MarkF786

What do they sound like without a maple cap? I've often wondered if the maple is mostly just cosmetic. The guy lives about 30 minutes from me. If it doesn't sell on eBay, maybe I'd offer him $450 cash.

Thank for all the feedback. I'm walking away from the guitar my friend was recommending. But instead I found an AMAZING Hamer last night. I'll post pictures later this afternoon.

It's funny that the consensus is negative cause a friend was raving to me how much he loved this model - he owns several of them - and he's a very experienced and knowledgable player. Apparently these guitars are heavily chambered, which I would like, but in my limited experience, a 24 fret guitar doesn't sound as good as the 22 fret equivalent because of the neck pickup placement. I see that Gibson also made some 22 fret double-cut models, but I don't know if they were chambered or not.

Hey guys, What do you think of the 24 fret Gibson Les Paul Double Cutaways that were made in the late 90s? They remind of a Hamer Studio, though with 24 frets. It's nice having the extra frets, but it also pushes the neck pickup back from the sweet spot. Mark

Willie's prices always seem high. In this case, the asking price for this used guitar is more than the asking price for a new one at Willcut.

When you go through the pictures in detail, the second one just appears to have a brighter flash, making it look lighter.

There's a little room for negotiation, but not a lot.

I've been considering buying a new Monaco SuperPro, but the pickings are slim. Willcutt has two left, both in Aztec Gold. All the Hamers I've owned have had some type of burst finish, so that's what my eye is used to in a Hamer, and Aztec Gold wouldn't be my first choice - and considering that the only two left are Aztec Gold, apparently it's not the first choice of other people either. But the more I've looked at the guitars the past few days, the more they've grown on me. What are your thoughts on the Aztec Gold finish? How does it look in person? Here are the two guitars. I like both tops, but maybe the first a little more, and since the first guitar is a little lighter, it seems to be the best choice. http://willcuttguitars.com/hamer/monaco/hamer-monaco-superpro-aztec-gold-178 http://willcuttguitars.com/hamer/monaco/hamer-monaco-superpro-aztec-gold-335

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Price drop to $1250.

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*** SOLD **** Here's a Hamer Monaco Elite with a chambered body and a 59 Burst finish. It was made custom for Wolfe Guitar, built on 11/12/07. I'd rate it a 9.5/10; if you look closely in the right light you can find some very minor pick marks, but it's otherwise in excellent condition. It's stock except for the cap being upgraded to a Sprague Orange Drop (and I'm good with wiring). It's been well-cared for in my smoke-free home. I love this guitar, but I recently got a new R8 - and though they both have their pros & cons, they overlap enough that I'd like to try something new. The asking price is $old plus PayPal fees and shipping. I'm also open to trades. I'm mainly looking for a Tele or Jazzmaster since I've never had the pleasure of owning either, though I'm open to other offers too. For the basic specs on the guitar, Hamer's site is pretty good: http://www.hamerguitars.com/?fa=detail&mid=411 Some of the details people have asked about: - The neck is described as "Vintage Round" with a thickness of .90". It's fatter that a Gibson 60's slim taper, thinner than an R8, and similar to an LP Standards 50's rounded neck. - Regarding the chambering, Hamer chambers guitars to improve the sound and resonance unlike some builders who just drill holes to relieve weight. It's a very resonant guitar! - The weight appears to be 8 lbs on the nose, using a fairly accurate digital fishing scale to weigh it. Here are some pictures:

Add Dice Works Pedals as another difficult seller to deal with. I recently got a custom pedal from him on eBay. The auction said it would ship in 3 days. After three weeks I hadn't received it so I emailed him. He responded a week later saying it would ship in 48 hours. Another couple weeks passed without receiving it. I contacted him again but no reply. On day 44, I submitted a dispute via eBay. I finally got the pedal a week later but I never heard back from the guy. On TGP there are a lot of similar stories about Dice Works. He makes great pedals but is a total flake to deal with. If he just told his customers it would take X weeks or months, everyone would be cool, but telling a customer it'll ship in 3 days and then not send it for 2 months is just bad customer service. Mark

Ditto for me, no dealers that I could find in the Philadelphia area. Sure, there were a couple of dealers listed but when I went to the stores there was no guitars in stock.

To echo what other people have said: - The resale value of Hamer is so bad that even buying a used Talladega for $1800 is a risk. Heck, I recently bought a new Tally Pro for a great price over 50% off, only to see another new one sell for much less at $1875 a week later. I know some people might argue that you buy a guitar to keep, not resell, but a guitar is an asset that can be sold in an emergency. - Hamer isn't a well known brand, and some people have a bad idea of the brand. Like someone mentioned, I too always thought of Hamer's as pointy shredder guitars. Only recently did I realize that they also made, classy high-quality traditional guitars. Mark

