Hamer. A sad day.

[NancyJohnson]

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

Edited December 31, 2012 by NancyJohnson

[BigRedX]

Blame Fender.

[warwickhunt]

[quote name='NancyJohnson' timestamp='1356960720' post='1915607']
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 ordes 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
[/quote]

Shame as they made some cracking guitars and basses.

I'll still own a Hamer 12 one day but it maybe just got a bit harder to find one!

[krysh]

really sorry for the hamer guys. they have an interesting brand
but since I am a guild fan and they reside in one and the same building in new hartford and built the "guild gsr" sets before, too, this will probably mean that guild is coming back into the electric market with more than a few special runs. and I am happy about this, since the good hamer craftsmen probably won't lose their jobs.

Edited December 31, 2012 by krysh

[RhysP]

Really bad news.
Hamers are up there with the very best instruments available - I've owned quite a few Hamer guitars (and a 12 string bass) & they've all been superb.

It angers me that a peddler of substandard mass produced crap like Fender can close down a legendary company like Hamer.

Edited December 31, 2012 by RhysP

[krysh]

it is true it is a shame, but also if the sales numbers just go down under a justifiable level you better draw a line. I don't know any circumstances, but when I was in the new hartford factory in oct 2011 they already didn't make a reasonable number of hamer instruments. but I could see 2 of rick nielsen custom hamers being there for repair. the guys there are alle very nice and great craftsmen.

[Dingus]

The decline of Hamer as a brand is not so much the fault of Fender so much as it a result of the long but steady decline of the brand , due almost solely to the founders of the company abandoning it . Hamer were never the same company after Kaman aquired them in the late 80s , and their profile in the prestige guitar market slipped accordingly . I remember when Hamer were one of the most aspirational brands in the early 1980s , but a decade later they had lost nearly all their high -profile endorsees.

Edited December 31, 2012 by Dingus

[Paul S]

Whilst admirers of Hamer on here, does anyone know anything about Hamer XT basses? There is a double cutout one on eBay at the moment. [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/271130240739?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649"]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/271130240739?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649[/url] Nice looking thing but any good?

[RhysP]

The XT range are one of the Hamer cheapy import lines, some of which are quite good for the money, but they ain't "proper" Hamers.......

[Paul S]

OK, ta.

[iconic]

why the link to Fender causing their demise?

[Wolverinebass]

[quote name='iconic' timestamp='1356974408' post='1915924']
why the link to Fender causing their demise?
[/quote]

Fender is part of the Kamen group who bought Hamer. As far as I'm concerned, Fender are scumbags for this. About a 18 months ago, I wanted a 12 string. When you go through all the contact details for Hamer you find out you're contacting Fender UK. When I enquired about ordering one, I was told that "as they're so similar to Fender basses, they're not available and we don't expect them to be in the future." Naturally my reply was simple - when did Fender ever make a 12 sting bass? Er.. (to the best of my knowledge) NEVER. Oh, so it looks like a precision then? "We just don't sell them anymore." I asked if they wanted my money as I was quite happy to cough up. All to no avail. Tools.

In the end, it took me 6 months to find one that the seller would ship to the UK. It was made in 1998 and I got it from Germany. It's a fantastic instrument and one which no matter how bad I feel sometimes, just playing it always makes me happy. Sod Fender. It's just another reason for me to dislike them.

[Dingus]

Kaman is now a subsidiary of Fender , but they were not when Kaman bought Hamer in the late 80s . Kaman were a major competitor to Fender until Fender effectively bought them out in late 2007 .

Edited December 31, 2012 by Dingus

[BottomE]

Dunno about the guitars but the basses (US Cruise models from the early 90's in particular) are stunning. I am always shocked that they don't fetch more money. Feeling the love for the Hamers.

