Leaderboard

It’s right around the anniversary of the Arlington to New Hartford move….1997. Just about half my life ago. About 12 of us left our lives in suburban Chicago and jumped on planes, got in cars, etc and headed East. The shop was downsized considerably and production went from damn near 100 per week down to a dozen. We lost a lot of good people that couldn’t make the move. Many said the “new” ones would never be as good. I think the team did a great job of preserving the brand from a build perspective. Many thoughts. Thank you to Frank and Jol for giving me the opportunity to move and for the advancement opportunities that followed. I’m in a much different spot in life now but a direct line can be drawn from my time at Hamer. Thanks to Dave Brown for putting up with me as a roommate/coworker for two years lol. Thank you Mike, Chip, Clay and the rest of the crew for being such a huge part of my life back then. I’ve lost touch with some but I think about you guys often and wish you all well. We did good Gentlemen. The instruments we built hang with the best of them.

I just accidentally bought another Hamer 😄 I went onto Reverb to look for some kidney bean tuning buttons for my Greeny and happened to see a nice looking Hamer p90 goldtop just like mine. I clicked on it to see why this clown thought his Chinese Hamer was so expensive only to quickly realize it was a 3 minute old listing for a very well priced US model. Sold! Should be here Tuesday. Looks fantastic overall aside from the chip right at the bottom of the gold top.

Enrico "Frank" Glavash Tom Dave: Gary: Todd: Mike: The New Hartford Crew:

It took a long time, but it was worth it. It lives. If I didn't know where to look, I'd never know it happened. Isn't she lovely?

Finally managed to talk myself into putting this up for sale. Ultimate flame top, virtually no fret wear, some very light worming on back but that's about it. Fitted with Bare Knuckle Mules which suit it perfectly. With original case and custom order certificate. Haven't seen another one like this but from what I can remember, it was about the same price as the korina Vectors. Looking for £3800. Would prefer not to ship due to size/packing.

@LucSulla inspired me to take a closer look at the MJ Series RR24s. Glad I did. Not sure if I scored as nice a deal as he did but I got this one new (open box) for about $900 less than advertised elsewhere. And just as Luc reported, this is an excellent value for the money. Features, fit and finish are all on f-ing point. Naturally, I can't leave any guitar well enough alone and in fairness, I am not a fan of the tone of EMGs so, they will be coming outta there for a tasty Gravelin double slug Mongoose and a Sustainiac in the neck, a low friction volume pot and a kill switch tone pot.

SOME CHEAP NEW HARTFORD TRICKS

I think there are a few around here who appreciate a single cut, wrap tail Korina Junior, so I thought I'd share. Bizen Works is a high end Japanese builder from the former factory manager of the Zemaitis Custom Shop. I've been aware of them, but haven't had the chance to own one, until now. Their "Burned' series of guitars are loosely based on Les Pauls, but not exact clones. They have a beveled back, aa heel less neck joint and different inlays. But the materials are top notch and the quality of workmanship is fantastic. This is a Korina Junior with a one piece Korina body & neck and a dark Brazilian RW fretboard. The pickup is made by Bizen and has a low output vintage tone. This particular model was also factory aged for a guitar show in Japan, which is not something that they normally do. I would say the relicing is just OK, a little too much buckle rash, IMO. But, oh my, does it play and sound good. The neck is nice and chunky with a subtle soft V at the nut going to a C up the neck. The guy who traded me prefers his Korina guitars to be fairly uniform in their appearance, but I like the dark mineral streaking it has.

Hamer USA Studio Custom 2007 - Transparent Cherry. $2,100, shipped within CONUS. PayPal F&F. Very Good condition. See images. Amazing flame maple top. Includes original case. Pickups were replaced with Dimarzio PAF Masters. Fretware is minimal. 9.75lb. Neck profile is medium. Let me know if you'd like any additional images.

That's my old '92. BCRGreg routed it for the middle pickup. It originally was a regular old two P90 guitar. I had 3 minis in it for awhile, then switched back to P90s. Sold it in 2005. It got a lot farther than I did.

That, my friend, is what's called Cool As Fuck! 😂

38 years ago I was 17 and my prized Hamer Sunburst was stolen from my parents house. I had purchased it used but found out after the theft that it had been a special order for the guy that ran a store in nearby Raleigh called Audio, Light & Music, there's still one in Norfolk VA. In the 80s Floyded carved top Sunbursts IIRC were not a standard offering and was told that it was one of just a few (maybe even two?) made and another went to Andy Summers. I wrote to Hamer to get an estimate to have another built and this was the reply. I had forgotten about it but was going through my late father's file cabinets earlier today and came across it, though it might be of mild interest to the group. I didn't place the order...I took the check from the insurance company and had the luthier at the store where I bought the used Hamer (Oxbow Music in Chapel Hill) build a super Strat with Tom Anderson parts and got an ESP M-1 as well a bitchin' Randall RG100ES head instead. That old Hamer as far as I know has never popped up for sale anywhere in the last 38 years. Frank spell my name wrong, not the first time that's happened. 😄

You missed a golden opportunity to add a flat mount Kahler. Just sayin'...

Stacked Purfling P-90 Korina Artist in Jazzburst

All together now...

