Made a blog for the Slammer Series Californians.

[Crimsontider]

I have posted the information I have found the past 1 1/2 on the Korean Slammer Series Californian. Since there is not a blueprint or any significant literature I went by old Hamer Catalogs and articles, existing info on the net, studying dozens of photos and playing them a few.

The "CAL"

For instance if you look at any typical guitar blue-book, there is a wide range of guitars labeled as a "CAL" from the Slammer and Import Series to the XT. This is confusing to the buyers market especially when you throw in a plywood guitar with a similar name to their best import - Slammer by Hammer vs.Hamer Slammer Series.

From my observations, a good percentage of Korean Hamer owners either do not know what wood their guitar is made of, and would like to know.

Many in the Younger generation believe the new XT line is Hamer, look on youtube. To my ears, an XT Californian sounds more like a Jackson from the same plant as a USA Californian. At least the early import (CAL) had a sound that resembled the USA, especially the Mahogany Slammer Series.

This post is all over the place but any additional information, please post on the blog. The import market with Hamer's is confusing, and some of them are actually semi-high end.

With the amount of imports floating about and the end of the road for the name, maybe some info can be sorted out.

http://hamerslammerseries.blogspot.com/

All posts appreciated.

[zorrow]

I propose promoting the content of your blog to the HFC site. I've always deplored our snobbish attitude towards import Hamers here. What if we had a page for them then?

[Dasein]

I have a hate-hate on for the Korean Hamers because I believe that they devalued and denigrated my guitar and the guitar brand that I was heavily vested in. When you custom order a guitar from a boutique guitar custom house it goes without saying that you don't expect to see that guitar mass produced a few years later and sold for the price it cost me to reposition the volume knob on my custom build. You could say there's an implied social contract between myself and the builder that was violated by the powers that be. I'm not a snob I'm just disgruntled. Big difference. I worked with my dealer and the factory for over two years to spec out and build my guitar -- I could have bought any guitar i wanted or had one made by any builder - no financial constraints at the time - and I chose Hamer.

That said -- any resources that make information more available would be welcome because I know jack about the Korean lines so I think it's a totally worthwhile endeavor. Just don't ask me to be happy that they exist but we'd all benefit from having that information available.

[zorrow]

Well, to me it's rather the opposite story. I couldn't afford a custom Hamer (or a custom "whatever" for thar mater). After trying around some cheap brands, I stumbled upon an import Hamer that was a dream to play. That's what got me into the brand, and eventually ended buying my first Hamer USA.

[gorch]

Reading this and counting what's on the run in the family I come to conclude that we are par on US Hamrers vs. Imports. I never realized that before.

The idea of an individual thread for imports would have my support if, in the long run, we would be able to distinguish posting respectively. A fact that I think is hard to achieve. A "Slammer/ XT Appreciation" thread would make a good start though.

[Jem]

Hell yes, let's promote the second nail they hammered into the coffin..............................................

[Nathan of Brainfertilizer Fame]

I'm not sure I buy that the import guitars damaged the Hamer brand.

The slammer series guitars were all high quality guitars. Not as high quality as the USA guitars, but nothing to be embarrassed about.

Even most of the third generation XTs are good enough to gig with, especially if you swap pickups to something better.

If the slammer series hurt the brand, why doesn't the CE series hurt PRS?

Why don't the Affinity or Bullet series hurt Fender?

I might agree that sticking with the Slammer name for the current entry-level models may have been a mistake, because it isn't immediately obvious to a prospective buyer what the difference is between Slammer by Hamer and Hamer Slammer Series.

[Jem]

Mainly to my mind when they first released the import stuff the pricing wasn't all that compared to the US stuff -

US Special with HB's was £895 list, the import £499

US Cali Elite was £1225 list, the import Cali std £549

The first people who brough the import stuff realised that some of the ranges of Jackson / BC Rich import stuff of the time was of an equal quality to the Hamer imports but were 40% cheaper, this honestly had a marked market perception on the whole range especially as dealers tended to have to knock off 20% at least to shift the US stuff.

