real or fake

Y

Yeahmann

New member
i bought this 10-15 years ago from a guy in Pensylvania, Harrisburg i think who worked at a music store.  got it through eBay. . . . .  he swears it was 100 percent.  requesting opinions from the experts out there. I am considering selling it and wonder about the value and am concerned further that i don't misrepresent.  i would rather eat the loss than pass on a fake unless fully disclosed and sell it as a copy that looks great and plays pretty well but not a genuine made in use hamer.  i have several others and it feels pretty good but not quite the same however this is in new or mint condition and the others are well played.  hope this is ok to post and interesting conversation for the group. 

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Hi it's seems to be  a nice california elite model , boomers and an ebony fingerboard are the trademark of this!

EMG may be not instock so Hamer use to mounted SEYMOUR DUNCAN TRU BUCKER PARALLEL AXIS pickups...

maybe a custom order idem for the gold hardware in black generally

Nice Guitar

 
The pictures are too small, hard to see the details. But from the first look - serial shows 88? But the logo is from 94-95. So that's a wrong logo for 88 Californian. You better post bigger pics  - Floyd with cavity, scallops  on the body, upper horn  strap area, headstock frontal shot  etc.

 
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(I have an 88 Cali with the smaller logo - its noteworthy but probably not an indicator of authenticity).

 
To your question - it's definitely not FAKE, but I'm not sure if it's 100% original (could be?).  Tough to tell from the small pics, but agreed that the logo is an odd size for an '88 Californian.  Also, the trail of the "R" should extend into the contrasting bevel as below in most cases:

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cmatthes said:
  Also, the trail of the "R" should extend into the contrasting bevel as below in most cases:
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Absolutely. that's what a large logo is associated with on Cali's, or Chaps, or other shredders with black HS.

  Not saying it's fake right off the bat, but most likely headstock was re-done with wrong sized logo. Again, the pic is too small, but it looks like the black paint goes way below the bevel line( compare with above pic)  and there always should be a corner of black paint at the tip, no smooth rounded lines ( seen on the pic above) ( actually I've seen rounded black tip too, not that often tho)

 
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Don't see Cali's with tone post in that era.  The Cali Deluxe came along in the early 90's had Vol , tone, & EMG but those models only had two Boomers & off sets dots elsewhere. (Cali deluxe also had Alder bodies)

BTW The guitar looks legit

 
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Regarding the model, need to know what's the body wood ( can not tell from the pic if paint is trans or solid). If it's alder, than the PU's are original to the guitar, as alder was used for Deluxe model with EMGs, but in this case there is a possibility of neck swap, as Deluxe has only 2 boomers. If the body is mahogany, then it could've been ordered this way with 2 pots ( seen that before). Quick look inside the control cavity will tell you if the soldering is original. 

 
Mahogany body from what I could see, nicely done shielding paint, but not factory, so I'm guessing  EMGs installed are aftermarket, additional hole for the tone and shielding paint to make it look nice. Newer tremolo. Not saying that it's bad or anything, but it does affect the price. To me major issue is the headstock. Nice guitar anyway.

 
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JustKid said:
Mahogany body from what I could see, nicely done shielding paint, but not factory, so I'm guessing  EMGs installed are aftermarket, additional hole for the tone and shielding paint to make it look nice. Newer tremolo. Not that it's bad or anything. To me major issue is the headstock. Nice guitar anyway.
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My guess?

Maybe it's an '88 Cali that was sent back to the factory in the mid-90s for a refin, and possibly at that time, the EMGs/mods were done and the headstock refinished/relogoed.  The shielding paint in the cavity is more in line with a later era, when they used either a gray or pinkish colored, nickel-based shielding paint.  Before that, it was typically the stock finish overspray in the cavity and a shielding plate.  

 
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cmatthes said:
My guess?

Maybe it's an '88 Cali that was sent back to the factory in the mid-90s for a refin, and possibly at that time, the EMGs/mods were done.  The shielding paint in the cavity is more in line with a later era, when they used either a gray or pinkish colored, nickel-based shielding paint.  Before that, it was typically the stock finish overspray in the cavity and a shielding plate.  
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Could be. 

But the headstock paint...I'd understand if they didn't have large logo, but to paint it with black over the traditional shape...I'd be surprised if they did that.

 
Here’s a snap of mine / the logo does drop the curly bit of the R over the bevel - hope that helps.

BTW I prefer stadium logos too!

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I had a seafoam green 1988 Chaparral (standard) that had the smaller Hamer logo too.  It's certainly not the norm, but over the years of watching for sale threads I have seen a handful of other 1988's with the smaller "non-stadium" logo.  The pictures seem to show a dead center positioned rear strap button implying a pre-1990/1991-ish body (vs. the offset rear button found on 1990/1991 on up Californians) which would be in line with the serial number stamped into the back of the headstock, but as cmatthes already pointed out the shielding paint definitely does look like the copper colored stuff Hamer sprayed in the control cavities of mid-1994 on up models.

 
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