Hamer shutting down?

[orpheo]

Re: Hamer shutting down?

I actually love nickelback. Every time I am obstipated nickelback lets it all flow again!




Maybe I am too young to know those tribulations. I wasnt paying attention to the gay-fication of metal in the early 1990s rather the rockets of saddam flying overhead; )

 

[rumblebox]

Re: Hamer shutting down?

my dad has an '85 steve stevens model.... i'm glad he hasnt sold it yet. lol

 

[rumblebox]

Re: Hamer shutting down?

Pontiac was run into the ground by dumbasses and bean counters IMHO. I think there's life in the name and the brand could still have filled a niche.

Chevy on the other hand...but I digress.

yea no S***. i try to tell people this all the time.... "let's kill the only brand we have with any styling and keep the one that makes everything look like rental fleet crap."

IMO they should have gotten rid of chevy all together. GMC trucks look better than chevy trucks, and pontiac cars look better than chevy cars.

and the corvette could just become it's own GM brand without chevy. OR, imagine how bad ass it would look if pontiac had gotten ahold of the Y-body platform instead of cadillac (XLR)

but of course this would never happen with all the brand loyalists.

 

[Ayrton]

Re: Hamer shutting down?

Well after seeing what Fender did to the Charvel name, perhaps it is a good thing they killed Hamer.

 

[rumblebox]

Re: Hamer shutting down?

I get you dig winger thats fine whatever blows your skirt up but trying to defend him wont really get you anywhere he embodied everything that was bad about hair metal next thing we know you'll trying to defend Nickleback.

apples to oranges... winger had a cheesy image, but they made use of their talent. metallica made fun of them, but they fell FAR short of winger's writing and playing ability.

nickelback HAS talent, but completely WASTES it in favor of dollar signs. i have no respect for them whatsoever. i saw them in concert in 2003 right before they sold out and got REALLY crappy, and chad kroeger can seriously shred when he wants to. so IMO they deserve to be the most hated band in rock.

 

[ImmortalSix]

Re: Hamer shutting down?

In other news, BTMN, you could ride the knee-jerk inflation wave, sell your Hamers on TGP, and retire to a private island :laughing:

 

[uOpt]

Re: Hamer shutting down?

No kidding. I still recall last year when Fender tried to raise their prices and everyone just about shat themselves. Prices came back down within months.

I remember that episode.

I'm sorry to say but in a way the audience did some terrible damage to made-in-US manufacturing business.

From the numbers that float around Fender is not making so much profit that you can argue that their prices are a ripoff. They gotta charge what they gotta charge if cost for materials, facilities, energy and people goes up.

On the less bright side, they did sue Suhr (and lost, good riddance) and made a couple other ******** moves, but nothing on the order of what Gibson is doing any day of the week.

It sure would have helped if they had cleaned up problems at the Hamer branch that were obvious even to outsiders.

 

[chadd]

Re: Hamer shutting down?

I get you dig winger thats fine whatever blows your skirt up but trying to defend him wont really get you anywhere he embodied everything that was bad about hair metal next thing we know you'll trying to defend Nickleback.

Kip is actually a pretty nice guy. I met him a year or so ago when he approached me about a business opportunity and he seemed like a great guy. I wasn't a huge fan of his music when they came out, but I just heard a couple of the tunes over the weekend while driving and they are well written pop-rock songs. Reb Beach was (is) one hell of a guitar player as well.

 

[BTMN]

Re: Hamer shutting down?

In other news, BTMN, you could ride the knee-jerk inflation wave, sell your Hamers on TGP, and retire to a private island :laughing:

:haha: Oh no. :no: :28:

I'm gonna keep all these lil sweeties to myself at the moment. The USA line from Hamer has been top notch since day one I'm willing to say with fanboi pride. Saw the brand in CIRCUS magazine and Guitar Player in 1977. I held my first Hamer Standard in 1978 in Minneapolis at Knut Koppee Music and it took me 5 years after that to find/get my first from a Jacksonville, Florida pawn shop.

I never wanted a Gibson Explorer after that to any real degree. :eek5:

I have owned about 35 Hamers of various models over the years and still have 25.5 of them. :headbang: Gonna miss them but I have the feeling we have not seen the last of the brand name and hopefully the ressurrected brand will remain The Ultimate guitar in everyway. :usa2:

 

[Ascension]

Re: Hamer shutting down?

Pontiac was run into the ground by dumbasses and bean counters IMHO. I think there's life in the name and the brand could still have filled a niche.

Chevy on the other hand...but I digress.

WORD!!
It was politics that killed Pontiac.
GM kept Buick and killed Pontiac because Buick does very well over in China. So the excitement brand for GM died and old fart stogomobile BUICK was kept to satisfy the Chinese Market! Most don't know that Buick over there has the same prestige as say Rolls here!
The real Pontiac brass at the end was pushing HARD for rear drive only stuff and a line that would compete in the euro sport market against Audi, BMW and Merc.
I was the one of the founders of the Pontiac Oakland Club in my State. At one time I was BIG time into REAL Pontiac muscle. Had a BUNCH of RA IV ,SD and 455 HO stuff at one time. I broke the right T -Top out of a 1977 TA one night back in the early 80's on a power shift when if bit hard on the shift and twisted the body LOL.
That particular car was running a built SD-455 and was specifically built to cruse long distance at 160 + MPH all day to run the real MT cannonball. The reason it twisted the body like that was it had 600+ ft LBS or torque and a 2:41 gear. She ran 13.70's with that gear and an auto trans with low slip low stall 13 inch converter in the 1/4. Had 11's in it easily with some gear and a loser converter.