You think too much. 😑

Saul, it's just a fantasy. Can you live this fantasy life?

Just for fun

Yes but the Hamer would have been aestheticly pleasing. 😄

My Junior on the bench: I always thought the build quality of the New Hartford guitars was a cut above the early ones. Not that there's anything wrong with the early ones. They are great, too. But it's like they got the process really dialed in and fine tuned. They went from awesome to awesomer.

That is the Tortoise Watson in Progress.

THE NIGHT TIGER TALLADEGA Original C/O: Moozak Ordered from BCR Greg < NIGHTFIRE FINISH

All of the sudden, I can just play the shit out of a Stratocaster. And I don't mean a super strat. I mean, specifically, a plain old American standard strat with single coils. I've been playing them a lot around the house lately, and at band practice this afternoon, the guys were like, "What is all of that? Have you been woodshedding a new style or something." No! No I haven't! For some reason, I just play them a lot differently than a LP style guitar, and it's pretty rad. I don't shred as much, but the legato phrasing I like along with my sparse knowledge of chickin pickin just comes together way differently. Who even am I now?

You were referring to this…..?

It's a good thing the brand name isn't in huge letters on the headstock or anything...

Oops I've done it again. 2000 Hamer Korina Artist I stripped all of the chrome/nickel hardware and replaced it with gold, added Lollar (stock and +5% wind) pickups with padauk wood covers and just to piss off @kizanski and @MCChris, a set of 1940s vintage radio knobs.

After a nightmare shipping fiasco, no fault of the seller, I finally got this beautiful 96 Studio in my grubby little paws!

Current Hamers... And the whole bunch.

This is an actual, for real, not trolling, conversation:

Well, that's all I need to know.

I am surprised to find that I don't dislike it as much as I would have expected. I do dislike it though.

Here ya go~

Peak madness: Only 2 of those remain.

That's $8600 in 2025 dollars. Crazy.

Yes, it was my idea. I thought tort binding would blend really nicely with jazzburst, but I wanted both the top and side with a multi-ply to make it pop a bit. I explained it to BCR Greg, and he knew exactly what we needed. I had never heard of "stacked purfling" before, but I had seen acoustics with it before. Greg worked some magic with the shop to get this done. The anniversary inlays were a tough sell, and note that the f-hole has the binding stacked as well. I still have no idea how they did that.

Mike Shishkov in the Shop Part 2 - Paging Glenn Tipton....Paging Glenn Tipton

Mike Shishkov in the Shop Part 1

I always felt that the NH Hamers were better than the Arlington ones.

As many of you have seen, I've been selling off a bunch of gear... guitars, amps, pedals etc. And, I have found out some really interesting tid-bits on shipping. There seems to be more ways to ship gear than ever. Beside the standard USPS, UPS, FedEx etc. I've found some great discounts at other places. It also seems the box and sizes sometimes makes one shipping service better than others. What I mean is, you just have to check all of them to see which ones gives the best price for a particular box/weight. It's kinda' a pain-in-the-ass to enter all the info multiple times, but I'm retired, I have plenty of time - haha. But, it can save you a LOT of money on big items. OK, let's not get into a flame-war over which company is safer than another. It's all a crap-shoot, they all can damage stuff. Over the years, I haven't found one to be the 'Best' to ship. That's why I over pack and bubble-wrap the crap out of everything and make sure there is plenty of room around the item as to not let something hit the box and still get to the gear. Loosen strings, take off switch-tips, secure guitars in cases, pull tubes and wrap separately when possible, put paper under the strings as to not let the strings vibrate and possibly put indentations on frets etc. Double box guitars with gig bags. With all that, damage can still happen. Back to shipping... There are the big 3. UPS, FedEx, USPS (Yeah, there is also DHL) Also, when selling on Reverb or Ebay, they offer discounted shipping if you use them. And, can provide 'safe shipping' coverage, which can be good. (I usually have all my gear insured by Heritage Insurance, so I have that to rely on. I have only had to use them once in 20 years and they were great.) But, I've found much better shipping prices outside of Reverb and Ebay. Then, there are some other outside companies that you should check: PirateShip.com and Paypal. Yeah, Paypal offers discounted shipping, even if you didn't use them for the sale. Their prices have been EXCEPTIONALLY good!!! Sometimes the best I have found on big items. Also, always remember to check for discount codes, especially when using UPS, I have found some really good, 20-25% discount codes on the webbernets. Again, its weird, one shipper might offer a better price for large items or small boxes vs another, you just have do some legwork to find out. Lately, I've found big items like guitar and amps, Paypal Shipping or UPS with discounts, seem to have the best prices. Pedals or small stuff, Reverb shipping or USPS is quick and easy. Middle size stuff, like rack gear is all over the place. Hope this helps! ernie P.S. If you guys know of any other shipping options, please post them. Let's keep this going to save us all some moolah!

I took this pic about six or seven years ago. I actually added a few Hamers after that, but now I am down to two: a Duotone and a Newport. Still have 20-plus guitars, but had a big sell-off.

This is as close to a family photo as I've ever gotten. I took this a few years ago. Today I'm down about a dozen from then.

I was gonna say $3190 in 1988?? They reeeeally didn't want to build that guitar!