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Your custom orders, either Hamer or not, and what motivated them?


zorrow

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Let’s share stories here about our C/O, be them Hamer or anything else, and what motivated them, the ideas behind, etc.

One, two, three... GO!

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Some of these may have been seen before, but hafta show 'em again to answer the "motivation" part of the original post.

I'd always wanted a two-pickup jazz box, and it was cool to get a legendary luthier like Dick Allen to make it. He threw in extras like bookmatched bird's-eye top and back. Seymour Duncan personally wound the pickups.

Leader #1004-95.jpgLeader #1004-95 back-bookmatched birds-eye maple.jpg

That led to a sports-centric double-cut; green w/ gold hardware, also made by R.C. (Back the Pack; don't own this one anymore):

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Also wanted a pure acoustic w/ a floating pickup; R.C. made a prototype 18" model and surprised me w/ the fretboard inlay and other cosmetic amenities, like the quilted maple bookmatched back:

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Aristocrat 1998 back-quilted maple bookmatched.jpg

I also ordered some solidbodies and semi-solids from Dave Wintz @ Robin. The Savoy is the only one that was ever made w/ a maple 'board. Ordered w/ "Mose markers" on accounta my vision problems, and parted with another Robin and a Metropolian 'coz I couldn't see the abalone markers on rosewood 'boards. The previous Savoy financed the order for this one.

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The Princess got a custom Robin Ranger in school colors for a graduation present, also w/ Mose markers:

Ranger.jpg

Yes, there is a bit of ego in custom-ordering instruments but I've supported smaller luthiers and companies when I have done so. May even part with these within a few years, as I sold the bulk of my collection about four years ago (noted on another recent thread)

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You've seen them 100 times before, but how often do you get to have your favorite guitar company use the parts you made?!? I mean at the time, the kids were small and money was tight and the timing was terrible. But it was a once-in-a-lifetime you-gotta-do-it thing. And something I will always be proud of (it was pretty f***in' cool).

Plus, their names are on the headstocks, so I had to do it twice. B) It's funny because back then it didn't matter to them, but now when I play out, I better use both or I hear about it!

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26 minutes ago, hamerhead said:

You've seen them 100 times before, but how often do you get to have your favorite guitar company use the parts you made?!? I mean at the time, the kids were small and money was tight and the timing was terrible. But it was a once-in-a-lifetime you-gotta-do-it thing. And something I will always be proud of (it was pretty f***in' cool).

Plus, their names are on the headstocks, so I had to do it twice. B) It's funny because back then it didn't matter to them, but now when I play out, I better use both or I hear about it!

100_4623small.jpg100_4608small.jpg

That’s one of the greatest stories ever told. Love that junior. 

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Have a custom ordered and waiting in the queue right now. The motivation was a combination that I haven’t seen before from a builder that has an amazing reputation. 

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My 2005 custom shop Jackson. Ordered it in 2003 and took 18 months to get her. I just love Soloists. I started there and added all my favorites of the custom shop. The only change I might have made was go all tung oiled, but I don`t mind clear.

 

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When Mike announced Shishkov guitars I was one of the first to commit to an order.

An Ultimate didn’t appeal to me so I enquired as to whether he’d consider building me a Super Strat?  Affirmative.  Next I was told that I’d have to wait until the Ultimate orders were almost done before expecting my own order but we could sound off on ideas and wood selection in between. It was over 2.5 years from enquiry to pickup but was worth every days wait.

Originally I wanted an 80’s Hameresq headstock, a humbucker/single coil and a Schaller Lockmeister Floyd in vintage copper hue with an FM body.  Set neck.

Over a few months I’d fixed on a wenge neck with a bound ebony board having loved the slick feel of wenge on a bass I’d tried.

Another few months and materials had arrived and Mike talked me away from a Hameresq headstock in favour of his own design, still 6 inline, which included unique bevelled edges.  The pencil drawings he shared looked fantastic and I was wowed by the idea being sworn to secrecy not to reveal the headstock design until pickup.

Around this time I enquired whether Mike would consider a carved top?  He thought it was a great idea and suggested he carve the back too for a unique aesthetic and feel?  Right on!  My original spec was block inlays and Mike pushed me to be daring with something more personal.  Being born in the Year of the Dragon I settled on a dragon chasing flaming pearls theme, drawn by our own Diablo175, expertly cut in pearl and abalone by Mike.  The 2 piece FM body became 1 piece again a decision of Mike’s.