Many of the best custom built guitars sell new in the $4k - $6k price range with a few up to $10k. Though I love Hamer and am impressed by their build quality, I don't think they can compete in those price ranges. Is their quality as good? Maybe... comparing my Hamers to my customs (D'Pergo, Koll, Teuffel) they are pretty close in quality, but my customs all have something over the Hamers in various regards. Do they have the reputation? I don't think so; most people would choose a well respected custom builder over Hamer. The fact that Hamer builds quality guitars seems like a well kept secret (and probably that's why their resale value is so low). I don't know if it's just me, but for a long time I had a unfavorable impression of Hamer guitars due to all the cheesy guitars they made in the 80s & 90s, seemingly aimed at metal guitarists (sorry, I realize there are some members in this forum that love those models). Only in the past few years did I realize there was another side to Hamer, with their classy, more traditional styles. I think Hamer will have a tough time convincing buyers that they should consider Hamer when buying a custom guitar. It would almost be better if Jol left Hamer and started his own custom shop, similar to how many now famous custom builders got their start working for another well known company but setting out on their own. Mark

Just a few comments today... After I've owned the Tally Pro for a while, I'll try to condense everything in a cohesive review. I've realized over the years that it takes a little while to get to know a guitar. Heck, I've even had the experience where I bought a guitar while I had a cold, and because of the congestion and headache I didn't like the sound of the guitar, but after I got over the cold I loved it. I'm becoming convinced that the difference in scale length does make a dramatic difference in tone; I've always thought that it probably would, but I never had the opportunity to compare guitars that were similar except for the scale length. Here's a link to a transcript of a lecture by Ralph Novak (the inventor of Novax fanned frets) on the impact of scale length on tone : Transcript of Ralph Novak’s Lecture on Scale Length and Tone to the 1995 G.A.L. Convention. I'd love to see a comparison of the Monaco Superpro to the Talladega Pro. I suspect that if you put Seth Lovers in the Superpro, it would be very similar in sound to the Tally Pro. I'm still undecided about the wraparound bridge. Though there are wraparounds that are compensated for a plain G string, the Tonepros isn't one of them. It is noticeable at time - though playing in a band situation it would be negligible. I returned the Pigtail bridge I had for a nickel model (I originally bought it for my Koll, but it has a Wilkinson adjustable wraparound which works pretty good, so the Tallly could benefit from it more). I might experiment some with different bridges until I find the "perfect" one. I think Hamer needs to embrace more boutique parts for their guitars. Think of Jon Herington who chose Fralin Unbuckers for his Tally Pro. Hamer's craftsmanship is up there with some of the best boutique builders, but then they use mid-quality part like Seymour Duncan and Tonepros. Heck, I'm not knocking SD or TP since they are both good brands for a good price (well, TP's parts are a bit over priced and their support sucks), but for a little more money they could use something better. If they switched to something like Lollar pickups and Pigtail bridges, they would be up there with Collings. The devil's in the details. Kind regards, Mark

I had a long day at work yesterday so I only got a little while to play the Tally Pro last night. I put on nickel strings so now I can compare the sound of my different Hamers, though still one difference is I have 11s on the Monaco Elite and Newport, and 10s on Tally (my preference for the corresponding scale length). A side comment: the TonePros locking studs are a pain in the arse. I wanted to raise the action just a hair which isn't too easy with these studs. First ya gotta remove almost all the tension from the strings, unlock the studs, adjust the stud height with a poorly machined tool they provide which bend when I used it, relock the studs, retune the guitar, check the action, and repeat as necessary. It kind reminded me of adjusting the truss rod on the heel of the neck of a strat, if you know what I mean. On all my other guitars (including one wraparound), I can adjust the action very easily with only partially removing the tension from the strings. IMHO, the locking studs aren't worth the aggravation. Oh well, it's a minor inconvenience and I can always put on normal studs. The Tally Pro has a warm sound, but still a hair brighter and snappier that my Monaco Elite w/Seth Lovers. It's probably a combination for a few things: all the obvious differences between the guitars (especially the scale length) and also minor things like pickup height, string age (only about a week's difference), and string gauge. But the two guitars are definitely in the same ballpark in terms of sound. Depending on what I was playing, I can see one guitar might fit a song better than another, but if you had either guitar alone it wouldn't be too noticeable. One area where the Tally Pro sounds better is with distortion. I was experimenting with my Rat and Big Muff through my Allen Sweet Spot (a boutique Princeton Reverb clone with a 12" speaker) and there was better note separation on the Tally. And the rear pickup with heavy distortion really sounded great playing chords; very full and not muddy at all. This weekend I'll spend more time in this area when my daughter's not sleeping. One other small note: as expected, the Tally Pro has tons of sustain and I haven't encountered any dead spots (which I find on some guitars when playing with distortion and a one note quickly fades to a higher harmonic all the time). The Monaco is the same in that category, so I couldn't say one is better than the other. More to come... and pics. P.S. I'm starting to think the finish difference on Hamers are very minor. Maybe the two used ones I received we're accurately described, but the Iced Tea looks just like the 59 Burst. The Jazz Burst is slightly darker around the edges but still looks very similar. The downside to this is my wife keeps saying, "Why do you have three of the same guitar?!" Mark

