PSA: Impact Bass

[Studio Custom]

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f126/fs-only-1990-hamer-impact-kip-winger-bass-rare-iridescent-swirl-finish-957395/

[Shark]

Impact Basses are Great.

[cmatthes]

Great bass!

FOr $2,750 though, he's gonna keep that one a long time...

[marcnorth]

Those are great basses, but that's about $1500 too much for me. I sold 2 for less than he wants for that one.

[BaronVonFunkenstien]

Just to be clear, the ebay auction has a BEST OFFER button. Seeing as though all of the Impacts that we have been able to research have been selling between $1300 - $2000 and all of those were standard colors.( red, yellow, black etc.) After speaking to the gentleman that believes he actually painted this bass while at the Hamer factory he personally doesn't even remember ever seeing another. With that said, does it not make this particular instrument FAR more valuable than any of the standard color Impacts?

Your knowledge and expertise is greatly appreciated.

[hamerhead]

That's a very rare, awesome looking killer bass, but Hamers just don't pull great money.

We're all kinda used to it.

[gatorbyte007]

Is it on EBay ? I don't see it.

[BaronVonFunkenstien]

Tried to paste the link but not working...the item # is: 111012574911

Thanks again for any help etc.

[specialk]

Link to ebay auction:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/111012574911;jsessionid=8347DB4A0FD6888D89B64A66F8FB8963?ru=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fsch%2Fi.html%3F_from%3DR40%26_sacat%3D0%26_nkw%3D111012574911%26_rdc%3D1

[cynic]

This doesn't show up when I do a search on ebay unless I have the item number in the search string.

I even tried copying your auction title for the search string and it returns zero results.

It had been coming up earlier today, but not any more.

[Punkavenger]

Really cool and I love that finish. I'm no expert but IMHO I'm thinking you could pull in around $1500. Good luck with the sale!

[cmatthes]

Just to be clear, the ebay auction has a BEST OFFER button. Seeing as though all of the Impacts that we have been able to research have been selling between $1300 - $2000 and all of those were standard colors.( red, yellow, black etc.) After speaking to the gentleman that believes he actually painted this bass while at the Hamer factory he personally doesn't even remember ever seeing another. With that said, does it not make this particular instrument FAR more valuable than any of the standard color Impacts?

Your knowledge and expertise is greatly appreciated.

Sorry to break it to you, but your information is NOT correct from "the gentleman" who believes he pained that bass. That was a standard finish ("Irridescent"), available at no upcharge, and is WAY more common than yellow or red.

[Tres Aardvarks]

Just to be clear, the ebay auction has a BEST OFFER button. Seeing as though all of the Impacts that we have been able to research have been selling between $1300 - $2000 and all of those were standard colors.( red, yellow, black etc.) After speaking to the gentleman that believes he actually painted this bass while at the Hamer factory he personally doesn't even remember ever seeing another. With that said, does it not make this particular instrument FAR more valuable than any of the standard color Impacts?

Your knowledge and expertise is greatly appreciated.

Sorry to break it to you, but your information is NOT correct from "the gentleman" who believes he pained that bass. That was a standard finish ("Irridescent"), available at no upcharge, and is WAY more common than yellow or red.

Way to burst a bubble Steve these are my iris.

[BaronVonFunkenstien]

Well, "The Gentleman" is a highly respected TalkBass member and his initials are in the control cavity. Seeing as he was working that line I would have no reason to question what he had to say. Unless of course someone else here was working at the factory painting and building Impact basses???

[MCChris]

mirrorimij might fit that description.

[BaronVonFunkenstien]

The other thing that caught his eye and was really giving them a fit was that when you compare the two pictures....with any other shots of an "iridescent" finish, in your pics above (which are awesome) and with others, you can see blues, greens purples etc. My bass looks like a Gold Marble finish over Black. Even in direct sunlight you can't really see those other colors that are in your guitars. Maybe this is not iridescent. Just really wanted to see what type of help I could get from your group, didn't know it was going to turn into a pile on session.

Many thanks to those of you that have been educational as well as helpful / polite.

