NancyJohnson

Joel OK, here goes. (For the record, I am a little hungover, so I may wander a bit.) 1) I'd never thought Fender would have bought a company for their distribution network. Really? I've been dipping in and out of guitar stores since the early-80s and if there's one brand that's synonymous by it's unanimity, it has to be Fender. Never struck me that they needed distribution, I thought they sold like hot cakes. 2) Hiatus or otherwise, the information I posted was sent to me from the guys at the Hamer Fan Network, who to a degree have effectively become the Hamer mouthpiece. The Workshop blog hasn't been updated in nearly a year. I would say one thing here, who puts a company into hiatus and then relaunches it at some future date? 3) Recession. Psst. Guitars are still selling aren't they? And what would you rather rock out with? A Guild semi or a Hamer solid? (OK...don't answer that.) 4/5) These are statements of fact/conjecture. 6) I'm running a business selling very expensive sprockets and I have a full order book into 2013/14. I've been selling these sprockets for a few years now, quite successfully it has to be said, but now I'm going to start manufacturing cheaper sprockets. I know, to meet demand, I'll close down my expensive sprocket business, cancel the back orders and move all my machinists over to make my cheaper product. That's some sound business sense, for sure. Now I don't have access to Fender's balance sheet, so I don't know how much sales for Hamer and Guild account for, so don't feel qualified to comment on whether this is a sound decision or not. 7) Other guitar stores are available and there's a big old world beyond those US borders. I work in the jewellery business and we sell into many businesses that are most probably overburdened by debt, but as a credit manager, I can control what goes out and what happens when we don't get paid. There are many channels of distribution globally. I think of Fender being a little like Kiss. Clearly not really interested in what went on outside of the US until things started going down the toilet at which point it became time to concentrate on the markets in Europe, South America, Australasia, Far East. (I'm curious, do the Americans use the term Far East, because in actuality it's probably Close West. Sorry, went off topic there.) 8) This, my friend, is a shameless plug. I will be visiting Amazon imminently. If there's one good thing about the Hamer brand, it's that there's a good 30 years of production still out there (aside from the hundreds Nikki Sixx destroyed), so they're still readily available and will still be even when I'm dust. Oh, and in closing, please desist in the overuse of unnecessary "inverted commas". You're a journalist/magazine editor, are you not? Tut tut!! Message ends. P

[quote name='neepheid' timestamp='1358505961' post='1940345'] Yes, and your opinions being presented as fact isn't helping. [/quote] Well said.

Nice!

If you're anywhere near New York Public Library on the weekend you should check out this guy busking and give him a couple of dollars. I'm not sure whether the guy is only let out on the weekend, but he's very entertaining (and this isn't a dig at people with learning difficulties or anything...I know it's 2013). We saw him several times during our sojourn in September and he was pulling people left right and centre. He's fearless. P

About twenty years ago, Hamer used to be distributed (along with Godin and, I think, Warwick) from a small industrial unit close to me in Kings Ride Park, Ascot; my drummer knew someone who worked there and I had a couple of hours one afternoon pulling guitars out of boxes and playing them. They were all good. I can probably pinpoint that afternoon as where my love affair with Hamer first started. P

That Paisley Tele/P (top right) is deeelish! P

May be me, but the link doesn't go to anything? P

I just got an e-mail from the Hamer forum mods who advise that, 'Hamer brand guitars will no longer be produced after the current round of custom orders are complete.' I find this a sad day. Hamer may not be to everyone's taste, but they certainly resurrected a handful of dead in the water Gibson designs and introduced some new poop into the market. I'll miss them. P

Putting my Detective NancyJohnson hat on, if you look at some of his past eBay purchases, he bought a Jazz bass pickup cover (or possibly more than one). I suspect he's probably just changed the cover. P

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1356708740' post='1912744'] +1 on this comment on Michael Anthony of Van Halen . He's a superb hard rock bass player who is no slouch when the mood takes him . Listen to the first VH album and Michael plays some clever stuff throughout without ever cramping EVHs style or getting in the way . An underrated player in my estimation , and not poor by any stretch of the imagination . [/quote] I loved early (Roth era) VH, but never really thought that Michael Anthony fit the band. He was certainly the the worst musician in there by a country mile, although I do concur that his BVs were pretty extraordinary. I recently bought the Guitar World VH interview collection ([url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Guitar-World-Halen-Great-American/dp/1618930273/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1356779757&sr=8-1"]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Guitar-World-Halen-Great-American/dp/1618930273/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1356779757&sr=8-1[/url]) and the guy really comes across as unlikeable, ignorant and somewhat of a bigger arse than I originally thought. Irrespective of how he feels about DLR now, VH would simply have been another LA rock band without DLRs bravado, charisma and showmanship as the primary focal points. Despite what he was doing before (and after) it just reinforced my opinion and that he was simply in the right place at the right time.

I'll vouch for Dean here. FoT are very metal. Amongst other things, Dean has speedy facial hair and his brother sings in my band. He's almost family. P

Alarmingly, he 'bought' this for £71.00: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Precision-Jazz-Bass-PJ-Style-Electric-Bass-/181026754614?nma=true&si=iuKej0XsFvNcPX638edWnImIdlM%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557 ...did his business on it and has it up for sale for £198.00 here: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/J-Bass-a-dual-tone-pickup-type-J-bass-in-metalic-blue-/190775365513? The guy has more front than Brighton. And I should know. I've thrown up on it. P

Taking the thread back in the general direction of the original posting, along with age and the amount of work/use the bass has had, one primary issue to factor in has to be the material used on the instrument when it was manufactured. Consider Fender (as this is generally the benchmark for wear'n'tear); they stopped using nitrocellulose on their guitars in the late 1960s...this finish was soft/prone to drying out/crackling/peeling and reacted with rubber in such a way that the finish would melt after prolonged exposure. (It wasn't uncommon for guitars to be returned to Fender for refinishing.) After nitro was discontinued, Fender moved to a polyurethane finish. Hard/brittle/bombproof. With this in mind, it's feasible that if you had a two identical Fender basses from 1968-70, both of which were subject to [i]exactly [/i]the same level of daily usage and care over a period of 40+ years, it stands to reason that the nitro-finished model would/should be expected to be in worse condition than the poly finished version. This isn't to say that all poly (or nitro) finishes are identical. A generalization is that it's probably a fair comment to say that a 50 year old Poly finish will look considerably better that a 50 year old nitro one. In closing, the oldest bass I owned from Fender was a 1979 Precision. Poly. I used that bass for 20+ years. I jammed/gigged with it two or three times a week and it was played daily and it barely had a ding on it. There are guys on here who have 50s/60s basses who I'm sure will be happy to share their opinions and experiences. Everyone has their own experiences and production values differ from manufacturer to manufacturer. P