Teh

Nice to meet you Mtn Cub - Best of luck on your quest to find the Newport of your dreams!

Yikes! Cracked the top too?!? Oh, that sucks! On the good side, it looks like it pulled away cleanly. Should be a fairly straightforward repair - cleat the top crack , and install that moustache bridge you've always dreamed of!

Looking inside the access door, you can see the little bump on the sidewall (Tailpiece support?) and the carved area on the Mahogany back. Removing the bridge pickup, you see the carved block just inside well in line to support the bridge and, assuming here, the tailpiece. The block is definitely there as shown in your pics. Whether it's the solid or carved out version, I can't say. Perhaps one of the old team can pipe in on this one. 🙂

Alrighty, here's a quick rundown on this beauty - 18 years old as of last week! Measurements: Nut width is confirmed at 1.675". Neck depth at 1st fret - 0.875". Neck depth at 12th fret - 0.899". I guess I would call the neck profile a flat 'D' shape. Measured fretboard radius looks to be 14". Not chunky like my 50's LP, but comfortable to play and easy to get around. Body construction: Carved solid Mahogany back with 2 piece solid carved quilted Maple top, Jazzburst finish. Mahogany neck. Ebony fretboard with single Victory chevron at 12th fret. Bone nut. Quilted Maple headstock veneer with pearl logo. Italian Ivoroid binding with BWB purfling outline the body, fretboard and headstock. Ivoroid binding only on F holes Hardware: Seymour Duncan 'Seth Lover' pickups neck & bridge. TonePros bridge and tailpiece. Schaller Imperial tuning machines. Original hardshell case. 'Extras': This guitar was the grand prize for a contest sponsored by a teaching website, workshoplive.com, that I was lucky enough to win in early 2006. I could pick any guitar in the Hamer line up and work with Jol to customize as I desired. That brought about the specs above. I also flew out to New Hartford for a tour of the facilities and receive the guitar from Jol, Frank, and the entire crew. very cool experience! To sweeten the pot, Jol and team added a couple nice extras to the guitar to make it unique. Those extras included: Pickup coil split via push/pull tone pot. Back has full body carve like the front (Newports traditionally have a flat back). Another nice plus is the electronics access door in the back with matching Mahogany cover plate (see pics). I've never needed to use it as everything inside is original and untouched, but it is a cool conversation piece, nonetheless. The only change are the control knobs. The tone knob was starting to crack, so I replaced both of them with PRS lampshade knobs. The originals are in the case. Here are a few more pics of the details. It's really a killer instrument that can go from George Benson to George Lynch with no problem.

That carve looks correct, Ben - Thanks for the pics. I'll take some detailed pics of the other details this evening and get them posted.

I'm not looking to move it but could be convinced at the right price. 2006 Newport Pro, custom built to my specs with some very special 'stuff' added by Jol & team. Was the centerfold in the last Hamer catalog (2006). It is a 60's carve neck but plays very comfortably. Seth Lovers with coil split via push/pull tone pot. Here's a quick pic. Can get you more if interested.

Own it. Love it.

Feeling like a little tele twang today. Went for Brad Paisley's "Play"...

My gawd, there's some beautiful instruments on these pages. I'm sorry that this body style is not my cup of tea, but there's no doubt the craftsmanship on these guitars is incredible. I can't wait to hear that Mike is offering something in a semi hollow or single cutaway design - I'll be all over that like white on rice...

A set of Fender CS '69 Strat p'ups, a book on the history of Gibson Lap Steel guitars (I didn't know Gibson even made lap steels), and a Squier CV Thinline Tele that I drunk bid on last Saturday night and ended up winning on Monday (surprisingly good sounding and playable for the price).

