The Gibson Historic Korina Explorer vs Hamer

[Brownsound]

So, the general consensus over at LP Forum is that the Historic Gibson Korina V and Explorer have a better build quality AND sound better than Hamer equivelent. Im thinking crack use but discuss freely.

[Big Country]

Maybe the original Gibsons were great back in the day when care and love were put into creating great guitars. Now a days I'd take the Hamers every time.

~thomas

[kizanski]

Funny how that discussion started as a comparison between the Korina Hamers vs. "Gibson Historic" guitars and degenerated to the Hamers vs. ORIGINAL Korina Gibsons. As if anyone can afford a '58 Flying V or Explorer, that is, if you can find one for sale.

PLAYERS will always choose the Hamer.

Pretenders and collectors will always choose the Gibsons.

Good for them, better for us.

[SirDouglas]

My 1 piece Korina body it the single best playing and sounding Hamer... let alone any of that Gibbson items ive ever played... while i dislike the pickups IN that particular model it still outmatches the Gibbson on sound quality... even my Zebra Blitz plays and sounds better than a Gibbson.. which is why i bought my first "REAL" guitar as a Hamer Blitz in 81

Now i might not be Gibsons biggest fan... they did put out some good work til they let everyone and thier brother start buying into them and making some extremely poor choices on going CHEAP.... the only 2 gibsons i will own are the E2 Flying V and the Howard Roberts....

NOW someone sell me a Hmer FB damnit........

Sir Douglas

Randy

[anotherfreak2]

Maybe the original Gibsons were great back in the day when care and love were put into creating great guitars.

Back when you didn't have any other choice

I am kidding .....sort of........

they have made some fine electrics no doubt about that at all

do I own one....... no

[Submariner85]

I would just say that everyone is entitled to his/her own opinion. My personal choice would be Hamer.

[BCR Greg]

I have a pile of 50's Gibsons. Many here have played most of them.

They are what they are. Fantastic guitars, but they are the pick of years of buying and selling guitars.

My Hamers are all fantastic. They are not interchangable with the Gibsons.

To compare 50's Gibsons to modern Hamers denigrates both.

I am willing to bet that few of the Gibson proponents own Hamers, therefore they are not entitled to an opinion.

[Submariner85]

Fair enough.

[hamerhead]

PLAYERS will always choose the Hamer.

Pretenders and collectors will always choose the Gibsons.

Good for them, better for us.

Kiz, that is the single most intellegent statement ever posted here.

How the hell did that come out of you?!?

[kizanski]

Kiz, that is the single most intellegent statement ever posted here.

How the hell did that come out of you?!?

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

[BTMN]

Not Korina but I would take this, see below, less than $1G '97 Hamer ANYTIME over an overpriced, IMNSHO, Historic Gibber regardless of year. As much as I love the Explorer shape I have never owned a real Gibber Explorer. My Explorer 90 is close, 90% the size, but I have never bought the real deal. I've had a "Real deal", Hamer, since '82.

[Guest galejt]

I have a pile of 50's Gibsons. Many here have played most of them.

They are what they are. Fantastic guitars, but they are the pick of years of buying and selling guitars.

My Hamers are all fantastic. They are not interchangable with the Gibsons.

To compare 50's Gibsons to modern Hamers denigrates both.

I am willing to bet that few of the Gibson proponents own Hamers, therefore they are not entitled to an opinion.

Except Greggles has an old gibby Jr with a repaired neck break that gives me wiggles every time I play it. It's a trouser snake enhancer it is.

[BCR Greg]

Except Greggles has an old gibby Jr with a repaired neck break that gives me wiggles every time I play it. It's a trouser snake enhancer it is.

Suffer, Bitch.

I have since landed a few more Juniors.....

[Brownsound]

I just get all worked up when the "Funiture Speculators" which the LP Forum has a bunch of start talkin comparing apples to oranges. That idiot with his '50s Explorer vs a new Korina Standard is just stupid. I dont know about you guys but every Explorer I have playes in the last 20 years has been second quality. Its not a main line Gibson and they just dont put the care into their manufacture. A Hamer Standard, all of them are works of art. Gibsons are just up from Epis. I get fretburn everytime I play any unbound Gibson (new) much less every Explorer.

[BTMN]

Those are some great looking old boys there. Dare I say YUMMY!

Seriously, Those old P90 guitars are wonderful to admire and play on. Out of my wallet range but it's nice to have friends that buy those things every now and then and let guys like me hack a few chords with.

[BCR Greg]

I just get all worked up when the "Funiture Speculators" which the LP Forum has a bunch of start talkin comparing apples to oranges. That idiot with his '50s Explorer vs a new Korina Standard is just stupid. I dont know about you guys but every Explorer I have playes in the last 20 years has been second quality. Its not a main line Gibson and they just dont put the care into their manufacture. A Hamer Standard, all of them are works of art. Gibsons are just up from Epis. I get fretburn everytime I play any unbound Gibson (new) much less every Explorer.

I disagree, not that it matters. There are lots of good Gibsons out there, but you have to pick and choose. They make more in a week that Hamer makes in 6 months, so they CAN'T make each one special.

Gibsons have their place, Hamers theirs. To choose sides is a waste of time.

[tomteriffic]

I have a pile of 50's Gibsons.  Many here have played most of them.

They are what they are.  Fantastic guitars, but they are the pick of years of buying and selling guitars.

My Hamers are all fantastic.  They are not interchangable with the Gibsons.

To compare 50's Gibsons to modern Hamers denigrates both.

I am willing to bet that few of the Gibson proponents own Hamers, therefore they are not entitled to an opinion.

Except Greggles has an old gibby Jr with a repaired neck break that gives me wiggles every time I play it. It's a trouser snake enhancer it is.