White neck binding evolved into Black/White/Black for subtlety and the “tensioned” fretboard termination ended up being in line with the single coil angle. I wanted high frets, but not too wide, to give a semi-scalloped feel and repeated these with my second Super-C.  All for playability preferences.

From the start I wanted 3-way pickup selection and a blower switch.  The blower switch is a direct to jack bypass from the humbucker when engaged.  It allows the player to roll off the volume for a rhythm section, something I do a lot, and then flick the blower for full output. One flick and you’re back where you started.  The volume lifts to split the humbucker coil.

Mike wanted his own 501 blue stain and I agreed.  It was between that or tiger eye.

The build process was incredibly good fun.  The evolution of the guitar, the conversations, the time to evaluate ideas in between progress, ending emails with an Iron Maiden song choice (we’re both big fans), meeting the amazing Team Shishkov for the guitar pickup, everything...  All wonderful memories and very personal.


Super-C 2 is my most played guitar but the original prototype “Super-C” (Trish Shishkov’s name for the guitar) will always have the most special place in my heart.

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99% of all my CS orders were efforts to circumvent the limitations imposed by various brands. It started with my 08 Charvel CS Star- while my prowess and situation did not warrant one, my WTHYOLO attitude convinced me to get this made as few, if any of the Stars had 24 frets. It only served to fan higher the flames of CS GAS. And, as luck would have it, Hamer started offering more CS options including their Californian so.... that was a must!  Looking back, I would have done a few things different on it but overall, it rawks! Then I ordered another Star, but this time, from Jackson CS (Charvel was no longer accepting orders) and with some notable difference from the first Star- neck thru and featuring a graphic I designed & drew up. Then, upon learning of Shane Huss' work at HEL guitars, I pulled the trigger on my own version of the Hamer Red Molly Standard- Long scale, mahogany, 24 frets, set neck, Floyd-ed (no shit) reversed head & custom HD skull fret inlay. It so exceeded expectations that it spurred me on to have him make me a Charvel-style Dinky. Charvel was no longer taking CS orders and even if they would, they wouldn't offer a few key specs I wanted so, I went elsewhere. Hence, the Spitfire came to life and remains the pinnacle of my custom orders. 7/8 size alder Dinky body, bolt on maple neck and board, 24 stainless jumbos, reversed Strat head, Floyd, 2 H, toggle, yada yada. This ax kicks the snot out of any Charvel I've ever laid hands on. Suffice it to say, I've had my grubbies and quite a few ;)  And as I made the mistake of not taking full advantage of Charvel and Hamer to get additional custom builds made, I've decided to have Shane build me two additional custom orders, a second Spitfire w/ a few variations and a truly unique amalgamation of two iconic Hamer models. :D 

 

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HEL Std..jpg

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1 hour ago, DBraz said:

The Willy G is one of the meanest guitars I’ve ever played.  Huge tone.

Willy G is indeed a mahogany monster with appropriate tone for that much 'hog.

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The only "custom" orders I got were from Carvin, which in many ways is not really a "custom shop", more of a 'production line guitars made to order' deal.  I had one guitar and 3 basses made.  Mainly because I wanted a guitar that didn't have something I didn't want on it.  I don't really like block inlays, and I like certain colors.  I also don't really like bling. These are the ones I had made to my specs:

The guitar: Carvin Bolt. Basic Hardtail Strat clone. Maple fretboard with an Electric Blue finish. Also a pearloid guard. It has the standard AP11 pickups which are really quite nice. Glassy, with a bit more bite than a regular single coil. They compare closely to the G&L MFD singles, with less output. This is one of my daily drivers, so much so that my G&L guitars will probably eventually go away. It's all the strat I'll ever need.

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B5 with Swamp ash body, rosewood FB, Sunsetburst finish and matching headstock. Also has abalone dot inlays. I had the original stacked humbucker pickups replaced with the Carvin J99A pickups, and haven't looked back. Just a great bass with a great sound.

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I also had a PB4, the Carvin Precision bass clone, made, with the extra bridge pickup added. Swamp ash body, blueburst finish with matching head stock. Ebony Fretboard. Pearloid pickguard. It's a great bass for when I need a vintage sounding 4 string. It is active/passive, and has a passive tone control, in addition to the 18V bass and treble cut/boost, so it's really versatile in that sense.