I get where you're coming from on this. That's my attitude on acoustic guitars, as that's where I spend 85% of my time performing live - on acoustic. My Newport falls into this category too. I think I get as much enjoyment - if not more - out of the physical act of digging into an electric's guts, learning what makes it good/bad. Learning the different wiring options; why a 0.047uF cap is better than a 0.022uF cap; how noiseless single coils perform against standard models and what impact vertical position has on the tone; is there a real difference between solid core wire and stranded wire, etc. All that minutiae that most people really don't give a rat's ass about. I also love setting up the same instruments, getting intonation and action set as close to perfect as possible - Anything I can shove a screwdriver or allen wrench into. At the end of the day, if I screw it up completely I'd rather do it on a guitar that wouldn't break my heart if I have to gut it and start over or completely scrap altogether. It's a learning process, a stress release and a lot of fun. The beauty of a manufactured guitar (a'la Fender) as compared to a crafted guitar (a'la Hamer) is the manufactured guitar is designed for ease of assembly. That means it's also designed for ease of dis-assembly. By effectively reverse engineering and experimenting, I feel like I'm gaining a better understanding of the instrument. my ultimate goal - once life settles down and the kids are gone - is to try my hand at building acoustic guitars. The plan is to start with a kit or two (Stew-Mac or Martin both make nice ones). That will probably scratch the building itch fine. If it doesn't, then there are seminars to attend and enough room in the basement to start a small workshop to try building from scratch. There are no delusions of becoming the next Bob Taylor - I just hate watching TV, so I need something else to fill time...

I enjoy the process of finding budget guitars that have good bones then giving them a facelift in the electronics department. A standard upgrade on all changes below is new electronic hardware -- Pots, switches, jack, and wiring. Quality does make a difference... . IMO, Strats were designed for pickup experimentation. I have a half dozen pickguards in the parts closet in various stages of disassembly. Tried Lace Hot Golds with and without the Clapton mid-boost and TBX set up. Briefly had a Fishman X-Bridge acoustic set up (sounded like crap to my ear - very short lived). Did Tex-Mex too (too brash). My current set up is 57/62's on a Maple fretboard MIM (love these!) and SCN's on a Maple fretboard American Standard. I like the SCNs okay, but am itching for something different, so the plan is to swap these with the CS 1969's before the end of the year. I picked up a great playing Squier Tele last year cheap, and immediately swapped out the lousy standard issue electronics for SD Tele classics. Major difference. Picked up a new Epi Les Paul Standard Pro II a couple years back. While the standard issue pickups were an improvement from their previously standard mud buckets of years past, I really like the transformation that happened with the oft-used Duncan JB/Jazz combination. This one got the addiitional benefit of the Jimmy Page wiring for coil split and phase reverse via pull-pots. The most recent project was a Washburn J9 thin hollowbody with a 16 inch lower bout and Bigsby. A Gretsch County Gentleman knock off. I wanted to go with Filtertrons, but it would have cost more than I paid for the guitar. So, instead I went with GFS clones -- Liverpool in the neck and Memphis at the bridge. Though not as twangy as the real Filtertrons, I'm happy with the result. I also learned that rewiring the hardware in a hollowbody without an access door is a real PITA. Don't want to do that again any time soon. Frankly, the only electrics in the herd that haven't been modified are my Newport with Seths (Why mess with perfection?) and a Taylor T5. The T5 did get new Gotoh 510z tuning machines (21:1 ratio -- Smooooth...). I did the same for my acoustics -- they make a big difference in tuning accuracy. At the end of the day, all of these cheap guitars & changes cost less than a single new LP. Lots of "new" tone and keeps me out of trouble with the wife.

Playing acoustics with .13's all the time make electrics with .09's unplayable for me. I like '11's just fine but, to paraphrase Mark Knopfler, I'm "Strictly rhythm - I don't want to make it cry or sing"...

I use 0000 steel wool on the fretboard -- cleans up the gunk and puts a shine on the frets. Go with the grain. A little credit card action right at the frets to scrape up the crap right at the frets. A little lemon oil or mineral oil on a rag to clean up residue and give the fretboard a fresh look. Don't drown the board in oil -- A little goes a long way. As for polish, I use Virtuoso polish on the lacquer finished ones, and Turtle Wax Express Shine on the UV cured poly finish. Never use Pledge or other polishes with silicone as it will cause problems if you need to do finish repairs.

