Monster Quilt Top

[VECTOR]

Wow. Found this on the Verb. No affiliation.

 

Hamer Newport quilt  vintage amber https://reverb.com/item/38883668-hamer-newport-quilt-vintage-amber?utm_source=android-app&utm_medium=android-share&utm_campaign=listing&utm_content=38883668

[Hbom]

Damn that's pretty. I could almost justify the price but the "+$699Shipping" makes it a no-go for me.

I could fly to NJ and escort  it home for a few dollars more.

[tomteriffic]

That one's courtesy of our own Alpep.  I'm guessing that the shipping figure is a "well, hell, I have to put something in there"  thing.

 

[gtrdaddy]

Strange.

No SN on back of headstock. 

"duncan 59  pickups still with the protective plastic on them."  They came stock with Seth Lovers.  

"This guitar was an employee built guitar."  Weren't they all?

NECK  JOINT AND NECK WOOD DOESN'T SEEM RIGHT.

... AND THE HEADSTOCK IS ALL WRONG

...here we go again  

PROPER HAMER HEADSTOCK:

THIS "NEWPORT" HEADSTOCK:

Another "parts" guitar slapped together after Hamer closed....?

[cmatthes]

21 minutes ago, gtrdaddy said:

Strange.

No SN on back of headstock. 

"duncan 59  pickups still with the protective plastic on them."  They came stock with Seth Lovers.  

"This guitar was an employee built guitar."  Weren't they all?

NECK  JOINT AND NECK WOOD DOESN'T SEEM RIGHT.

... AND THE HEADSTOCK IS ALL WRONG

...here we go again  

PROPER HAMER HEADSTOCK:

THIS "NEWPORT" HEADSTOCK:

Another "parts" guitar slapped together after Hamer closed....?

100% this.

The parts don't match (mix of gold and nickel/chrome), the messed up headstock binding and no serial number is a dead giveaway, the neck is not matched for a natural finish - that top would have been destined for a sunburst too, not a natural finish.  Also, generic strap buttons instead of Dunlops and no rubber shock grommets.  All the little details that Hamer obsessed over are the telltale signs.

It may very well have been "employee built", but not while they were working at Hamer, as even a guitar ordered by an employee would have been serialed and made to Hamer specs. 

[gtrdaddy]

So, when the FMIC crew cleared out the New Hartford factory, did waste management somehow route the Hamer dumpster to Bellmawr, NJ? 

[kizanski]

11 minutes ago, gtrdaddy said:

So, when the FMIC crew cleared out the New Hartford factory, did waste management somehow route the Hamer dumpster to Bellmawr, NJ? 

Funny how guitars like this show up years later, even though "everything was destroyed" when they closed the factory.

[VincentYGB]

Sometimes you never know...

https://www.guitarworld.com/news/customs-agents-seize-dollar158k-worth-of-counterfeit-guitars-including-fake-gibsons-fenders-and-martins-at-washington-dc-airport

[gtrdaddy]

7 minutes ago, VincentYGB said:

Sometimes you never know...

https://www.guitarworld.com/news/customs-agents-seize-dollar158k-worth-of-counterfeit-guitars-including-fake-gibsons-fenders-and-martins-at-washington-dc-airport

Has nothing to do with Chinese knockoffs. 

[kizanski]

12 minutes ago, gtrdaddy said:

Has nothing to do with Chinese knockoffs. 

Right! This one was made by an employee.  

[cynic]

Nice volute

[tweed]

5 hours ago, cmatthes said:

100% this.

The parts don't match (mix of gold and nickel/chrome), the messed up headstock binding and no serial number is a dead giveaway, the neck is not matched for a natural finish - that top would have been destined for a sunburst too, not a natural finish.  Also, generic strap buttons instead of Dunlops and no rubber shock grommets.  All the little details that Hamer obsessed over are the telltale signs.

It may very well have been "employee built", but not while they were working at Hamer, as even a guitar ordered by an employee would have been serialed and made to Hamer specs. 

Wow..... I could'a bought a dud, and a FAKE one at that, a closer look doesn't look like the work posted in the video.  Thank God for the pro's here !!   Saved my butt !

[Joe G]

 

It looks like the binding at the top of the headstock took a detour

 

 

 

[HamerCustomEr]

Strange headstock aside, the lack of serial number would make me freeze in my tracks.  The Reverb ad says, "employee built", sure, but it does not say Hamer employee.  Maybe it was built by an employee of Billy's Crooked Luthiery, for all we know.

[gtrdaddy]

There were no volutes on Newport necks either.

[RobB]

Surprising AlPep hasn’t posted here about questions of this guitar’s provenance. 

[cmatthes]

10 hours ago, kizanski said:

Funny how guitars like this show up years later, even though "everything was destroyed" when they closed the factory.

There was apparently some dumpster diving in the immediate aftermath, because they did actually start padlocking the dumpsters at the end of the clean up shifts.    Stuff could have very easily been liberated prior to that.   The employee lot wasn’t that far away...

[kizanski]

3 hours ago, cmatthes said:

Stuff could have very easily been liberated prior to that.   The employee lot wasn’t that far away...

Morgan Freeman voice: "...and stuff would certainly be liberated."

[Biz Prof]

4 hours ago, kizanski said:

Morgan Freeman voice:

 

[kizanski]

10 minutes ago, Biz Prof said:

 

LOL 

Finally I get paid off for getting out of bed this morning! 

[specialk]

17 minutes ago, Biz Prof said:

 

The visual makes it!

[Biz Prof]

Found audio evidence, as well.

 

Morgan Freeman 01.m4a

[Dutchman]

I saw the quilt...then the price and quit looking. Damn, it's hard to believe they where throwing away tops like that! And necks like that.... just not right!!!

[cmatthes]

3 hours ago, Dutchman said:

I saw the quilt...then the price and quit looking. Damn, it's hard to believe they where throwing away tops like that! And necks like that.... just not right!!!

With that one, it was likely that it didn’t make the cut once the top was carved and the occlusions/dark spots appeared.  It would have then been shelved and/or slated for a burst finish.  It’s likely that whenever that was built that there wasn’t another order for a quilt top Newport, so it was probably kept in the raw state and shelved.  The neck was probably for a darker backed guitar, since Hamer would have matched those.  There were usually some shelved bodies and necks of various types (as well as excess/old spec parts) that sat on shelves in the back and later near the repair area.   In fact, when I last stopped into the Ovation shop in December, 2017, there were a few small piles of Daytona and T-51 pickguards.  The components were (as we said above) “liberated” at some point and this is the end result of the Frankenstein-ing.  

[cmatthes]

Jol weighed in on that one on the socials...

Jol Dantzig

Basically a guitar made from stolen parts. Look at that headstock binding. Also, the knot in the quilt top would have never made the cut and should have been destroyed. It's all history now!

 

Stuff walked out the door every week. I've heard so many stories and seen many botched builds from stolen parts, or from parts tossed into the dumpster. People email me to ask me to authenticate guitars often. More than a few times I have bad news for them. The truth is that it was just a job for people, and the glamorized hindsight history that these employees have now is mostly myth. A few core individuals (like Curtis Meissner  for example) actually realized what we had, and what we were achieving at the time.