wkhoury Posted January 30, 2019 Posted January 30, 2019 Hello friends, I have a question that I'm sure has been asked before, but first here's the list of my Hamer guitars to to clarify my questions: - USA Diablo 2 - MIK Diablo (Slammer Series) - MIK Daytona (Slammer Series) - MIK Californian (does not say Slammer series on it) I love all of the above guitars specially the Californian, but I've always wondered what difference is between different Korean Hamers. I see some that say only Hamer only on the head stock like my Cali, others that say Slammer Series under Hamer like my MIK Diablo and Daytona but then also I see some online that say XT series that I've never tried before (are those XT Made in Korea or Indonesia?) Could someone help me understand how all those MIK ones are different from each other and if there's a general consensus about which is better quality than the others. I did own some of the cheaper Slammer (by Hamer) before which were just ok and is personally not interested in those anymore so feel free to leave those out of the discussion. Cheers and thanks in advance!
Steve Haynie Posted January 30, 2019 Posted January 30, 2019 The early imports said "Slammer Series" under the logo. They were Korean. The XT Series came later. They may have been Chinese. Slammer by Hamer was horrible. They might not even burn all that well.
wkhoury Posted January 30, 2019 Author Posted January 30, 2019 11 minutes ago, Steve Haynie said: Slammer by Hamer was horrible. They might not even burn all that well. LOL ! I have a Korean Hamer that says Slammer Series under and another Korean as well that says just Hamer. Do you know if there's any difference between those two? Attached are two example pictures
Carl.B Posted January 30, 2019 Posted January 30, 2019 In my batch of guitars over the years I have or had 2 MIK Daytona's one "Slammer Series" and one just the Hamer logo. The major difference was the hardware used the "Slammer Series" seemed to use a littler quality of tuners, bridge, the pickup's were about the same not horrible but not great. The one with just the Hamer logo the body was a 3 piece wood of some kind. I had stripped that one and repainted it and put new springs in the tremolo. The biggest issue for me was how skinny the necks are, both of these guitars were given to young nephew's for Christmas presents. I do still have 2 of the "Slammer Series" Eclipse models which I do like and for a total $220 you can't beat the necks on those are bigger. The mini humbucker pickups are a MIK Kent Armstrong again OK but not great pickups. I took SD pickups out of my American Eclipse and put them into one of the MIK and put a set of Lollars in the American one.
Victor (Fret Friend) Posted January 31, 2019 Posted January 31, 2019 I have had the early HAMER SLAMMER series guitars (a Diablo) made from 1992-1998 in Korea (Cort Factory) and a later (2000-2002) Cali (just a Hamer logo / not SLAMMER SERIES). The later ones made in Korea were the Deluxe series (like my Cali) and are not to be confused with the earlier 92-98 ones. I believe that production moved from Korea to China around 1998 and that's where you got the XT Series (I never had one of those). Only the Deluxe series were made in Korea after 1998 (AFAIK). I will try to dig out some pics of my SLAMMER Diablo + my later Deluxe Cali... 92 SLAMMER SERIES Diablo (unmodded)... 92 SLAMMER SERIES Diablo (headstock)... 92 SLAMMER SERIES Diablo (modded: SLAMMER SERIES removed + Gotoh Floyd + pink paint)... 2000-2002 Korean Deluxe Cali... 2000-2002 Korean Deluxe Cali (headstock)...
custom53 Posted January 31, 2019 Posted January 31, 2019 And the MIK Echotone Guitars.. They are Really Nice...! But were never made in the USA... http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=hamer+echotone+guitars+-+images&qpvt=Hamer+echotone+guitars+-+images&FORM=IGRE
Rich_S Posted February 1, 2019 Posted February 1, 2019 I can't say anything about the differences among various MIK Hamers, but I can tell you how great my Hamer Slammer Series Sunburst is. The guitar itself is first-rate. The electronics and hardware were good-but-not-great. Josh Gravelin hooked me up with a pair of pickups for it (in '70s-approved double cream and zebra). I replaced the guts with Switchcraft and CTS and tuners with real Schallers. It's now a lifetime keeper.
scottcald Posted February 1, 2019 Posted February 1, 2019 I bought a MIK Sunburst that looks nearly identical to Rich_S's above. I did the same thing, replaced the electronics and it's a great player. I also have an Indonesian made XT series Monaco that plays very well.
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