Help: What do I have?

[fixerguy]

Hello new friends! Very cool club. Please bear with me, but I have already gone through as many webpages I could find, and this forum archive.

Perhaps you can help me. I am restoring up a 1992 Hamer Special (S/N 23xxxx) for a friend who just inherited it from a family member. It is loaded with what are apparently factory custom features. The original owner needed a left hand guitar, and as long as he had to order it anyways...well I guess he loaded it up. Can you folks let me know anything about this gem?

Features:
Crown Inlays
"GVSIII" inlay on the crown on the 12th fret
Schaller Licensed by Floyd
Active electronics with trim pot accessible through rear cover
Black Hardware
Coil Tap
Yellow Pearl with matching headstock and neck
Hardshell Case

Thanks!

Adam

[Andrew]

We need pictures!

12th fret marker engraving was a custom option. Don't know what GVSIII could mean. Trim pot in the back-plate was common in the later Centaura.

Hamer made all sorts, that's why we needs pics..

[DaveH]

I guarantee someone here can help. As mentioned, pics are needed.

[fixerguy]

Yeah, pics would have made sense... I'm not clever enough to figure it out. Working...

[fixerguy]

Okay I know I'm stupid, but I'm not THIS stupid. Do you have a post threshold I need to meet before attaching pictures? I do not have a URL for my pictures, they are jpegs on my computer. I use computers to download porn...um, I mean pictures. I have never uploaded any before.

I did get one in the profile though.

[coolfeel]

you can upload to photobucket and then copy / paste the image link here.

[fixerguy]

Ah: If the admin has enabled it, you will also see a file attachments option, this will allow you to attach a file to be uploaded when making a post. Click the browse button to select a file from your computer to be uploaded. If you upload an image file, it may be shown in the content of the post, all other file types will be linked to.

[cynic]

In addition to the other specs mentioned, it's a 24 fretter.

[hamerhead]

Lefty Gary Moore Special?

[Andrew]

Custom order l/h Floyd-Rose Special (Gary Moore type but with 24 Frets).

Looking at the little profile pic. the neck joint is at the 23 fret (not 21st) so could even be 25.5 inch scale? Normally a 24 fret neck goes much further into the body on a 24.75 inch sale guitar.

[fixerguy]

Some pics,,, thanks in advance!

http://s272.photobucket.com/albums/jj192/fixerguy/?action=view&current=utf-8QWP5F201401305F001_zpsef44ea70.jpg

http://s272.photobucket.com/albums/jj192/fixerguy/?action=view&current=utf-8QWP5F201401305F002_zps7fe062d5.jpg

http://s272.photobucket.com/albums/jj192/fixerguy/?action=view&current=utf-8QWP5F201401305F003_zpsda66baae.jpg

http://s272.photobucket.com/albums/jj192/fixerguy/?action=view&current=utf-8QWP5F201401305F004_zps3a11aade.jpg

http://s272.photobucket.com/albums/jj192/fixerguy/?action=view&current=utf-8QWP5F201401305F005_zps30ff69a7.jpg

[Ting Ho Dung]

Your logo is backwards.

[hamerhead]

It appears to be a very special Special. Well done.

[Andrew]

Looking again I would say 24.75 inch scale as the bridge is a long way into the body, far further than an 85 FR (GM) Special.

I would guess it is Pearl White with a nitro clear coat, hence looks yellowish. Is it from just before the change to CAB-urethane or again an individual request?

It's clearly a custom job and I don't think I have ever seen a 24 fret Special before.

[hrtatak]

Your logo is backwards.

The strings are too. Sell it to a lefty and buy a right handed guitar.

[ARM OF HAMER]

Very Cool and unusual piece for sure! You have come to the right place, If anyone can uncover more info and history on the guitar its the guys on the HFC. I GOOGLED the GVSlll and came up with nothing relating to Hamer or anything else.Good Luck!

