Toadroller

If ever, in my role, I'm brought out on stage for a presentation for my peers, I'm walking out with a wireless hookup, a Hamer Special (or the 25th Anny Artist), and playing the intro lick to "Whole Lotta Love." We had the Bear Naked Ladies for a sales meeting once in Vegas. Loads of fun.

There are very few big-time bands out there that aren't willing to play private functions. For the right price, of course. That, plus he and our CEO are buddies, apparently. That said, in recent years we've had Clapton, Van Halen, Don Henley, Bonnie Raitte/Martina McBride...

Bon Jovi's supposed to play our corporate function in June. It's a shame this wil be the first time in 6 years I've missed it. I bet there will be a gold-top Les Paul in the show. What a story. Great work!

If you're going to go out, go out with a blaze of glory. Rick Nielsen's Standards struck me as wicked-cool, even as a ten year old. Now, thanks to HamerHead, (who's been getting a lot of thanks from HFC members in recent weeks, don't you think?) I've joined the club of Standard USA ownership. 97 Mahogany. I love mahogany and its rich tones. This one is a 9.9 in my eyes. Just a bit of Hameritus but otherwise as new. Tim takes care of his stuff.

I'm out. Details soon.

Bravo.

Thanks for posting it and for the description of the picking style. I learned something and enjoyed it.

Just want to point out that Nathan, while calling attention to the headstock as a potential deal-breaker, never actually showed one.

I don't know a shredder from a Tele, but would any of the incarnations of Eddie's vision fit the bill? USA Peavey Wolfgangs can be found with Floyd and D-tuna at good prices. When I feel like cranking the distortion, I pull mine out. Great necks.

So, about 10" yesterday, cleaned up nicely, and expected 6-8 tonight. Snow-blower running like a top. I won't see the asphalt until early march, but can get teh cars up and out. Quattro FTW!

I've got my boy Luke out there with the snow-blower right now. He's wearing a full-face motorcycle helmet as he can't find the ski-goggles.

Gahjis. Nice photography.

I would be hard-pressed to say no to this. Agreed. But. If you make it will they come? You gotta keep in mind the marketplace. Buyer One. The Young Guy Who's into A7x. He wants something with HSS pickup configuration, locking term, pointy shape. His budget is low, say $750 tops. He will buy at GC until they go out of business, then he'll order from Sweetwater. NOPE, NOT YOUR MARKET Buyer Two. The Young Hipster. Plays in a band doing fuzzed-out covers of 70s video game themes with a cute girl who plays a vintage synth and two recent Haitian immigrants who dance in a pantomime horse costume. Wants a beat-up Jazzmaster with the bridge pickup missing, covered in Chiquite banana stickers. NOPE, NOT YOUR MARKET Buyer Three. The Midlife Achiever. He played in a band for two years in college, his daughter is filling our applications for UMass and Dartmouth, and he's finally going to treat himself and learn how to play. The Marshall combo is the back of the Range Rover and now he wants that ['burst LP Standard/Gilmour Strat/PRS ten-top/White Falon] and by Gawd he's gonna get it. NOPE Then there are other buyers : the cover band guy working five nights a week who has a Strat and a PRS, the ponytailed blues dude with his Muddy Waters Tele, the stoner rockers who shop at the indie guitar shop might be a market but they're broke, etc. I think that a no-frills US-made solid body guitar is what we at the HFC want. I'm unsure if it is meeting an unmet demand in the real world, though. For most people, one of the cheaper Gibsons already fills that bill and they are not gonna really care if you tell then your guitar is superior to that sub $1000 Gibson with matte finish, cheap hardware and mediocre playability. And I bought a Mexican Telecaster last year than kicks ass for $500. Old people with disposable income want a blingy luxury guitar (if they want a guitar at all, which is another question) while young ones will want something Sam Totman would play or that Jack White would play. And HFCers will go on an on about how they'll buy a new Special, right up to the point where they have to pay for it, then will continue to come on here to brag about the Studio they snagged for $500 and bitch about anything over $750. But sure, I'll play. I say it has to be unlike anything out there. You MUST have a USP (unique selling proposition.) That USP must be obvious, not some abstract concept like air-dried wood that only a few geeks will get. And it must be affordably manufactured and must be promoted and distributed effectively, even if you're just making a hundred ever. You need to build on your existing strengths and facilities. So... Yeah, a Special. SUSTAINBLOCK. No one else does it, and this is a tie back to the brand's (well, A brand's) roots. Not the usual Duncan JB/59 shit. I'd put in Dimarzio PAFs to continue that "our roots" thing and stay affordable. Shlobotnock Unobtanium Handwounds will make the price too high. Handful of finishes, none of which are immediately Gibson-esque. Have each guitar SIGNED on back of headstock with the serial number. This is important. People cream themselves the moment anything is "exclusive." In fact, I think this is the single most vital part of getting people to pony up cash for any "luxury" (non food and shelter) purchase: appealing to their little demon of avarice and pride about owning something worth coveting No freaking options. You buy it or you don't. The moment you start offering options, your cost of manufacture starts creeping and suddenly you're selling $5000 Hamers again. Suggestion for a unique touch which MIGHT give you an advantage over used Hamers and the tight wallets of the HFC. If you stuck a proper Standard headstock on a working-man's Special, every last one of us would buy it, PLUS it would look unique in a store. Just sayin'. $1500 out the door. If you're gonna just make a dozen for buddies and HFC types, build whatever. But I get the idea you're kinda wondering about a real business. Maybe with someone named Paul lending an endorsement, even if his name on the guitars would be prohibitively expensive. </soapbox> I'd add that the ease of sharing and community that the internet brings can be part of a Unique Selling Prop. Imagine: Production images shared along the way A blog about a limited edition run Last-batch/special-batch Hamer for exclusivity Being able to tag and follow your own guitar through and beyond production (blog through ownership) Leveraging the Paul Hamer name, Call it a PHamer? Working Man's Guitar concept is also part of an exclusivity concept

