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No More Hamer, Ever


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Now that it is over, it is over.


None of the original creators of the band is associated with it anymore.

The builders will be moved to different projects.

If a millionaire bought the name tomorrow and started building Hamers, the only connection with the legacy would be the name. Not the driving force, not the design braintrust, and not even the experienced builders.

If I grabbed four guys from Liverpool and called them the Beatles, would they be the actual Beatles?

No.

If two of Alex van Halen's grand-kids joined up with friends and started a band using the name Van Halen, would they have Eddie's approach to the guitar and songwriting? Of course not.

Queen wasn't Queen after Freddie Mercury died, and I don't care who they got as the singer. They were halfway between a tribute band and an original band with talent but no spirit.


Hamer is gone. But the company left behind some cool guitars and great memories.

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I don't think your logic works as almost nothing is made by the people who started the company.

Are Ferraris still Ferraris? Prof. Porsche is long dead.

Leo Fender? Many companies outlive their founders.

The better comparison is an orchestra where the personnel change, even the leaders, but the entity continues.

Things move on - it is the natural way.

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Triumph isn't the same Triumph as the original company. It's better!

Grrrrrrrrr!

That is a company that makes motorcycles that are dressed up to look somewhat like classic Triumphs. It's not better, it's different

If a Triumph doesn't mark its' territory, it AIN"T a real Triumph!

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I think if Jol started up another company with the same luthiers, it would still be different, and not Hamer, in my opinion.

It would be a "fresh start" with an attempt to do things differently now that there is a clean slate.

But even if I'm wrong and they tried to do everything the exact same, it would be different because they would be trying to recreate some feeling or some magic.

If there is no break, then there is a culture that sustains itself as it grows (although even this culture can be sharply changed, ruined, or even improved if the leader makes a concerted effort to do so). But once it is stopped, it can never really be restarted right where it was.

I guess I'm a strong believer in continuity and integrity. Once the continuity is broken, it is now a new thing attempting to feel like the old thing, but never really succeeding.

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...I guess I'm a strong believer in continuity and integrity. Once the continuity is broken, it is now a new thing attempting to feel like the old thing, but never really succeeding.

Like every Les Paul made after 1961?

-

Austin

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Nah - you're overthinking it.

^

This "That's what HE said."

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Jol once wrote that it took a year to train someone to build Hamers with the quality that he felt was necessary. Employees can be trained again. Finding people with the drive to do great work might be tough, but not impossible.

August Busch died years ago. People keep drinking his beer.

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Jol once wrote that it took a year to train someone to build Hamers with the quality that he felt was necessary. Employees can be trained again. Finding people with the drive to do great work might be tough, but not impossible.

Agreed. There's been much talk about the skills of Hamer employees (and I'm not arguing), but employees as a whole will rarely perform higher than expectations on a consistent basis. Put these same guys in Nashville (USA) and I'm betting either their attention to detail drops or they're shown the door for being too slow. Likewise, take a G-USA employee and put them in the environment fostered by Hamer and they suddenly perform at higher levels.

Every new model introduced could be looked at as Mercury's replacement in Queen; the shift from modern-vintage to shredder (or vice versa), the new Beatles. Some accept it, some don't....nevertheless, it's the same brand .

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Jol once wrote that it took a year to train someone to build Hamers with the quality that he felt was necessary. Employees can be trained again. Finding people with the drive to do great work might be tough, but not impossible.

August Busch died years ago. People keep drinking his beer.

I bought an iPad after the death of Stevie. It still works!

Seriously, family style driven companies mostly suffer from leaving their founders. For Hamer this happened with the sale to Kayman. Implying that Hamer is not Hamer any more for over 20 years. I'm not following the argument. The custom shop brand could at anytime be reactivated and marketed. If you like it or not, but don't forget the XT line still is alive and provides guitars of very good quality for money.

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Agree with the Brainfertilizer. He is talking about something more personal and subtle than many are. The people that started Hamer rose to the top against heavy competition for reason's, and some of them were unique. Some many not know these unique subtleties, but many do.

Comparing Hamer to car company where things change sometimes radically on a yearly basis is a poor example. And anyone who believes that a sound business structure trumps incompetent people running it need to look no farther than Detroit and other major cities that are going to down the craper in the USA.

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If Hamer stays dormant for more than a couple of years they are going to lose all of the tribal knowledge of the craftsmen who built Hamers. When a new employee comes in he can be trained by one of the luthiers currently building a guitar, but once production ceases the pool of knowledgable luthiers is going to slowly diminish, and their knowledge is going to fade even if they are working on Guilds or other instruments. A guitar is more than a spec sheet.

A new Hamer factory can make better guitars. Or worse. But it will not be the same.

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The Hamer guys build stuff for fun too - on their own time.

Ever seen a Shishkov original?

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You're pulling up his brother's work at the Fender Custom Shop, probably.

Try this...or maybe search for "Creative Lutherie" (Courtesy of Alpep's Lost Art)

ShishkovArchtop.jpg

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You're pulling up his brother's work at the Fender Custom Shop, probably.

Try this...or maybe search for "Creative Lutherie" (Courtesy of Alpep's Lost Art)

ShishkovArchtop.jpg

Wow! I wanna see this twice. What a cool thing!

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What if Jol was part of the ownership or management?

The other luthiers have come and gone over the years.

He would charge $4000-$6000 for a guitar, and I don't care what any of you say, it wouldn't be worth it.

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