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Travis

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As some of you may well know, I am a huge fan of the Mirage. I think they are criminally underrated guitars and I’ve had each of the variants over the years. Got my ‘94 I new in January of ‘95. Had a maple top for a very short time back around 2010-ish. Sold it as a last one in, first one out kind of thing. Kinda regretted it. Picked up a Koa II a couple of years ago. After dropping in MannMade trems and Josh’s pickups into both, the Mirages are perfect now. 
 

Cut to today. Saw this for sale in the next town over. Had to right my wrong from a few years ago and now the triumvirate is complete. 100% stock and in great condition minus very minor Hameritis and some small dings here and there, most notably on the headstock. 

pics are from the seller and a quick family shot. I’ll get better pics and a full tone report/comparison later on. 

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Ok, first impressions…

It’s got that super comfy mid 90’s medium neck carve that is so familiar for me.  I’ve owned more mid 90’s Hamer than any other era and the necks have always been super easy to play. I prefer the neck to be “yuge” but I’ll never turn away a mid 90’s medium carve. The body sits great on me with the belly carve, balances really well.

I still need to set it up the way I like with some heavier strings. I usually use 10-56 and there are 9’s on there now. Volume and tone are stock Hamer pots and spin smoothly and quietly. The volume has a significant drop off from 10-8 and then is very linear down to 0 after that. 

Pickups are stock JB/59 and that’s gonna change. I’ve never liked the JB and this one isn’t going to change my mind. The 59 has always been a decent pickup, but nothing special for me. The previous owner has the pickup dropped super low, beneath the pickup ring. Sounds fine but I’ve never seen a pickup lowered that much. 

I’ll change the strings and get it set up the way I like it. Then I’ll give it some time before I contact Josh and have him wind me something special for this one. Maybe some HB sized P90’s since he rewound the JB/59 combo in my Mirage II…. 🤔🤔🤔

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Beauty trio. Never owned a Mirage I, but blue, red, natural and koa Mirage IIs all passed through my hands. The figured woods Hamer used on their 90s doublel-cuts were outstanding. 

I put a 5-way SuperSwitch with SD Custom/Custom Custom combo and THAT was the guitar that could do anything. From brootalz to ambient. I eventually went back to Strats/Charvels, but those Miragesl...criminally underrated gutiars.

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18 minutes ago, topekatj said:

Do the other ‘Rages feature neck-through construction? I’m not used to seeing a neck heel (albeit a small one) like the new one has. 

Neither Mirage models are neck-through. The MI has a blended, set-neck and the MII is a standard set-neck.

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1 hour ago, topekatj said:

Beauty top on the new/natural acquisition!  Do the other ‘Rages feature neck-through construction? I’m not used to seeing a neck heel (albeit a small one) like the new one has. 
Crank it!

 

1 hour ago, RobB said:

Neither Mirage models are neck-through. The MI has a blended, set-neck and the MII is a standard set-neck.

What he said…. ^^^^

And in all honesty, the blended heel on the I is way cool, but the standard heel on the II/maple top doesn’t hinder upper fret playability at all. 

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So, the Mirage's has a volute. That is interesting. It must be the only Hamer model that had that, or am I wrong?

@Travisyou are a lucky guy, all three look killer!

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1 hour ago, Disturber said:

So, the Mirage's has a volute. That is interesting. It must be the only Hamer model that had that, or am I wrong?

@Travisyou are a lucky guy, all three look killer!

Thanks!  And yes, the Mirages have volutes. They are the only model I’ve owned or played that’s has been constructed that way and I’ve had the good fortune of playing a decent variety of models thru the years. 

They don’t get in my way and I find that sometimes I even anchor my thumb on the volute when playing certain things on the first few frets. 

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53 minutes ago, Brooks said:

HHB had a really sweet SSS Mirage back when I 1st met him ~20 years ago, iirc he used it on the Big Block Dodge cd.

 

I remember seeing pics of that one. It had an insane top on it. 

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Just for point of reference, this was the one I sold next to the one I just picked up…

The old one had a much better horizontal flame while the new one has a lot more going on vertically.

And I just dropped in one of Josh’s pickups into the bridge so it immediately kills totally….

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