I played the guitar a lot last night and here's some initial, brief feedback. The guitar was impeccable as to be expected from Hamer. The setup was very good. Regarding string height, the treble string was at .05" and the bass at .07" with no buzzing on any strings. The intonation was very good for a wraparound. Of course it wasn't perfect on every string when checking it with a strobe tuner, but it was close enough that the average ear couldn't tell any difference. (Thanks for the tips, Moozak. I'll try them when I change the strings). I'll definitely stick with the stock bridge for a while, but the tweaker in me will still want to try the Pigtail sometime. The guitar sounds great, but it's hard to make comparisons since I have nickel strings on my other guitars and Tally still has factory strings on it. I didn't want to immediately change the strings, but will probably soon. The pickups do sound more PAF-like and similar to Seth Lovers as far as I can tell so far. Once I change strings, I'll write more about the tone. Also I'll need to try it louder today since last night my daughter was asleep when I got it. The control layout seems to be the same as a Les Paul, which wasn't intuitive to me at first (though of course 30 seconds of trying the knobs is all you need). For example, the knob closest to the neck controls the bridge volume, while the one diagonally up controls the neck volume. I would have thought it'd be opposite. Anyway, it's no big deal. I prefer tophat knobs to the speed knobs used, but again that's no big deal. The speed knobs fit the vibe of the guitar so I wouldn't bother changing them. The neck feels fine to me. It's definitely not a hard V and I would think most players would easily adjust to it (and some might prefer it). I quickly forgot about the neck while playing the guitar. Oh yeah, and for those weight fanatics, the guitar is 7 pounds, 7 ounces (compared to 8 pounds, 3 ounces for my chambered Monaco Elite). I'll follow up later with more info. Kind regards, Mark

What sort of music do you play, bro? Mostly clean or distorted? For distortion or overdrive, the Elite's stock Custom & Custom/Custom pickups kick ass, but I mostly play clean and for that the Seth Lovers sound better. I wish I had read Jol's comment that the neck pickup needs to be further away since I mostly play clean using the neck pickup and that's where I wasn't crazy about the stock pickups. Maybe someday I'll try the stock pickups again. I really don't think I'll mind the neck. My D'Pergo strat has a thick soft V (though it's offset to fit the hand better) and I love it. My Ovation has a hard V, and though it's not my favorite neck, it doesn't bother me. Really out of the many guitars I've owned over the years, I can usually adapt to their different neck shapes easily. I guess the one thing I've learned is that I do prefer a thick neck, though I'm still happy playing Parker guitars with a fairly thin, fast neck. And on another note, I switched to solid nickel strings a few months ago and they make a huge difference in sound. If you're looking for a warm vintage sound, I highly recommend them. If you want a bright modern sound, stick with steel. And finally, on Gibson scale guitars, 11s sound much better. The difference is amazing. On Fender scale guitars, 10s are great - and the tension between the two are similar. Well, the guitar just arrived so it's time to check it out. Mark

What sort of music do you play, bro? Mostly clean or distorted? For distortion or overdrive, the Elite's stock Custom & Custom/Custom pickups kick ass, but I mostly play clean and for that the Seth Lovers sound better. I wish I had read Jol's comment that the neck pickup needs to be further away since I mostly play clean using the neck pickup and that's where I wasn't crazy about the stock pickups. Maybe someday I'll try the stock pickups again. I really don't think I'll mind the neck. My D'Pergo strat has a thick soft V (though it's offset to fit the hand better) and I love it. My Ovation has a hard V, and though it's not my favorite neck, it doesn't bother me. Really out of the many guitars I've owned over the years, I can usually adapt to their different neck shapes easily. I guess the one thing I've learned is that I do prefer a thick neck, though I'm still happy playing Parker guitars with a fairly thin, fast neck. And on another note, I switched to solid nickel strings a few months ago and they make a huge difference in sound. If you're looking for a warm vintage sound, I highly recommend them. If you want a bright modern sound, stick with steel. And finally, on Gibson scale guitars, 11s sound much better. The difference is amazing. On Fender scale guitars, 10s are great - and the tension between the two are similar. Well, the guitar just arrived so it's time to check it out. Mark

I must say I'm a little leery about the non-intonated wraparound since I'm very meticulous about guitar setup. But I have a Pigtail intonatable wraparound on hand to swap it with. I ordered it for my Koll Superior, but I might put it on my Tally Pro instead. The only problem is it's chrome and I think the Tally Pro hardware is nickel, but we'll see. And actually, the Pigtail's chrome doesn't seem as blue as most chrome, so it might work anyway. Otherwise I'll try to exchange it for a nickel one. I'll let you know.

Ah, I'm not really bothered. For someone who already owns a Talladega, they might not find it worthwhile to get a Pro too (though there are several differences between the two). But a first time Tally buyer has two models to choose from; based off of the specs, what I'm looking for, and what I already have, I decided the Tally Pro was a better fit. If I wanted a regular Tally, it would have been easy to buy one of the few great used ones currently for sale. I'm sure there are a few Tally owners who would have chosen instead the Tally Pro if it were available at the time I'm sure it offers more than your post. Seriously. Why would you put that on a thread where a guy mentions he has a TallyPro on the way? Why piss in his Cheerios?