Greetings HamerHeads,
Apologies if I repeat myself because I think I posted about my '82 Sunburst many years ago here when the forum was on a different platform (?), but my Hamer count has doubled in the past week (a '96 Standard and an '05 12-string bass, in addition to the Sunburst and a '95 3-hole P-90 Duotone) so I’m reacquainting myself with the awesomeness of the HFC. Anyway, here’s my ’82 sunburst Sunburst, which has had a colorful if somewhat brutalized life, SN 2 5329 (pardon the crappy photography).
Being a complete Tullaholic, but a bassist back then, I figured my first 6-string electric would be what Martin played, and Sam Ash had this one in stock to which I took one look and said to myself, “The Bursting Out axe!”. I was too young and stupid to really know what the default specs were--and the sales guy mumbled something about it being a custom order that the purchaser backed out on--so I had no idea that the neck width (1-11/16") and Tune-o-matic weren’t standard. At least I think it's a narrower than normal neck because every other Sunburst I've played has been 1-3/4". The only other dot-neck flat-top I’ve seen with a TOM is at http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/my-other-guitars/28646-hamer-guitars.html but maybe it's a carved top. I guess the finish would suggest that.
I had a strap-lock disaster a few years after purchase and the guitar fell off, face down on a hard-wood floor, which is why the finish is blasted along the larger bouts. Lot of belt buckle rash...just a lot of wear from playing. Needs a fret job too.
Around '85 I had the brilliant idea (?!) of putting in EMGs. Why? No idea. So I put an 81 in the bridge and a 58 in the neck (the pickup that was so noisy even EMG abandoned it), with a Pi2 Phase Inverter switch (might as well start drilling holes in the top for good measure!...moron) to maintain the ability to get the faux-Peter Green out of phase option that was hard-wired to the original DiMarzios...which I then lost. Double score!
Then after about 20 years of wondering why my tone sucked (caveat: the EMGs just weren’t a good match for this guitar--I love the EMG SAs in my FrankenStrat and the PJ set in my Aerodyne Jazz Bass), I swapped out the EMGs for Suhr DSHs and put in an old-fashioned phase switch. Back in the 80s when John was the lead tech at Rudy’s he was really cool to me as a high school snot, did some great mods for me, and pretty much taught me everything I know about setting up guitars, so I figured I’d give his pups a shot and they blew me away. But having just picked up this ’96 Standard in the same livery…
...I want to get the Sunburst back as close as possible to the original spec and a more vintage output, so I spoke with DiMarzio this morning and am going to order some slightly overwound PAF 36th Anniversary pickups in double cream and zebra. Even overwound they’ll still be cooler than the DSHs. Actually, I’d appreciate any input from HFCers as to how hot to have them wound to match the original DiMarzios. The stock DC resistances for the DiMarzio PAF 36ths are 8.60 Kohm (bridge) and 7.31 Kohm (neck).
So then there’s the bit about this being what my friend Noah calls the “Les Paul Signature Hamer Sunburst.” In the early 90s Noah and I would go see Les pretty much every Monday at Fat Tuesday’s for almost two years. Never jammed with him or anything, but we had a few drinks and laughs together and got on a first name basis. He also spun around on his chair once to change an amp setting and clocked me in the friggin’ head with his headstock we sat so close. Anyway, Les used to give me a lot of crap for not owning a Les Paul, at one point theorizing that I might be “light in the loafers” for not having one. (I since fixed that by picking up this LP Supreme.) So I told him my Sunburst was based on a TV and he said to bring it in. So I brought it to a show and after most folks had left he told me to put it on the bar, which I did...and then he went to town on it with a Dremel tool, carving “To Matt, Keep pickin’! Les Paul” on the top, with pieces of finish flying everywhere, closed the case and said, “Now you got a signature model!”.
Have mercy! I was being sarcastic responding to 3of5. I'm a devout member of the Rev's congregation... A fellow brother! My bad. My sense of sarcasm and the absurd apparently let me down there. That photo was a pisser. Since Billy's such a fuzz pedal hoarder, I commissioned Casey Gooby, maker of the infamous "Bag of Dicks" fuzz pedal (a Jordan Bosstone clone) to make two high-gan variants, one for me and one for Billy, and rename them the "Bag of Shag" pedals. So much for venue security when you can walk up to Billy with a small metal box packed with electronics, a battery, and a switch, and then just pull it out of your jeans pocket and hand it to him. Anyway, he apparently dug it so much he had Elwood order six more from Casey, and Casey now makes them under the name of the "Organ Donor" pedal. No, but this is a pisser: