Hamers - Under-rated?

[.overdrive_rewind]

I've got to say, most of Hamer's stuff is nice. Really nice. Equal if not better than some of the Les Paul/Gibson stuff it's often compared to.

Anyone else ever had the chance to play one? Thoughts?

[hubberjub***]

The Hamer USA line is great. Gibsons standard issue guitars don't even compare. Nice used Hamers can be had for under a grand.

[Brian Krashpad]

The Hamer USA line is great. Gibsons standard issue guitars don't even compare. Nice used Hamers can be had for under a grand.

One of my best, and one of my favorite, guitars is a Hamer Special I bought used but in very good condition 5 or 6 years ago on consignment in a local shop, for $450 US. Unlike my Gibsons, it was made in a small shop by a select group of luthiers, not a factory production line.

It rocks.



I did add a pickguard though, for a little less "plain" look:

[Ascension]

Yep the Hamers are super nice. Gibsons are junk in comparison and not even on the same planet in fit finish and workmanship. In particular the early pre-Kamen Hamers were some of the best handbuilt guitars out there.
My Washburn USAs were connected to and influenced by those early Hamers as many that Grover Jackson brough into the Washburn Chigago US CS were former Hamer employees that were let go after the sale to Kamen and the closing of Hamers Chigago shop.
Real players know what these are but the cork sniffing brad hound posers ignore them. Good thing for us as like the USA Washburns you can buy some of these for a song!

[jpfeifer]

Absolutely!

I didn't see this post before. I can vouch for Hamer, at least the Hamer USA models. Their quality is on par with PRS.

I have the Newport model and it's been my favorite axe since I bought it several years ago.

I think that these Hamer USA guitars are among the most under-rated guitars out there. You can find some pretty good deals on used Hamers on Ebay. They're usually hard to find in stores because they don't sell as well as Gibsons, Fenders, and PRS. But they are fantastic instruments.

-- Jim

[wingsdad]

They might get easier to find in 2008 and Hamer's part of the Fender Empire.

[hubberjub***]

Fender will probably screw them up like they did with Guild.

[Brian Krashpad]

Fender will probably screw them up like they did with Guild.

But maybe not. Fender has since (after Guild) gone into some sort of arrangement with Gretsch as well, and doesn't appeared to have messed up Gretsch. In fact, if anything the Gretsch import line is better now than pre-Fender (at least that seems to be the consensus, which gibes with the pre-Fender and post-Fender Gretsch imports I've owned). So maybe Fender learned it's lessons with it's Guild and DeArmond debacles.

[hubberjub***]

I'll keep my fingers crossed.

[.overdrive_rewind]

I think what Fender generally does nowadays when it acquires a new brand is gives a bit more funding to the brand, and, obviously, reaps the profits.

[wingsdad]

They bought Tacoma 2 years ago to get a good factory, fine luthiers and access to great woods to scuttle Tacoma as a viable competitor and convert it to their USA Guild operation so they could stop pretending to make Guilds in Corona, CA. Remains to be seen, but in buying Kaman music, they now get the same sort of thing with Hamer USA and Ovation (think Adamas here, not Ovation's import product). Hamer, like Tacoma, not a 'household name', but fine product. They might see Hamer USA as a means to put a dent in PRS' market share. Add Takamine to the clan and they've got a terrific import acoustic line 2nd to none with their Japanese stuff and their Korean/Chinese product better than anything Fender's ever had. They can probably eventually drop the Guild GAD imports as a result, along with the Fender import acosutics, focus on Fender/Squier as an electric force with Hamer USA an elite line and Gretsch in between the 2.

[hubberjub***]

I hope they put Ovation out of business. Those round back acoustics are not ment to be played standing up.

[jpfeifer]

I think that Hamer could use some of Fender's help in the marketing of their product. They make very high quality stuff but they don't have the brandname recognition they deserve. You're right about Fender using them to compete against PRS. This is probably the reason they picked them up.

There's a great video on Youtube that shows how the make their guitars. You can really see how much they're into the quality aspect.
Check out this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wicSQKLVNs

-- Jim

[.overdrive_rewind]

@hubberjub: I'm not sure about that - Ovations are pretty unique, and their ultra-slim body acoustics actually feel about the same as a standard guitar.

@wingsdad: Yeah, that's pretty much what I was going to say, of course.

[hubberjub***]

I was just kidding. I don't really want them to go out of business. Personally, I don't care for Ovations. They tend to roll up so the top of the guitar is kind of pointing skyward. They are designed to be a plugged in acoustic so they don't really have a very good unplugged sound to my ears. To each their own.