Hamer Guitars

A

alfugazi

New member
I really like the Hamer Archtop Sunburst guitar. Anyone ever have problems with this guitar? Anything I should know before I make a decision to buy? Any buying strategies?


Also I am looking for a strat but noticed I dont like how the ones made in mexico sound.
Would like to purchase one made in US but it's mucho dinero.....
 
OH OH OH!!

Beware of Hamer!! They used to be a really cool American custom guitar company, but lately they've been knocking off their classic designs overseas. A friend brought me a new Hamer import sunburst to set up and I couldn't even get it in tune with itself!! You can't beat an American Standard Strat as an all around workhorse, but I've actually had decent luck with a Mexico Strat that I got really cheap. Other than the pickups being really anemic and the tuners being little more than worthless, if you find a good piece of wood you might be ok. Granted I have a lot of spare pickups and tuners laying around, but I don't know if it would be worth it to replace those on a new guitar. I always recommend listening to the guitar WITHOUT an amp first. If it doesn't sound good that way chances are you won't make things better with a pickup upgrade.
 
Are Hamers bolt-on or neck-thru??? For serious tone you gotta go for neck-thru! I know of many people who recommend Jackson and BC Rich neck-thru's (and yes they are not all pointy). For what you would pay for a Hamer Archtop, you could probably a get an genuine American made, completely handcrafted, top of the line Jackson or BC Rich rather than some guitar made on an assembly line.
 
I just played a Schecter Diamond Series (this one happened to be a Tempest) and it was solid!! It was also around $400. The glued-on/neck-thru/bolt on thing is forever gonna be a point of contention, but the reality is that there are legendary guitars of all three types. For example, Alembics are neck-thru, Les Pauls are set-neck and Strats are bolt on and they're all great guitars. It definitely depends on what you're looking for.
 
BTW, are you sure those guitars are neck-thru and not set-neck? I'm guessing they're probably glued unless they're models I'm not familiar with.
 
All the latest US BC Rich's are neck-thru... of course they do bolt-on's but they are the lower models.

All Jackson signature and select series ie their top of the line guitars are all neck-thru except for Scott Ian's JJ models
 
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