Checking on the Provenance of a Rare Hamer Californian

[Tres Aardvarks]

You know what a maple boarded Cali needs? Ebony boomerangs!

I ain't modding this one!

I wouldn't either....but wouldn't it be awesome to have one? Heck, a maple board/ebony boomer neck would look awesome on my iri CE!

[FGJ]

Although I can appreciate fancy inlays as an art form (e.g., the PRS birds, the vines on the JEM, and the boomers on the Cali, etc.), I actually don't care for them personally. Part of the reason is that I'm not that accomplished as a musician, so I actually rely on dot inlays to tell me where I'm at on a neck (well, except for simple open chords, in which case we can all pretty much do those with our eyes closed), and I find anything more (or less) than dots to be a distraction. Part of the reason is that, the way I'm wired, I require visual help when learning something as complex as playing an instrument.

If I were collecting a guitar for its looks, I might get something with all the visual bells and whistles, but for playing I prefer simplicity... I know, I know -- Cali fans will hate me for not preferring the boomers.

[Tres Aardvarks]

I actually rely on dot inlays to tell me where I'm at on a neck (well, except for simple open chords, in which case we can all pretty much do those with our eyes closed), and I find anything more (or less) than dots to be a distraction.

If I need to mapcheck where my hands are, I look at the dots on the side of the board. I never look at the front of the fretboard itself so it doesn't matter what is on there.

The boomerangs (compared to a dot) did drive my guitar night buddies insane when they'd try to watch my hands for chord changes as we were learning a song.