It's a toss up between these two for most expensive. This one from 2011 -- Or this one from 2006 -- Both sound incredible...

Sweet! My Newport is quilted & Ebony. Love it!

Simply incredible... Have fun with Jon -- Tell him you did it using only a pocket knife and a subway token...

Very cool, indeed. Congrats to the winners!

A couple leather guitar straps and a gear bag. It was laid back year gift wise, and it didn't bother anyone...

I had a QSR rack unit about 15 years ago. From what I remember, the piano and strings were good to excellent quality and some interesting synth patches. The QS6.1 is essentially the QSR with a 60 key keyboard, so the tones are going to be 15+ years old in style and resolution. IMO, if you're trading off something that's not being used or you don't really care about, then give it a shot. If you're looking at getting great quality piano, strings & organ patches for recording, then I would look at acquiring a decent MIDI controller keyboard and making the investment in soft synths. Extremely high quality samples of actual instruments recording with a variety of dynamics, so the patch responds more like a real instrument. Pretty reasonably priced too.

I agree and disagree with you on this one, Willie. I agree that the guitar synth really detracts from what could be great music. 'Offramp' needs to be listened to with a remote control. There is some brilliant material (Au Lait, Eighteen, James). Frankly, I love "Are You Going With Me" until the git synth 'climax'. As for 'First Circle', I skip "Forward March" entirely and consider the "Yolanda You Learn" to be the first track on the album. "First Circle" is a brilliant piece of music -- Dynamic, musically interesting, emotional. Much the same as the tribute to Bill Evans, "September Fifteenth" from 'As Falls Wichita...' There is one song that he recorded that comes to mind where the guitar synth fits into the structure and the power of the piece perfectly. Check out "The Heat of the Day" off the album, 'Imaginary Day'. To be honest, I think 'Imaginary Day' was the last PMG album where every piece was listenable and enjoyable. After that, it was readily apparent that they were just going through the motions. Formulaic, boring music with uninspired solos. Listenable, but boring. I guess he thought so too, as he hasn't done anything with Lyle or the full PMG band since that truly exemplary pile of doggy doo-doo, "The Way Up" in 2005. He's still making great guitar music, though. Trio projects are all top shelf music, as are the two albums he did with Brad Mehldau. The Unity Band project is outstanding jazz, and the two solo acoustic albums aren't bad either (there are a lot of other solo acoustic players that are much better, though). IMO, the "Orchestrion" project is a little self serving and indulgent for my taste but it would be cool to see performed live.

Can't do it. Just picked up a Taylor Fall Limited 12 Fret, and it's sweet. But a new guitar means an old one will get neglected, so the old one will be moved. But you can't leave cash from the sale of a guitar in the account, for the wife will take it and spend it on rational things (Food, clothes, etc...) and then you will have no money when the guitar you want comes along. So, it has to be an immediate "Move the old one out, bring the new one in" scenario in order to preserve the collection's net worth. That's why I can't do it...

Great names have come and gone throughout our lives, and will continue to do so long after we're gone. The best we can do is relish the memory, and appreciate & enjoy the legacy. With my Newport in hand, knowing that it was featured as the prime example of the model in the last Hamer catalog published, will be a memory that I will love until the day they close the lid on my life. Here's to all the guys I had the opportunity to meet when I had the chance to visit NH. A nicer gang of artisans you'll never meet. Thanks for the memories...

Amp modeling has gotten pretty darned good lately. I picked up a Zoom G3 for clean effects on my acoustic rig and was blown away by the quality of the Fender and Marshall amp models. Nice set up, bright displays and very reasonably priced ($169 street). Btw, the other effects in the box are pretty darned good as well. Not quite as feature rich as my Boss GT-10, but to be fair I don't use 85% of the features available on that board. Here's a link: http://www.zoom.co.jp/products/g3

Drachen Theaker None other than the incomparable Carl Palmer...