Crestwood & Slammer guitars ?

[ted s]

Hey people, I am visiting Parry Sound Ontario. Checked out the local pawn shop looking for a forgotten treasure..no luck, but this guy has a small herd of new Crestwood Strat wannabees and Slammer, made in China, finish and fit appear decent. Anywhere from $120-160. I realize you get what you pay for.. but under 2 bones for a beater may not be bad ? Anyone heard of these ?

TIA

Ted

[Katastrophe]

Pawn shops will often carry a line of "new" guitars these days to have something shiny to hang next to the beater used guitars that they get in. My guess is that's what this particular pawn shop has done in your instance. One in my area has almost the full line of Johnson acoustic and electric guitars at some rather attractive prices (lower than other economy brands like Squier).

A quick search on the Slammer brand shows that they are a subbrand of Hamer (kinda like Squier is to Fender). Hamer makes outstanding, top quality instruments at high prices, but I have no experience with the Slammer brand.

I've never heard of Crestwood guitars, and couldn't comment. I found one New Jersey store that sells them for $99.00 a piece. These are Strat copies of undetermined origin or quality.

For a few dollars more, the Squier line is available, with decent quality (as has been noted freqently here). For the same price range, you could get a Squier '51 Vintage Modified, which has received rave reviews here at TheFret. Squier also has two solid alder special edition Strats (in cherryburst and Silverburst, both fantastic finishes), with a street price of $199.99. Spudman, I think, might own a few (including the two mentioned above), and is well qualified to weigh in here... The Squier Tele I played not too long ago had the same fit and finish of its Made in Mexico brethren, and that Tele twang was present. A solid, well made guitar for under $200.00!

Also, there is a good selection of guitars in the same price range at Rondo Music, with thier SX line. Tremoloman gave a solid review of the SST (Strat copy) 57 model in Powder Blue. These guitars have a long history of reviews, and the good and bad is available for your perusal.

With all that said, did you pick one up? Play one? How did it feel to you? If it feels good and sounds good, the tuners are smooth, the neck is straight, the knobs aren't scratchy, the nut and bridge looks good, and there are no glaring manufacturing defects, then you may have found a good guitar!

[kerc]

Brief story here.

have a Hamer Slammer DA3 Strat clone. I bought it in 1998, brand new from Musicians Friend when they were having a sale at $99. It was my very first guitar...I learned on it. I bought it because the price was good and because it was black (I should've gotten the sunburst!)

Eventually it got out of shape, so to speak, and I basically neglected it in a corner of the house. In the meantime I bought a few more guitars, and eventually learned to set up guitars correctly...which then brought me up to the Slammer again. I set it up properly, and it has become quite a playable guitar.

What can I tell you about it now that I know a bit more about guitars?

Well, it's not a bad base for a modder's axe. Mine has a solid body (probably basswood), about 1/4" thinner than a regular Strat. The finish on mine is quite thin, and it's actually starting to "sink" into the wood (you can feel the woodgrain through it, and see it "reflected" when looking at it at an extreme angle). It's quite resonant, and light.

The neck is a bit thin for my tastes, and it has a faily flat profile. The neck is nicely finished in thin satin clear, and the rosewood fretboard has a smooth finish too. Something I came to appreciate much later was the excellent fret finish it has--no fret sprout, frets are sorta like jumbos, and the fretboard has nice rolled edges (although I'm not 100% sure if they came that way or it's caused by endless hours of playing!) The tuners are cheapy, but they hold their tuning well.

The original electronics were very, very crappy. When I resurrected it, I installed a cheap Saga pickup set I got for $10 and it actually improved the sound! I'm planning on getting a set of vintage-sounding low output pickups from GFS for it, along with decent pots.

The bridge isn't bad, but I blocked it with two cut-to-size blocks of solid wood; one behind the bridge block, and one to fit in the spring cavity. This tremolo won't move anymore! Hehehehe.

Since it was neglected for a few years (and even on a pawn shop once!), it has been naturally reliced (including the time it fell from about 5' and landed on an edge!)...So in a funny coincidence, it's very "in fashion" in the looks department...I changed the original pearloid guard and put in a tortoishell one, and looks pretty nice.

I've been playing it a lot lately...It has a very "soft" action (it has .009-042 Webstrings on it), and as I mentioned, it's very resonant and light...And I don't care if it gets dinged!

I wish I could publish some pics, but my digital cam died.

[ted s]

interesting, thanks guys. I was able to pick it up/hold it/inspect, kinda go through the motions, it felt pretty decent, no idea how it would have sounded though. I didn't purchase, but if I feel like taking the $120 risk I can always head back up there. (in-laws). I did see the reviews on the SX SST57, sounds like a real bargoon. Wonder what shipping to Canada would be ?
Thanks again

[tremoloman***]

Hey people, I am visiting Parry Sound Ontario. Checked out the local pawn shop looking for a forgotten treasure..no luck, but this guy has a small herd of new Crestwood Strat wannabees and Slammer, made in China, finish and fit appear decent. Anywhere from $120-160. I realize you get what you pay for.. but under 2 bones for a beater may not be bad ? Anyone heard of these ?

TIA

Ted

The Crestwood & Slammers electrics are going for as low as $84.00 USD on eBay, so it doesn't sound like much of a deal IMHO.

Here's a few:
Crestwood guitars on eBay
Slammer guitars on eBay