mc2

Am I The FIRST to actually get my copy? (besides the guy who wrote it..) Arrived about an hour ago....FedEx guy shoved it in my door because my USPS mail lady was actually also on the front steps putting mail in my mailbox....A MailFest!! Hey....and I've even got a shot of mine on the front cover (the snakeskin doubleneck) Book looks GREAT Steve! ...a peek inside below, appropriately on Serial's former bass.

WOW! The perfect bass for playing gay bars, Vegas porn conventions and abortion rallies Anyone have a NYC gig to support Anthony Weiner For Mayor??? Man, would this bass get you media coverage!!!

Great playing and tone. It's also the kind of video that should have been on HAMER's website the last 20 years, selling scads of rock guitars.

Well, does this video contain the correct pronounciation of Matthes? That's just the mysterious female spy who Steve whispered all his Hamer info to in dark London pub, as she typed his manuscript. After a few pints, no one can pronounce his name, even British 007 voice bots. I'm surprised the cover author credit didn't just say "Not Chris."

I pick up a different instrument when I hit a dry spell and it often gets some new ideas churning. I also find I get more ideas popping into my head on long drives with the radio on in background, when I'm not really thinking about anything.

My friend from grade school called me while I was in my car and laughed and said I'm the only guy he knows who would have Captain Beefheart playing in the background (my 2000+ song USB drive of my HD tunes I throw in my deck.) But besides that...Mumford and Sons and Futurebirds today. Oh, and my sax player bud from New Orleans, Dominick Grillo and the Frenchmen Street Allstars, new CD.

HavaHappee!! .....I just have this image of a HUGE metal flake birthday cake with road flares on top

That listing is "interesting.....because I OWNED the one that was in Rudy's on 48th St in NYC for years (the one you guys are referring to above) and it is strange Rudy's would have had two, since they said the one I got had been there quite awhile. I bought it directly from Rudy's after going in to play it and have photos of me and HFC member Inspector 12 at the store. I'd gone in to play it in person because there had been longtime rumors about it having a bad neck but that turned out to be total BS. it had one of the best playing B12A necks I've run across. Also, the one in Rudy's had a pao ferro fingerboard and dot inlays with the textured matte black finish....not the ebony board with two boomerangs like the one in the listing. So...this seller would have bought his before I got mine. I wonder if the SN#s confirm that? I have to look. THAT bass that I owned is actually with Jeff Ament...I sold it to him a few years back....right in the middle of when he got mugged in Atlanta, outside the studio PJ was recording at. I also still have another.Ament 12 that does have the ebony fingerboard and two boomers. Plus there was one for sale in the UK in the 2000's ...and Kelly LeMieux had a dotneck one....so that pretty much accounts for most of them that we're made.

Even though ANY green Hamer usually goes to the top of my list...THIS one is AMAZING! Congrats. Glad to see some of the best stuff ever still coming out, despite the situation in-house. We can only hope someone starts making a $99 Guild copy that is better than the real thing, so FMIC puts Hamer back on active duty.

Add in Rockpile/Dave Edmonds/Nick Lowe stuff. Along with Cheap Trick, I'd also count in some of Tom Petty's singles as almost pop. Badfinger. Lovin' Spoonful...always thought Zal Yanovsky's parts were often quite good.)

If I sign and only buy basses, do I win?

Thanks Has any guitar manufacturer ever brought over Korean, Chinese, Mexican, Eastern European builders and had them work in a U.S. shop....to lower costs and still claim "Made in USA"?? That would be one way to make U.S. models at a entry-to-medium level price to compete...and then use the killer longtime U.S. guys as the "Custom Shop."

It's sad that FMIC didn't at least give a final gasp and say something like "no more orders after Dec 31," to let dealers/buyers get in under the closing gate. So now Fender has nailed the coffin lids on the two brands that I owned the most of over the years...Hamer and SUNN. It's a sad day but I guess better than FMIC having turned all Hamers into non-US made crap and slapping a Fender-ish logo on them to put them in Walmarts and Best Buys. We can only hope they simply mothball the brand and keep all the builders busy building Guilds, etc. until the economy recovers and then bring Hamer out of a hiatus. I personally believe Hamer's value to FMIC is that it is a way for Fender to make Gibson-ish guitars without being sued by Gibson. If FMIC ever decided on a clever way to market that, especially while Gibson is also presently hurting finacially, it could pull from Gibson's market share. Rather ironic how the timing of the release of the long hoped for Hamer Guitar book will work out as a eulogy.

