Re: NGD! USA Hamer, what a beautiful player! Can't believe I have never tried one bef
I'm a Gibson enthusiast and player (own three, have owned many more), and even I will say some of the Hamer USA stuff far exceeds the Standards and other lower American stuff Gibson is putting out. Some of Hamer's better stuff can keep up with the best of Gibson as well. At least what I've played.
A few years back, i was getting money organised to buy a Les Paul. While I was working to get the money together, i did a lot of research. Down here in Australia, there were no USA Hamers available and the word with Gibsons was "make sure you play a whole bunch to find a good one". For the prices we pay for them down here. that didn't fill me with confidence, and i only had one chance to get it right. I read a lot of interviews with Jol Danzig, and material on Hamer in general.
I can't link you to the exact articles, and i think some that were on the Hamer site are now gone, but from memory, here are some things i read.....
When Kaman bought Hamer, they financed Hamer to be able to have first choice on the best woods (Hamer uses Honduras mahogany, Gibson doesn't).
Hamer were able to obtain the best drying eqipment for their woods.
Hamer were able to afford to store neck blanks for six months before they were shaped, allowing the wood to settle and find it's own stable shape before the final shaping was done.
I read several times of Joel Danzig demonstrating the quality of the neck/body join at various presentations, by holding up a neck and body just pressed together, no glue in the join.
These are just a few things i remember, but they are important. The best woods, properly dried, and allowed to settle before being finally shaped into guitars. Because Hamer's output is much smaller than Gibsons, more time is spent per instrument and the result shows. Unfortunately i haven't touched any other USA Hamer except the one I own, but i fully exect that they would all be built to the same incredible standards as mine.