Jim, the red one's even worse. I didn't even plug it in and I still had to excuse myself.

[JES1680]

For me Hamers are consistantly excelent quality, and I love the way they play. That being said Nothing sounds like a good LP. I'm down to one LP, an 00 R9 and 4 Hamers. Is the quality as good as Hamer? No is it as easy to play? No Does it require more tuning and neck adjustments? Yes. But it sounds like nothing else. I think theres room for both. Finding a good LP is like a quest, the're out there, but it takes an investment in time to find them.

[AXEMAN]

I have to agree, BCR Greg is right each Guitar has a place.

Yes Gibson makes a lot of guitars, just have to find *YOUR* #001 ..

More to come--11/11/05 GOOD UPS GOOD UPS now bring it to daddy.

[The Hellion]

Yeah, comparing two guitars is like comparing two type of beers. Each guitar has unique sound which somebody hates and somebody loves.

But heh, it's allways as fun to compare two things

[Brownsound]

What you CAN compare is the trend of the manufacturer in making consistantly high quality instruments. You can compare finish quality, wood, tops, hardware, fretboards, inlays and so on. This is where Gibson falls down. Im not talking out of my hat here. Before I finally got a good R7 this year I had purchased no less than 4 Les Pauls online (because of no local supply) and had to send all 4 back due to problems. I couldnt believe what I was seeing. I evn posted pics here and on LP Forum which they promptly tried to tell me I was either lying or that only a rare few were like the 4 in a row from different dealer sent me!

I have owned a total of 4 Hamers so far....no problems, none...zero, no Hameritis, no issues. Coincidence?

I still own the R7, a 61 RI SG (which has problems but sounds so good I cant bear getting rid of it) and an ES-137 which sounds good and is reasonably put together. I love Gibsons...just not all of em...

[kizanski]

In the context of the scope of the original post (Hamer Korinas vs. Gibson Historics - AKA "NEW"), there is little or no explanation to pay 3 or 4 times the money to buy a Gibson Historic over a Hamer Korina Vector or Standard.

If playability and build quality are what you look for in a guitar, the Gibson Historics simply do not stack up. If the name on the headstock means that much to you (pretenders and collectors again), then you have to go with the Gibson.

Do Hamers match up with '50's Gibsons? Well, I can tell you that I have a 2003 BCR Junior and a 1959 TV Junior. They're very different guitars, and neither guitar would make me want to get rid of the other. However, that '59 Junior DID cure my psychotic need to acquire ever Hamer Sunburst and Special that came up for sale. I don't know why or how, but it did.

I got really lucky and stumbled upon an incredible deal, but by and large, these guitars (the LP Jrs) are headed toward the range of "unaffordable." The Explorers and Flying Vs are well past that point, obviously. But again, the original post had nothing to do with VINTAGE Gibsons. Somewhere along that LPF thread, the original run of Historic Vs and Explorers was mentioned. These are the Vs, Explorers and Modernes that came out in the early '80s. They were very good guitars. Hamer quality? No.

I do have a few Gibson Historics: a '54 Reissue Goldtop and a Firebird I (single mini 'bucker, wrap around bridge).

Hamer doesn't make Les Pauls and they don't make Firebirds. Even when they did make FBs, they weren't anything like the vintage pieces, so you really can't even count them in the equation.

When Hamer makes a Les Paul and a proper Johnny Winter/Eric Clapton Firebird, I'll compare the two (four?) against each other, but until them, Gibson wins that argument.

New Historics vs. any Korina Hamer? No, I don't think so.

[Stike]

Maybe the original Gibsons were great back in the day when care and love were put into creating great guitars. Now a days I'd take the Hamers every time.

~thomas

A friend of mine once decribed a 58 V he worked on as "crudely built". One out of only 98(?) made, I'd say the rest were on par build wise. Another friend of mine has a Historic Lonnie Mack V which might be the best sounding guitar I've ever heard. As far as arguing at the LPF, why bother?

[guitarzandstuff]

I just get all worked up when the "Funiture Speculators" which the LP Forum has a bunch of start talkin comparing apples to oranges. That idiot with his '50s Explorer vs a new Korina Standard is just stupid. I dont know about you guys but every Explorer I have playes in the last 20 years has been second quality. Its not a main line Gibson and they just dont put the care into their manufacture. A Hamer Standard, all of them are works of art. Gibsons are just up from Epis. I get fretburn everytime I play any unbound Gibson (new) much less every Explorer.

I disagree, not that it matters. There are lots of good Gibsons out there, but you have to pick and choose. They make more in a week that Hamer makes in 6 months, so they CAN'T make each one special.

Gibsons have their place, Hamers theirs. To choose sides is a waste of time.

Very well put Mr.Greg... I am a Hamer lover through and through. I have played MANY very nice Gibsons and own about 12 of em. Granted, most are custom shop models which are very much as good any any Hamer I have played or owned. There is a big price difference though...

On the other hand, I have played hundreds of prodution line Gibsons and some are hit or miss... lately more of them hit the target then not. Alot of the lower priced models do have some nasty sharp fret ends.

Hamer is essentialy a custom shop and thats where I beleive the comparison would work better. The Gibson Custom Shop! The price difference has already been mentioned however above.

If I was going to get a custom "one-off" piece, I'd definately go with the Hamer.

If I had my choice of a Historic V or Explorer or a Hamer version at the same price, personally I'd take the Historic ... Just my 2 cents.

[guitarzandstuff]

New Historics vs. any Korina Hamer? No, I don't think so.

We have an Historic V in the shop new and it's every bit as good as a Hamer... sorry!

Quote:

Somewhere along that LPF thread, the original run of Historic Vs and Explorers was mentioned. These are the Vs, Explorers and Modernes that came out in the early '80s.

Unquote:

BTW- These were NOT Historics...