Cut a raw apple in half and put it in the case for a couple of days....absobs the smell.

I have to agree with GMan's initial reply to the thread.... Message In A Bottle and Walking On The Moon for a live stadium setting. I saw Paul Reed Smith's band do a smokin' cover of Message In A Bottle in Germany in the 90s, as an encore. They had an amazing drummer for that show who later played with Danny Gatton. One of the best drum solos I have ever heard...and I HATE drum solos.

RIP. That first Montrose album was killer....and still the only thing I ever liked that Hagar did.

This setneck Chaparral with Sustainiac, offset dots on ebony, matching reverse headstock, some custom contouring and solid flame body. Photo below. This boomer'd, black & white pearl Scepter with white/gold hardware and custom factory PUPs that was apparently spiffy enough for Paul Hamer to sign under the clear in the trem cavity. Ronni's snakeskin Chaparral...setneck with matching headstock, OBLs and the only Hamer made with factory Jackson sharkfins on ebony. My fave. Also pictured is the matching 7-string/octave doubleneck of mine she borrowed.

"Damn girlfriend...must be dangling that voodoo doll she made of me over the candle again, chanting "lier, lier..pants on fire!"

Yeah....and I know where it is and have been in contact with the guy. Martin told me he finally sold it because the neck went bad.

1) Entwistle's former Standard Quad 12 2) Martin Turner's former Standard Bass 3) Ronni's missing Snakeskin Chap w/the sharkfin inlays 4) Pete Farndon's former pink B8S 5) Custom order 8-string

One of my old guitarists I played with for a couple of years, Rick Tedesco, owns Ronson's old Les Paul. He's been playing guitar with Dennis Dunaway (orig Alice Cooper bassist) for the last few years.

We buried her yesterday....tough day. I found it ironic that, after how hard she tried to get away from the two bedroom house she grew up in with seven kids, her mom and dad and gram all crammed in there....that she was buried just down the street from it. Despite all the traveling across the U.S. and Europe, she ended up back in the same spot. The flower shop I bought my arrangement at was four doors from that house. She hadn't even lived in that town for 30+ years. Strage how life works out. I hope she's at peace, She actually got buried with a can of FingerEase and her jazz pick in her hand....two things she never played without.

Man, hard to watch the "Thank you. Goodnight" at the end of this. That was her band we stole her out of in the 80s, right around the time Mike Varney had written her up in Guitar Player Magazne. There was a video on YouTube of the song by Toys with her, that is also on the last HFC compilation but can't find it. Not really appropriate anyway at the moment due to the title. Thanks for all the wishes guys. Sadly, her daughter is next of kin and she's flying back from a DJ gig in Argentina she was doing, to claim the body, etc. Tough start to 2012 http://www.myspace.com/ronnicrooks

I woke up to an email that my former longtime guitarist/GF, Ronni Crooks, died last night at a New Year's party jam. Reportedly laid down on a couch to take a nap after jamming with old bandmates and celebrating a bit too much. They said she was snoring when they last checked on her and then was dead next they looked. Sad. Not an unkind bone in her body. We lived together for 15+ years until the mid-2000s and had played together even longer. Truly a hell of a musical genius but she had her demons and thought she was immortal. She'd been dead a few times but always revived...even when she'd been run over by an off-duty NYC cop around 2000 and in a coma she came back to play after a year of recovery. We'd toured tgether and she'd played at many NAMM shows as an endorser for companies such as Steinberger, Vigier, Crate, Gibson and Brian Moore. Over the years I'd take calls at the house from people like Alphonso Johnson, Michael Schenker and Janet/Michael Jackson's manager, all asking her to play but she was the most humble, down to earth girl you'd ever meet. She had been a protege of guitarist Billy Bauer when she was still in her teens and was a hell of a jazz and funk player, in addition to the rock stuff she mainly played at shows. I'd just heard from her two days ago and she was stoked about playing with some old bandmates for New Years. I'm going to miss her. She knew me better than anyone. I still have a lot of her stuff at my house. At least she went out doing what she loved most, playing. Pictured with her Hamer in the mid-90s.