PSA: Nice Korean Carvetop Sunburst

[Jim85IROC]

I just saw this pop up on Reverb for what I think is an outstanding price (especially considering the free shipping), so I thought somebody here might be interested.  If I didn't just get a haul of 4 guitars (including a great P90 Korean Sunburst), I would have grabbed this myself.

I had a flat top Slammer Sunburst from this same generation and the electronics are a pile of steaming garbage, but the guitar is otherwise nicely made.  I outfitted that last one with a nice set of PAF-style alnico humbuckers with all new pots and it sounded wonderful.  If somebody is looking for a low budget guitar to move some nice electronics into, this guitar would be an excellent option.

https://reverb.com/item/65634137-hamer-slammer-cherry

[Cboss]

Could anyone educate me what exactly The Slammer series is? I have a MIK Sunburst that looks identical to this except it doesn't say Slammer series, It's a Wonderful guitar, although not up to the level of my USA hamers... it does sound fantastic acoustically, very good candidate for better electronics

[santellavision]

The neck joint seems a little hinky.

 

[Jim85IROC]

4 hours ago, Cboss said:

Could anyone educate me what exactly The Slammer series is? I have a MIK Sunburst that looks identical to this except it doesn't say Slammer series, It's a Wonderful guitar, although not up to the level of my USA hamers... it does sound fantastic acoustically, very good candidate for better electronics

Slammer series is the name given to the first series of imports that Hamer offered.  Originally they were "Hamer Slammer Series", and then a few years later the "Slammer" name was dropped and they were just called "Hamer" (without the "USA" after the logo on the headstock).  At some point after the "Hamer Slammer Series" thing was dropped, they brought the name back to be the entry-level models in the imported lineup as "Slammer by Hamer" which had a lot of bolt on doublecuts and cheap strat copies.

I believe that when they changed to the "newer" MIK configuration is when the "Made in Korea" silkscreen moved to the bottom of the headstock and the serial number was a sticker above that.  On the one I posted below, the sticker is long gone.  I also just picked up a P90 model that has the serial number decal, but curiously, does not have the "Made In Korea" silkscreen.

The Hamer Slammer korean guitars seemed to have a reputation for being extremely well made guitars, though to be honest, I've been a bit underwhelmed by them.  The one I had was a nicely made guitar, but the neck angle was a tad shallow, so I had to lower the bridge as far as it could go to get a good string action.  As Sentellavision just pointed out in his post above mine, it looks like the angle of the scarf joint is a little wonky on this particular example.  It's not anything that impacts, well, anything, but it's one of those things that shouldn't be a variable, yet somehow managed to be (just like the neck angle).  I felt like the later Korean models were a bit more refined and seemed to be more consistent, though to be honest, the Indonesian models are still my favorites.

As for electronics, the early Slammer guitars came with overwound ceramic humbuckers that basically sound terrible unless you want to play with a ton of gain.  In the case with the one I had, the pot values were also way (WAY) off from the 500k that they were claimed to be, which just made the pickups sound even worse.  The Duncan Designed humbuckers that they switched to later were a big improvement, though still not very good.  The humbuckers in the Indonesian & chinese models were pretty similar to the Duncan Designed in that they're usable, but not great.  The P90s though, kick ass, just like every P90.

Here's a couple pics of the MIK Hamer Slammer that I had.  First pic was all stock with the stock electronics:

Pic after it was upgraded & cleaned up:

Headstock logo.  Notice the "US-style" two screw trussrod cover:

Back of headstock:

This is one of the later Korean models after they started using the Duncan Designed pickups.  Keep in mind that this originally had gold hardware:

headstock (notice the single screw truss rod cover) 

 

back of the headstock:

[Cboss]

Thank you for that detailed answer! Mine is just like your gold one, the Duncan design pickups are strange, sometimes they sound terrible but the last time I picked it up they sounded good, who knows maybe my ears :)

First pic, what a peaceful scenic view!

[Cboss]

I've never tried a p90, what are the tonal properties like compared to good humbuckers?

[Jim85IROC]

9 minutes ago, Cboss said:

Thank you for that detailed answer! Mine is just like your gold one, the Duncan design pickups are strange, sometimes they sound terrible but the last time I picked it up they sounded good, who knows maybe my ears :)

First pic, what a peaceful scenic view!

The duncan designed humbuckers are interesting.  They're wound almost the same as their Duncan counterparts, but then they wrap them with a foil tape that capacitively couples the coils, which attenuates some of the top end and squashes the resonant peak a bit, then they slap a cheap chrome cover on the pickup which squashes the resonant peak even more.  The result is a pickup that sounds dull and dark, and lacking detail compared to their Duncan counterpart.  Pull the covers off and remove the foil tape and they actually sound decent.  The other thing about the Duncan Designed pickups is that they come in 3 flavors if I recall.  One of those flavors is a hot wind, and unfortunately, that's what Hamer chose to use, at least on the early models like the one I had.  I think these were the "DD3" model.  The DD1 and DD2 were more PAF-flavored and sounded much better.

 

BTW, that scenic view is my back yard. 

8 minutes ago, Cboss said:

I've never tried a p90, what are the tonal properties like compared to good humbuckers?

depends on the P90, but generally it sounds like a humbucker wound to roughly the same resistance, except a bit brighter, so it's more detailed/open sounding.  The funny thing about P90s is that even if they're hot and raunchy, they still sound good with a lot of detail.  The lower winds are very PAF-ish, but, well, better.  I'm still learning about the various P90s used over the years in the imported Hamers, but from what I can tell, they varied in output over the years.  I've seen some that were stated to measure around 8.5-9k.  The set in my Indonesian SATF 7.7k in the neck and 8.2k in the bridge, and I really like how they sound. I just bought another set that I intend to put into a Korean P90 Sunburst goldtop that I just bought, and I'll measure those, but I don't really have much information about what year guitar they came out of, so their measured values may or may not help me learn more.

[Cboss]

I have the Duncan design in my blue mik sunburst, neck is supposed to be like a 59 back is supposed to be like a JB no covers fortunately! I did not know that about the foil tape, thank you, I might take that off :-) great backyard view! Very meditative