[fixerguy]

Thanks all, you have confirmed at least that this wasn't an off-the-rack purchase. I will go back and see if they know where he bought it, if its a small place that still exists someone may remember him and the guitar.

The scale length would be 24.75 if that's a choice (looks like 24.5), but definitely not 25+.

Yeah the lefty thing is hurting my mind, because the original owner played Albert King style and it is fit with a righty locking nut.

So here is my dilemma - he handed me 2 guitars to get up and running, neither have been played in probably 15 years. The other is a Ibanez RG560L, black/black/black. Instructions are to set one up as a proper lefty to sell (widow gets the proceeds), and he keeps the other as a family treasure. He is a drummer, not a guitar player, and completely indifferent as to which to keep. He asked me to set up the "keep" one righty so he and his kids can use it, but mostly it will hang on the wall in the music room as a tribute to his relative, hand it down for generations, etc.

Me? I would keep the Hamer because a) its a sweet Hamer, it is LOADED with custom features, c) his relative obviously custom ordered it, and d) it has more wear so he clearly used & loved it. The Ibanez was probably the backup guitar.

But in his case, it may be better to sell the Hamer as it clearly has more value than the off-the-shelf Ibanez, so the widow can maximize the needed funds.

The righty-lefty thing means I have to help him decide before beginning the set-up and restorations.

I am re-opening the discussion on both continuing the insight/identification of the guitar and the dilemma about the sell/keep of the axes.

Please discuss...

[fixerguy]

...and thanks Hamerhead for embedding the pics properly for me!

[hamerhead]

Hey, no problem! Specials are my all-time favorite Hamers, and that one is out-of-the-park cool.

If it were me, the Special would stay lefty and find it's way to an appreciative player. It'll bring better money (though not as much as it should), and the Ibanez turned righty is no real loss.

[Ting Ho Dung]

Very Cool and unusual piece for sure! You have come to the right place, If anyone can uncover more info and history on the guitar its the guys on the HFC. I GOOGLED the GVSlll and came up with nothing relating to Hamer or anything else.Good Luck!

Wouldn't GVS lll possibly be the person's initials who custom ordered it? i.e. Gordon V Smith the third.

[Caddie]

Hey, no problem! Specials are my all-time favorite Hamers, and that one is out-of-the-park cool.

If it were me, the Special would stay lefty and find it's way to an appreciative player. It'll bring better money (though not as much as it should), and the Ibanez turned righty is no real loss.

zakly what hamerhead said. (the guy is a fookin' genius). Don't change anything other than the strings. Do a super dooper setup n cleanup on it. No twisty neck I hope? Just an easily adjustable bow? Slow n easy with the wrench. That truss rod has probably never been touched. Blow out the pots, clean up & if necessary lube the Floyd. Clean & Oil up the fretboard. If necessary dress the frets. Don't touch up any chips or dings or other character marks. Was that originally white now aged to that delicious creamy yellow?

You have a real gem there. If you can find some documentation on it that would be a huge bonus for the new lefty owner. Provenance baby, provenance is a good thing. Some lefty is gonna thank you profusely for this axe.

Looks so good it kinda makes me want to try switching to lefty. Uh, naaaaaaaah.

Congratulations

caddie

ps - my bad. I just reread your initial post. My comments are unnecessary to a veteran guitar guy. My apologies if I somehow insulted you.

[ARM OF HAMER]

That could very well be it Thorn just the initials of the former owner...................tune it up and leave everything as it its a very cool old Hamer!...........be a shame to see this one spend its last years hanging on a wall.I'd sell it to a lefty player who would really love to get his hands on guitar like this and use the money for something else the widow needs.Great guitar!

[Jason01]

Thats a REALLY cool one! Too bad I just can't bond with the specials body shape or I'd be very interested in this one.

[fixerguy]

So by way of an update, I have competed the refurb. The inlay was indeed the owner's initials. The client is going to keep this one and will sell the Ibanez. The Hamer was more personal to the family, and is much more playable in righty-mode. I'd like to thank you all for your insights!