I don't know about over there, but over here it knocked Hamer's 'boutique mojo' for six and they never recovered market creedance right up to the last breath.

[Montelovesco]

I have posted the information I have found the past 1 1/2 on the Korean Slammer Series Californian. Since there is not a blueprint or any significant literature I went by old Hamer Catalogs and articles, existing info on the net, studying dozens of photos and playing them a few.

The "CAL"

For instance if you look at any typical guitar blue-book, there is a wide range of guitars labeled as a "CAL" from the Slammer and Import Series to the XT. This is confusing to the buyers market especially when you throw in a plywood guitar with a similar name to their best import - Slammer by Hammer vs.Hamer Slammer Series.

From my observations, a good percentage of Korean Hamer owners either do not know what wood their guitar is made of, and would like to know.

Many in the Younger generation believe the new XT line is Hamer, look on youtube. To my ears, an XT Californian sounds more like a Jackson from the same plant as a USA Californian. At least the early import (CAL) had a sound that resembled the USA, especially the Mahogany Slammer Series.

This post is all over the place but any additional information, please post on the blog. The import market with Hamer's is confusing, and some of them are actually semi-high end.

With the amount of imports floating about and the end of the road for the name, maybe some info can be sorted out.

http://hamerslammerseries.blogspot.com/

All posts appreciated.

Beside the topic: Thats a nice system you are using - what is it?

[cynic]

I'm not sure I buy that the import guitars damaged the Hamer brand.

I can only speak from my experience, but until finally doing the research a few years back to figure out exactly what levels of Hamer existed, I simply stayed away from them for two decades because I wasn't aware of any distinction between their import and US lines.

It was never anything difficult, but it did require at least a minimal amount of effort. It shouldn't have required any.

[Ethanw]

I think BC Rich ruined their brand even more than Hamer with all the cheap imports. I kinda doubt kids today even know that BC Rich started as a boutique, high end brand. You see a lot of the import Hamers and Slammers in the pawnshops here in Fl, they can be had pretty cheaply and some are great looking, at least from 5 feet away.

[zorrow]

I think BC Rich ruined their brand even more than Hamer with all the cheap imports. I kinda doubt kids today even know that BC Rich started as a boutique, high end brand. You see a lot of the import Hamers and Slammers in the pawnshops here in Fl, they can be had pretty cheaply and some are great looking, at least from 5 feet away.

I need to visit some pawnshops in FL then. Will do next time. Slammer Series rule!

[Crimsontider]

Beside the topic: Thats a nice system you are using - what is it?

Just software with a guitar and preamp.

It's a Line 6 Spider amp running to amplitube3 amp sim. Drums is BFD's DW set and the bass is the VSTI "Massive".

For my own entertainment I record a guitar part playing to a preset in a cheap yamaha keyboard, then I tap out the drums and bass to the recorded guitar part setup in my host FL Studio.

It's amazing what an amateur can do with a computer compared to the fostex years. The fidelity of just this software can match expensive studio's in the mid 90's.

The first people who brough the import stuff realised that some of the ranges of Jackson / BC Rich import stuff of the time was of an equal quality to the Hamer imports but were 40% cheaper, this honestly had a marked market perception on the whole range especially as dealers tended to have to knock off 20% at least to shift the US stuff.

I don't know about over there, but over here it knocked Hamer's 'boutique mojo' for six and they never recovered market creedance right up to the last breath.

I have both a 96 Hamer Cali Korean and a Japanese Charvel Model 3A and the Hamer is far better, more versatile with better timbre and harmonics.

If Hamer had stayed solely with the Korean line with the "slammer series" distinction, would you still feel that it hurt the USA line? IMO, a small quality import line easily distinguishable from the USA shop guitars would have not been a problem.

As time went on, Hamer had less influence on the sound of the imports, the Slammer by Hamer being the Zenith where they leased out their name.

A better understanding of the imports, like or dislike, would help the market imo.