[MCChris]

We tend to be size, er, price queens here. Cheap bastards would be another way to put it. We're just too tuned-in to the market value of Hamers for our own good sometimes.

Personally I had never seen another iridescent Impact with matching headstock until TA posted his today. But I'm far from being the most prolific Hamer sleuth on this board.

[BaronVonFunkenstien]

Believe me, not arguing about the re-sale values of Hamer instruments. I was a dealer here in Dallas for a few years and that was always a major deal breaker with anyone who did any research before buying. Nobody seemed to care that they were far superior instruments, just that they would not hold their values walking out of the store.

Again, I appreciate all of the info. If anyone else can say for sure that this is a color other that iridescent swirl, I'm all ears. I was actually told first that it was Gold Marble and was a custom order only color. Like I said, you can't see all of the blues and greens etc like the other impact the gentleman was nice enough to post above.

[BaronVonFunkenstien]

I have several photos that better show how the bass really only looks Gold/Black but I am unable to post pics or links to my photobucket here. If anyone would like, I could email them to you if you could possibly post them? If this is some custom factory paint job and NOT iridescent then I would love to fix my ebay posting as well as that on TalkBass.

Thank you again for any and all help, it is greatly appreciated!

[Studio Custom]

In the end it is worth what someone will pay. The $2k plus category is for the very rare Hamer and become more rare as people forget about the company due to its decline over the past few years.

[cmatthes]

If it is not an Irridescent finish, then it's a Gold/Black Granite, which was even more commonly applied. Not so much as the White/Black Granite, which you saw almost DAILY, but please understand that your friend with the initials is not correct. There are definitely more of them out there, and it wasn't some unique, one-off. Here are some recent threads about those finishes:

http://www.hamerfanclub.com/forums/topic/58449-show-me-your-oconnor-graphics/page-2?hl=%2Bgranite+%2Bmarble#entry618641

http://www.hamerfanclub.com/forums/topic/55561-irridescent-finish/?hl=%2Bgranite+%2Bmarble#entry582581

http://www.hamerfanclub.com/forums/topic/33874-how-rare-is-my-granite-cali-elite/?hl=%2Bgranite+%2Bmarble#entry363591

Not dumping on you here, honestly, but trust us...we know WAY MORE about these things than we should, and probably more than the hazy recollections of some former employees. Not being on the line (more correctly, the finish station) at the time, has little to do with it at all when we've actually seen these before more than once.

In the end, you have a damned cool bass - probably Hamer's best bass ever. You just don't need to school us on that being a special custom finish job as a selling point. It doesn't really add a dime to the value unless somebody happens to be looking for that exact paint job.

[cynic]

Pics from the auction, for reference:

[Steve Haynie]

A word about rare Hamers-- There are so many custom orders with simple changes like electronics or finish options that "one-of-a-kind" within the Hamer context is like saying it is just another special order. Each is exciting, but they are all just as rare as one another. The rarities are common.

[stonge]

Actually, there were several finishes in production about 1990 that I have seen that were the same basic style as the iridescent with different colors showing through. I have a 1990 chap elite in black and gold (where the gold undercoat shows through the black rather than the rainbow colors of the iridescent), and have also seen (on ebay iirc) over the years the same finish over undercoats of blue, pink, or green. While I don't know technically what Hamer named those finishes, they do seem to have duplicated the iridescent finish process with several different undercoated colors.

Rarity and value are oft-debated topics; Hamer did make a lot of 'one-offs' and it's up to potential buyers to determine if the asking price is fair (if so, buy it and if not, pass). Many on this board long for the days that Hamers were given away 'free to a good home' like unwanted kittens lol - actually, the 'going rate' on this board is $350 for any Hamer so we're probably the least objective people to determine value lol.

Dang cool bass imho. Would look great next to my Chap Elite (except for my lack of fundage lol). GLWS!

[stonge]

just for reference:

black/gold iridescent on left, rainbow iridescent on right

personally, I always associate "granite" finishes with the Jim O'Conner graphics (I guess some folks call those "marble" - I forgot what the catalogs called these finishes). I usually call the left guitar a "black/gold iridescent" finish. If anyone has an old catalog to settle the naming debate, that would be great.