Hamer Facts

Hamer Guitar Facts

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Did you know...

  • Hamer was the 1st company to use exposed coils on a guitar.

  • Hamer was the 1st company to use black hardware on a guitar.

  • Hamer was the 1st company to offer graphics as an option on a guitar.  Available to buy of the very first ones made signed by  members of Cheap Trick

  • Hamer was the 1st company to offer custom options on a guitar.

  • Hamer was the 1st company to offer a real Floyd Rose tremolo on a production guitar.

  • Hamer was the 1st company to offer a locking tuner on a production guitar.

  • Hamer was the 1st company to offer a production 12-string bass guitar.

  • Hamer was the 1st company to offer a workable production hybrid electric/acoustic guitar.

 


Call Ed Roman If You Are Looking For One Of These

To the Best of Ed Roman's Knowledge

Hamer was the first company to offer a 27 fret & 36 fret production guitar.

Hamer was the first company to offer fretless guitars.

Hamer was the first company to be purchased by a large corporation (Kaman) and actually improve it's quality.

Hamer was the first company to scale down from 15 guitars a day in the 80's to 3 a day in the 90's.

Hamer was the first company to offer a triple coil pickup on a production guitar.

Hamer was the first company to offer holograms imbedded in a production guitar.

Hamer was the first company to use the 3 piece maple reverse stress opposing grain process on a production guitar.

Hamer was the first company to utilize Alex Gregory's 7 string patent and produce a seven string guitar (In stock and available).

Hamer was the first company I ever saw manufacture a Piccolo Bass

Today there are a lot of choices when you buy a good USA handmade rock guitar but during the early 80's Hamer was one of the best ones.

Check out the control cavity in any USA Hamer, for instance. Remove the conductive aluminum back plate from the guitar and take a look. Notice how the cavity is flawless, almost beautiful in appearance?  It's extremely functional, too, and carefully coated with a premium nickel based paint against noise. All of the rugged, top shelf electronics it houses are totally RF shielded, as well.

Speaking of electronics, the volume pots are custom tapered with a boost at the last 1/10th of rotation for easy volume gain into solo breaks. Naturally, all of Hamer's pots, jacks and switches are of the finest American quality available.

Hamer carefully matches pickup specifications, among other things, to the timbre of the guitar's body and neck. To insure versatility and quality of tone, Hamer never specifies identical pickups for neck and bridge positions - a common mistake with other brands. Even the way the pickups are attached is unique. On many models, threaded brass inserts are used for stability rather than just flimsy wood screws. All of the screws are hardened for strength and coated to prevent rust.

Each and every Hamer fret is hand seated, The Hamer craftsman must feel how the fret enters the wood a machine simply cannot do it properly.  I was at the USA made Ibanez factory several years ago and they were all proudly showing me a new contraption they had developed  to install all of the frets at once in a neck. Those American made Ibanez guitars failed miserably.  I don't much like their Japanese ones anymore either. Let them sell their guitars back in Tokyo.

Hamer Fingerboards are carefully quarter sawn for long life, perpetual straightness and ease of neck adjustment.  I saw piles of rejected fingerboards due to them not meeting criteria. As I stated earlier in this article Hamer rejects a lot of wood, The Fingerboards are the most carefully inspected in the industry and have the highest rejection factor.  You can be sure that  no matter what model Hamer you own, The Fingerboard will be a super high quality premium piece of Rosewood or Ebony.

Hamer's exclusive  "stressed neck" system consists of three piece necks with opposing wood grains to insure straight and true lifetime performance. Low mass truss rods are easily accessible at the headstock.

Each set-in guitar neck is joined to its body with a specially designed, radically oversized dovetail joint that enhances the transmission of energy throughout the instrument and strengthens the guitar structurally. And, Hamer was the first company to create chopped neck joints and angled neck heels for their bolt-on neck guitars.

The beauty of Hamer Guitars is the result of the expert application of 14 coats of the highest grade lacquers and time consuming hand buffing.

 

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