Careful! Hamer Floyd Rose - fake.

[JustKid]

Was looking for a Floyd replacement and came across this one:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-90s-HAMER-Schaller-JT-590-Floyd-Rose-Tremolo-GOLD-Bridge-GERMANY-NICE-/311964511614?hash=item48a288ad7e:g:AdEAAOSwb69ZwxYW

Just glanced at the pics and almost bought it, but then decided to take closer look. And it's fake.

[Bennyboy-UK]

Good info - what were the tells that its dodgy?

[velorush]

Having owned only one Floyd'd guitar in my life (and that, a Charvel with a Jackson Floyd), what tipped you off?  

I'd never have even suspected - I mean, no one counterfeits a $5 bill.  Not a knock against the Hamer Floyd, but given the incredibly small market for a gold and Hamer-branded Floyd, what would be the point of counterfeiting?

[Victor (Fret Friend)]

How is it fake? Not that I'm an expert on the German/Schaller Hamer Floyd but i am a bit of a Floyd specialist when it comes to setting one up and I do know a modest amount on it's history!

Rather than looking too good, it looks fine to me! You cannot just say it's fake without telling us why / how you know this!

For those interested; I run a guitar repair shop in England and I'm doing very well. If you want to check my facebook page, it's here; https://facebook.com/ngoneseven/

My YouTube page is here; https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA9GKN0Du0r_Oa5A8K4_b7w

[JustKid]

What accidentally caught my eye was the arm. The nut on it, that attaches it to the base plate is wrong shape:

Fake: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Black-Guitar-Tremolo-Whammy-Bar-Arm-Fr-Floyd-Rose-Bridge-Replacement-w-Tips-6mm-/152331441052?hash=item2377a9539c:g:PcUAAOSwB09YOBeV

not fake: http://www.ebay.com/itm/BP-1000-002-Gold-Schaller-Original-Floyd-Rose-Tremolo-Arm-/232144707737?epid=1900421104&hash=item360ce72099:g:68QAAOxyhz5R7Zgb

The saddles: On almost all Chinese floyds, the groove, where the string is laying upon coming out of small rectangular cavity, does not widen towards the cavity and does not have a radius at the tip. And that radius must have the same center as the pin, that holds two pieces together. This way , when you adjust the micro tuning it revolves around that pin and keeps the intonation on the same spot. On schaller the groove always widens towards that rectangular cavity, because they use cone shaped tool to make that cavity and from about half way thru the groove that tool creates a radius with the center on the pin. chinese usually use cylinder shaped tool for the groove and do not really have a radius, or have a very small radius, enough not to break the string. That's why when you tune the string using micro tuning screw the intonation gets out of whack.

Drew a funny pic here  

 

And of course the screws that tighten the inserts are always way too black on all fakes. 

Base plate might be original, MIGHT, although it has that strange spot at the end of the Hamer logo. If I saw the bottom I'd be more sure. I bought fake Kramer last year...almost forgot...Kramer logo and all,  and there are tons of them with empty spots in place of logo. Some of them even changed the shape of the groove, but I am afraid the radius is still not there:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Floyd-Rose-Lic-Tremolo-Bridge-Double-Locking-Black/371640416499?_trkparms=aid%3D555018%26algo%3DPL.SIM%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D47507%26meid%3D7e979d8bb59942f3b55bc10d9227014c%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D6%26mehot%3Dpp%26sd%3D311964511614&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851

[Victor (Fret Friend)]

What a great spot!!! I didn't notice the string grooves on first inspection and I have an original [83] Schaller-Floyd on my 83 Kramer Focus 3000! Good call man  

[cmatthes]

The baseplate is 100% correct and original.  I'm not convinced that it's a fake.  I'll look at the two NOS units I have (that I got directly from Hamer) tonight up close and personal.  It's possible that the other parts have been swapped out...but WHY?!?!?

Seriously - to the point above, Hamer had a large number of leftover logo-stamped Floyds from the '90s boxed up in the shop right up until the doors closed.  The gold ones were probably last ordered in 1991 or so, since they were never the big seller that the black ones were.  I can't imagine that anybody would go through the effort to make a counterfeit gold Hamer Floyd AND relic it to look like it was 25 year old NOS.

[Victor (Fret Friend)]

This ^^^

[JustKid]

Like I said - the baseplate might be original, I have to see the back of it. But the saddles - 1000000% chinese. Arm - same percentage chinese. Rear screws ( not that I care much about them) chinese. Does it make it fake? To me it does.

Why would someone swap them? - to sell for $150 as new. Used will not go higher that 70-80, chinese floyd - $15 shipped ( I have few for parts). Put shiny saddles and call it original. And gold on originals , if someone had them, turns to crap faster that the pork will go bad on summer day, given it's your daily player...floyd I mean, not pork

[JustKid]

Now that I look at that logo enlarged...pretty sure it's fake.

Here is mine, compare the writings and it's quality ( saddles changed by me, for the originals,...same reason - gold was looking disgusting). 

[JustKid]

Here is another one of mine.

 

And that's my fake Kramer ( saddles swapped for original)

[cmatthes]

I get the swapping saddles thing, but it simply doesn't make sense to fake those baseplates.  The ones I've seen being passed off as USA Hamer/Schaller parts that are actually the ones used on the import lines are pretty clearly not the same.

I just don't see a market for fake gold Hamer Schaller baseplates being anywhere near worth the Chinese labor it would take to make even one - there simply isn't the demand!

[Steve Haynie]

The quality is too good to be a Slammer.  Good catch.