Keeping it simple? Flat-top Sunburst/ Special Platform that can serve Gibby and Fender scales? Revive Phantom A5/A7 body... If it had a Hamer logo on it, you'd probably sell out a limited edition run, no problem (100, 250, 500?), recover costs, and maybe convince ownership there's equity. New name? Then you're looking at a marketing effort to establish a brand, which could be accomplished virally if the HFC has a magic number of 1000 active/interested fans. Seth Godin "Tribe" concept.

Only one guitar in 2013, an Epiphone Les Paul plus-top from SavetheMatches here on the board. Needed some wiring tlc, which was a bit of fun sluething. I'm pretty satisfied with my stable and have a number of imports to unload; I just never play them. I think a Newport is next. I'll probably do the Feynman- get up a $1500 stash and then cycle through better guitars until I find the one.

Banjo pic! Proof that I'm developing all of my father's mannerisms. I look at this picture and all I see is him, but with more hair for the same age. That and he doesn't play any musical instruments. Just a few days of learning some finger-picking rolls (thanks, YouTube!) translated incredibly well to the guitar, especially for fingerpicking chords on the 2-5 strings. I spent a fair amount of time learning some finger-picking on guitar this past year, and each instrument looks like it will feed the other. We'll see! My boy Henry in the background there received a fine Fender acoustic: He's come a long way in the last year, teaching himself and playing with the local youth group on the occasional weekend.

^^^^ We need to see more.

Banjo!

No thanks...

Did you sell that guitar? Was it the white Daytona?

Robin ain't 32 years old anymore.

Just occurred to me that 2013 is coming to a close and I've only added an impulse Epi LP to the stable for the year. Should there be a repeat challenge for 2014, I'd best set some plans for doing the Feynman-shuffle before the year's out. Hmm... Newport?

Where's the Ernie Ball timer gone, Mitch?

... are easy for beginners.

Dread's first two albums are in constant rotation in my music collection. Have been for twenty years. Never gets old. I've deciphered many a Zeppelin lyric thanks to Tortelvis.