 

[aleclee]

Re: Hamer shutting down?

Whoa, whoa, whoa: if you've never played a US Hamer than how can you possibly say how they relate to PRS and Gibson? I'd stack an equivalent model Hamer USA against a PRS any damn day of the week!

Okay. I'll play. I have a buddy who owns a shop that used to be a Hamer dealer. I can definitely vouch for Hamer's quality but they were never my cup o' tea. I suppose when I look at it that way, I can understand when people talk about how PRS guitars didn't speak to them.

For me, the issue with Hamer was ergonomics. The Monaco was a wonderful guitar with a ridiculous neck joint. I also disliked the three controls in a row that was on most stuff they sold.

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: Hamer shutting down?

Okay. I'll play. I have a buddy who owns a shop that used to be a Hamer dealer. I can definitely vouch for Hamer's quality but they were never my cup o' tea. I suppose when I look at it that way, I can understand when people talk about how PRS guitars didn't speak to them.

For me, the issue with Hamer was ergonomics. The Monaco was a wonderful guitar with a ridiculous neck joint. I also disliked the three controls in a row that was on most stuff they sold.

Oh man, yes! That has always bothered me! It makes no sense from an ergonomic OR aesthetic point of view.

 

[BrianS.]

Re: Hamer shutting down?

My first car was a 1978 Pontiac Phoenix. Never owned a Hamer, but always loved the ones Tipton and Downing played.

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: Hamer shutting down?

WORD!!
It was politics that killed Pontiac.
GM kept Buick and killed Pontiac because Buick does very well over in China. So the excitement brand for GM died and old fart stogomobile BUICK was kept to satisfy the Chinese Market! Most don't know that Buick over there has the same prestige as say Rolls here!
The real Pontiac brass at the end was pushing HARD for rear drive only stuff and a line that would compete in the euro sport market against Audi, BMW and Merc.
I was the one of the founders of the Pontiac Oakland Club in my State. At one time I was BIG time into REAL Pontiac muscle. Had a BUNCH of RA IV ,SD and 455 HO stuff at one time. I broke the right T -Top out of a 1977 TA one night back in the early 80's on a power shift when if bit hard on the shift and twisted the body LOL.
That particular car was running a built SD-455 and was specifically built to cruse long distance at 160 + MPH all day to run the real MT cannonball. The reason it twisted the body like that was it had 600+ ft LBS or torque and a 2:41 gear. She ran 13.70's with that gear and an auto trans with low slip low stall 13 inch converter in the 1/4. Had 11's in it easily with some gear and a loser converter.

Sorry but this just flat incorrect. I lived in Beijing for 2 years and saw close to exactly zero buicks. The chinese arent idiots they dont equate buick with rolls royce. By far the largest market share of cars for common people there are japanese brands like Mazda and Toyota are very popular. For people with more money they buy german cars like Mercedes, BMW or Audi. But there are no buicks there. There are some Chevy's though. All made in the plant in Taiwan and they arent even the models that chevrolet sells to the american market. There is very little love for american cars in china here and there you run into one of the nicer chryslers or maybe a cadillac but for the most part theres no reason for it with the import taxes on stuff a mercedes is the same price as a cadillac.

 

[uOpt]

Re: Hamer shutting down?

Uh? I've been to Shanghai in 2011 and it was full of Buicks (and Volkswagens).

And that's when I knew Chinese aren't all that smart after all...

 

[BTMN]

Re: Hamer shutting down?

Recent: http://www.businessweek.com/news/20...ot-7-percent-in-november-on-buicks-chevrolets

2009: http://www.autoblog.com/2009/06/22/gm-hits-two-million-buick-sales-in-china/

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: Hamer shutting down?

Uh? I've been to Shanghai in 2011 and it was full of Buicks (and Volkswagens).

And that's when I knew Chinese aren't all that smart after all...

Uh you do know that the buick plant is there in Shanghai and thats why you see them in Shanghai right? They do exist in china but they arent this huge force that gets worshipped like a rolls like the other cat was trying to say.

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: Hamer shutting down?

Recent: http://www.businessweek.com/news/20...ot-7-percent-in-november-on-buicks-chevrolets

2009: http://www.autoblog.com/2009/06/22/gm-hits-two-million-buick-sales-in-china/

Not the whole story though the Cruze and the Sail are much more common than the Buick Excelle.

 

[rumblebox]

Re: Hamer shutting down?

in buick's defense, at least they did pick up their game after pontiac got killed. not a bunch of senior citizen cars anymore. the new regal and lacrosse are damn sexy.

what they also SHOULD do is pick up the zeta2(G8) platform and have a full size RWD instead of just giving it to chevy, who, naturally, made it ugly.

 

[BTMN]

Re: Hamer shutting down?

See, this might be Hamer's problem. Even in a thread about the brand name's demise we are sidetracked to a conversation about Buicks. :28:

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