if you were a teenager in the 70's & into hardrock
& even if you didn't play; the coolest guitars were: dean, bc rich ,& hamer.fast-foward to last
august,& after along,but casual search i finaly found one. i normally prefer teles & strats( fender & copies),& to ease my humbucking desires,i scored a mint '94 prs mccarty, but there
was one guitar i stilled desired...a hamer standard(explorer).
i never found a used one,new they were more than i could swing,& the only ones i saw anyway were the korina models.but last aug. i found one,
brand new & cheap. they screwed the last screw on the high e string tuner a little off.so you move it down a hair into alignment,& the tiny hole remaining saved me over$1000!it was marked on the
paperwork a factory second,but was still warrantied.
the guitar,a hamer standard custom(what a oxymoron!)is amazing.1piece mahogany body & neck.
rosewood fingerboard,243/4" scale,14"radius.flame maple top in their '59burst.tuneamatic & stoptailpiece.binding on body & neck & mother-of-pearl crown inlays.3way p/u switch, & vol/vol/tone
controls.p/u's are duncan j.b in the bridge & '59
in the neck.the neck is full like gibson's '59 shape.& it weighs about an average les paul weight.
the guitar plays like it looks,a joy!everything is well made & first rate.i'm not sure about the p/u's:they are fine, but i think something special is in order.i know hamer prides itself as a hand-made custom builder, & how the tuner issue happened is beyond me; but i am thankful. it saved me alot of $ for nothing.& the guitar stays
in tune,thank you!it really sings.& it looks so cool.hamer makes great guitars,i have checked out alot of them,& they were all beautifuly crafted.
but i never thought i would find the "one", & for
a bargain!

one other very interesting thing i noticed. i am not sure he even used one,i know he plays dean explorers,but every time i pick the guitar up my
first instinct is to play billy gibbons licks! i am not aware what causes this phenomenon, but...
have mercy! could be worse.

been waitin for the bus all day....

I have a Hamer Phantom GT which I believe stands for Glen Tipton of Judas Priest. This was kind of the buy of a lifetime for me. The thing had to have cost well over a grand new in the mid 80's but because the previous owner didn't care for it well the store was asking only $100.
I bought it thinking it would be for my nephew but I wound up keeping it. A fret job, some new tuning pegs, a cool pickup & sanding off the thrashed finish & I had my new main guitar. It's now an oil finished guitar. The shape is sort of like an exaggerated Strat with a single humbucker/single volume knob in the bridge position & a Kahler whammy bar. The neck is glued in, with a Gibson type scale length rosewood board. The neck & body are both single pieces of mahogany. This is a very straight forward, no nonsense instrument with one basic tone that sounds excellent. It's comfortable to play & I use it as a controller for my amps, if that makes sense. In other words I rely on the amps, pedals etc. for tonal variation & play the guitar that feels & sounds "right" to me.
I have been described as too bluesy by rock players & too rock 'n roll by blues players, which suits me fine. My current lineup of amps includes a tweed Fender Deluxe, a hot rodded Fender BF Bandmaster head, & a JMP 2203 Marshall head. My taste in OD pedals runs more toward Hotcakes & Baby Blues than to TS. For fuzz I go with some I built myself but which are based upon the old Jordan Bosstone & Mosrite Fuzz-Rite. I have a nice sounding MJM London Fuzz but am not intimately familiar with most of the big ones around here such as the Dino etc. I do use a Vintage Rat as well. I mention the equipment to give the reader an idea of what sound(s) I tend to prefer. I'd like to think that my style/tone etc. could be compared to Robert Fripp crashing a ZZ Top Barbecue held on Eric Clapton's birthday.
In summary, Hamer guitars are well built tone machines that can often be purchased inexpensively.

Sick fuzz & cowboy hats.