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This is probably the most "modern" bass that I own: an XB75 in "Translucent Pearl Blue".  It's got Radiused humbucking pickups, an 18V preamp with mid sweep. It's a 35 1/4" scale, with a Hipshot A-style bridge. It has ash body wings, with a maple / walnut through body neck. Ebony fretboard as well.  I have considered picking up some of the kiesel "radium" humbucking pickups for a bit more output, but the sound from the pickups IS very smooth.  Time will tell.

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When my Dad passed away, I wanted to pass something along to my sons that represented something from him.  I ordered a Teal B-4M Bass with Boomers and a Cadillac Green Monaco 3, both pretty tricked out.  My father was a huge fan of guitar music, and encouraged Serial and I to play, no matter how loud and obnoxious we were in middle and high school.  The man couldn't play a note, but always made requests of songs he wanted us to learn and play for him.  Miss the guy!

 

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Serial and I also came up with the harebrained scheme to order "twin" basses - at the time, we were both playing bass in bands and I was looking for a custom 32" scale 12'ver.  I saw 32" scale forms at the factory @2002, when Hamer was ghost building instruments for TV Jones, and although I had been shot down a couple of previous orders for the same thing (and being told that a 34" scale wouldn't work with the double cut body), I think I finally wore Kim Keller down and Steve and I placed orders for matching basses - the tops and backs are split from the same maple billets and the specs are identical except for the fact that his is an 8 and mine's a 12, and his headstock reads "NOTCHRIS" and mine reads "NOTSTEVE" under the HAMER logo.

 

Not Twins 2.jpg

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This is the only true custom order guitar my son and I have in our guitar collection.

My son had been wanting a Fiesta Red SSH Strat style for a while with SS frets, compound radius neck,Roasted flame maple neck, and a light ash body.

We both went to a bunch of high end guitar shops to see if we could find one off the rack with most of these appointments, but we could not.

So I surprised him this past August with this guitar for his birthday.

 

'19 Rohlack Symphony  Fiesta Red SSH

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1 hour ago, Studio Custom said:

Unfortunately he never took to it.  
 

 

Yeah, my son is the same way.  Had a million guitars and amps to dick with, four "uncles" to teach him and all the classic rock music to sample he could want.  He's into the classic rock and is our sound man.  He sings.  But he just never cared about playing guitar.  Oh, well.

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It took about 5 years of collecting facts and ideas for the Scheithauer RS Bo Diddley to grow before it’d been ordered with Ronny Scheithauer. Then I had read an article about the first ever used guitar pickups. Employing the Bo Diddley concept again, I designed a jazz guitar concept around the Charlie Christian pickups. It went to Scheithauer again for the splendid build. 
 

Scheithauer Custom RedSpecial Bo Diddley

 

The chicken head had been replaced with a third period correct shellac knob shortly after.

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My all-time favorite custom order is my Shishkov DC.  I didn't think that my Shishkov Ultimate could be topped, but I wanted something with TV Jones Powertrons that would essentially be my ideal Strat/LP combo.  Mike absolutely killed it - I got the same neck carve as on my Ultimate, but with a 3-piece Flamey neck, I wanted a reverse 6 in line headstock with a sick quilt top in an "Aruba Blue" finish.  Mike suggested the faint/subtle burst to make the top stand out even more, and he nailed it.  When I saw the top on the Korina body, I really wasn't sure I wanted to cover it with the blue, but it was definitely the right move.   I couldn't be happier with that one, and the entire ordering and build process/update shots was awesome.

 

My 3MSMSHISHKOV0066.jpg

Shishkov 66 101217 d.jpg

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Shishkov 0066 112717 a.jpg

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15 minutes ago, cmatthes said:

My all-time favorite custom order is my Shishkov DC.  I didn't think that my Shishkov Ultimate could be topped, but I wanted something with TV Jones Powertrons that would essentially be my ideal Strat/LP combo.  Mike absolutely killed it - I got the same neck carve as on my Ultimate, but with a 3-piece Flamey neck, I wanted a reverse 6 in line headstock with a sick quilt top in an "Aruba Blue" finish.  Mike suggested the faint/subtle burst to make the top stand out even more, and he nailed it.  When I saw the top on the Korina body, I really wasn't sure I wanted to cover it with the blue, but it was definitely the right move.   I couldn't be happier with that one, and the entire ordering and build process/update shots was awesome.

 

My 3MSMSHISHKOV0066.jpg

Shishkov 66 101217 d.jpg

#0066 OV 72018.jpg

Shishkov 0066 112717 a.jpg

0066 120317 b.jpg

That top is just sick...  Always loved that guitar. 

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