decided to rescue it if we could. This is going to involve a good bit of work and skill to make this thing back into a Hamer. The initial exam showed that someone had shaved off one of the 'horns' quite a bit, almost 3/16".

So, the next step is to re-rout the trem cavity and block it in with a piece of mahogany. The Kahler mounting holes will be doweled and trimmed.

The plan: Since the neck angle is shallow on these, we are going to remove about .075"(+/-) of the original top and body, down to meet the sanded part, and cover the top with a AAAA maple cap. The top then gets bound with creme celluloid and I'm thinking a light Tobacco Sunburst finish. It'll get a 2-FIG bridge, new machine heads and all new hardware along with the original pickups.

I'll be posting up more pics as we go along on this project, along with descriptions of problems and solutions as we go. Stay Tuned!

Kim

[burningyen]

Whoa.

[atquinn]

Awesome! Appears to be missing a couple screws though?

-

Austin

[kkeller]

I didn't notice the PU ring screws until I looked at the pics, they are in place now.

First gig report:

Here's a pic I took at soundcheck:

I used one of my Soldano HR50's with a Marshall 2X12, tc Chorus and a Tube Screamer. Other guitars were a Daytona and a Mosrite tenor guitar tuned in A.

Opening acts were the U.S. Army Band, Corey Wager, and the Liberty Belles (a USO touring troupe).

It's a BIG boat!

Corey Wager's drummer, Mike, with the Liberty Belles in the background:

[bubs_42]

That looks like a cool gig!

[FrankieIII]

Awesome! Appears to be missing a couple screws though?

-

Austin

It would have been cool to leave off the rings completely and mount the pups directly to the body for a little modern twist to the traditional recipe... They could always be put on at any time...

[serial]

Very cool!

[specialk]

Great thread Kim! Thanks for sharing all the pics with us.

Did the Special sound as good as it looks?

[stonge]

Great thread Kim! Thanks for sharing all the pics with us.

Did the Special sound as good as it looks?

got to check this one out yesterday; the photos don't do it justice. that's about the nicest burst I've ever seen. as nice as it looks, it plays and sounds even better. gotta love those old Dimarzios.

once again, Hamer's alchemists turn firewood into tonewood. amazing.

[kkeller]

I forgot the camera today, but I got to give the Special a bit more of an audition today at a gig at Monmouth Park Racetrack. Basically the same rig, but some different pedals. Left the tenor at home and brought a PRS Mira and the Daytona. I think I'm going to change out the bridge pickup, which seems shaky compared to my original '80 Sunburst. I'd like to keep the cosmetics intact, so I'm guessing I'm going to have to either find another original or have the one in the guitar rewound. Any suggestions?

KK

[bubs_42]

Well if we haven't cleaned BCRGreg out yet, he most likley has one. I'm sure someone will pony one up for you. I'm all out.

[BadgerDave]

You can get DiMarzio 36th Anniversary or Virtual PAF pickups in double cream. I like both better than the originals.

[bubs_42]

FWIW, i've owned both and I liked the Virtual's more than the 36ths.

[pirateflynn]

Virtuals came stock in my Grosh Set Neck and I think they are pretty damn good. I had a double creme WCR Darkburst in the bridge position of a Sunburst that was sublime.

[Jason01]

I think if every guitar I owned had that finish I would still want more with that finish.

[sixesandsevens]

I think if every guitar I owned had that finish I would still want more with that finish.

Great job on the restoration!

[paults]

Gorgeous guitar! And, a big hello to Kim!!

I can offer some historical perspective on these kind of guitar abominations. $350 is the running gag price for an old Hamer, and has been for quite awhile. Before that, we really were all paying $350 for clean Specials, Sunbursts, Phantoms and even Standards. At that point, $250 was the HFC (well,hikarate.com) joke price. But, in the earliest days of Hamer message boards, we all were buying used Hamers for $150 to $250.

So, if you were playing rock guitar in the '80s, you needed a whammy bar. Jackson made $1000 guitars back then, new Hamers, etc with Floyds/Kahlers were close to that. Fender and Gibson were both on the edge of bankruptcy, and clueless. Their guitars were either expensive, wouldn't stay in tune, or just sounded like the 1970s...

Hamer Specials were so out of style they could be had for $100 on a good day. Or, somebody owned one, and needed a whammy People bought Kahlers for $100 and ended up with a guitar that would let them keep making a living from playing music. Unfortunately, woodworking skills of the normal musician (and self-proclaimed installation experts of that time period, for that matter)vary wildly. I've seen some that were obviously hacked out with a chisel, with a large screwdriver, by drilling a bunch of holes and then breaking the remaining wood (yeah, that is a great way to break the back of the guitar, isn't it? ). And, occasionally, someone would follow the template, and do a very clean routing job. But, I've not seen many done like that.

When I first went on the road, I owned three electric guitars. I was playing four to six nights a week, usually five sets a night. MTV music - I needed at least two guitars with whammys that stayed in tune and could be sparkly to raunchy. I had a Fender Mustang with a dimarzio humbucker at the bridge - before Kurt made that cool. I couldn't play Hairband stuff in tune with that. I put a Rockinger tremelo on my Les Paul - what a joke that thing was.... So, the LP got a Kahler, and Duncans with coil taps. My Mockingbird already had coil taps, but was a hard tail. So, it got a kahler (before Slash made that cool).

This many years later, that kind of modification may seem crazy. But, there weren't millions of used $100 shred guitars. There were high end guitars, bad imitations, and nice playing out of style USA guitars.

Those guitars fed me, as did other guitars for every road dog who did that mod.

No regrets here. One thing, though - when I got my Les Paul, the 58-60 Sunbursts were only about $200 more than a new one. I was tempted to spend the extra money, but didn't. If I would have had one of those, I wonder if I would have kahlerized it? EEEK!

[cmatthes]

I always loved the Guitar Trader ads with the guy holding the '60 LP: "The 1960 Les Paul I'm holding can sell for as much as $3,000, but the other guitars here can be had for under $1,000!" (something like that). There was a '50s Esquire, Firebird V, early '60s Strat and a TV Special tossed around him.

Those ads ran for years!

Ah - found the ad. Just as I remembered it!

[paults]

In high school (mid 70s) I was on Guitar Trader's mailing list for their inventory flyers. Their advertised price for 58-60 Les Paul Standards was $1300. I guess I should have driven to NY, and gotten a cash deal! Who knew those guitars would be worth hundreds of thousands someday....

I think 50s strats may have been what, $450? LOL

[bcsride]

paults,

Thanks for the post. Within the last few weeks, I have been thinking about creating an abomination - and I don't even need it to "make a living." I just think it might be fun to have a Floyded set neck with a 3X3 headstock.