[Dingus]

That Cruise bass with the 2TEK bridge was indeed a belter and can be picked up for very reasonable money . I remember the original Hamer Cruis basses in the early 80s with pj pickups and they were very good basses at that time too . I recall Sting and Andy Summers sporting various Hamers in those days , and they were considered to be one of the most desrable brands to own for guitars and basses alike . Once little independent companies start getting swallowed up by bigger companies it is nearly always bad news for the image of their products , but sadly it seems to happen time and again . Look at Tobias and Steinberger who were bought by Gibson - both great brands that have now disappeared .

Edited December 31, 2012 by Dingus

[RhysP]

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1356983772' post='1916142']
Look at Tobias and Steinberger who were bought by Gibson - both great brands that have now disappeared .
[/quote]

And Oberheim, SWR & Trace Elliott - all their once excellent products went down the crapper quality-wise when Gibson bought them out.
I think these big companies do it on purpose to be honest, like when Martin bought out the Levin guitar company - the Levin Goliath was regarded as one of the best acoustic guitars you could buy, so Martin bought out the company & effectively closed them down.
It's all about eradicating the opposition.

[gub]

On the plus side ,you are about to reach 1000 posts .... Yay !

[Kiwi]

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1356963191' post='1915669']
The decline of Hamer as a brand is not so much the fault of Fender so much as it a result of the long but steady decline of the brand , due almost solely to the founders of the company abandoning it . Hamer were never the same company after Kaman aquired them in the late 80s , and their profile in the prestige guitar market slipped accordingly
[/quote]
Given Kaman have achieved lofty heights of indifference with another brand (Trace Elliot), so it could be Kaman's fault.

[Dingus]

[quote name='Kiwi' timestamp='1356986398' post='1916176']
Given Kaman have achieved lofty heights of indifference with another brand (Trace Elliot), so it could be Kaman's fault.
[/quote]

To be fair to Kaman , they owned TE from 92- 97 with reasonable success , but the decline in TEs fortunes came after Kaman sold TE to three of the old directors of TE , who promptly sold out to Gibson in 98 . It was Gibson who presided over the almost incomprehensible fall from grace of this once mighty brand .

[visog]

I'm not sure about the logic of what's being suggested. It's simply not good business sense to acquire a company simply to shut them down unless the company is sold for peanuts - it's a complete waste of money and a bad investment.

Sure you'd seek to out sell a competitor and maximise your market but the only reason you'd acquire them is for their brand (as an ongoing business) or assets. I can only presume that if the former, Kaman thought that they could continue to successfully produce the Hamer line alongside the Gibson range.

Trouble is, they always tinker (sorry streamline) production, cut costs and 'improve quality' effectively stripping the mojo from semi-hand made products like the aforementioned TE, SWR and Tobias, etc.

[Billy Apple]

[quote name='visog' timestamp='1356987659' post='1916189']
I'm not sure about the logic of what's being suggested. It's simply not good business sense to acquire a company simply to shut them down unless the company is sold for peanuts - it's a complete waste of money and a bad investment.
[/quote]

Shutting down a competitor and writing the whole thing off as a tax loss, perhaps?

[hollywoodrox]

I remember andy summers playing gamer guitars didnt Vivian Campbell and Adrian vandenburg too?

[Dingus]

They were lovely guitars and a real prestige brand in the late 70s / early 80s but the original guys that started the company left one by one to start other careers and when that happens it is usually the case that the brand loses some of it's direction .

[leschirons]

Never had a Hamer bass but the best guitar I ever owned was an early production Signature Steve Stevens. Tremendous quality, tone and playability. As usual, I got rid of it and live to regret it. So yes, a sad day.

[RhysP]

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1357047074' post='1916678']
...but the original guys that started the company left one by one to start other careers and when that happens it is usually the case that the brand loses some of it's direction .
[/quote]

This isn't correct. Only Paul Hamer left, Jol Dantzig & Frank Untermyer both remained with Hamer (Dantzig left for a brief period between 1993-97).
Jol Dantzig was ousted by Fender in 2010. Frank Untermyer became something pretty high up in Kamen but retained links to Hamer until the end.