Guitariversary: Forty Years (A Love Story)

[Dana_V]

One day in October of 1984, while living in Houston, Texas, my friend/bandmate Kato called and said he was going to look at some speakers for his bass amp and asked if I would like to come along. I said sure. We went to Musician’s Shop, a small music store in a strip center on Bissonnet Street in nearby Bellaire. While he was engrossed in conversation about speakers with one of the sales staff, I wandered over to the guitar area.

By this time I already had two Hamers: a 1978 Sunburst, purchased used from Lake Charles Music (Lake Charles, Louisiana) in 1982, and a new Blitz, special ordered through Evans Music City in Houston in 1983. But I was always on the lookout for another.

There, on the left-hand side of the store on a floor-level rack, was a black Hamer Special. It was new – it still had the Hamer hang-tag attached – but it looked like it had been there for a while. The finish was smudged with fingerprints, it was out of tune and was missing a string. The hand-printed price tag read $820.00.

I put my left hand around the neck and knew it instantly: I had found The One.

It if was a movie, blue lightning effects would have been added in post-production to indicate the “electric” connection between the guitar and me.

For many guitarists – including me – the shape and feel of a guitar’s neck is of utmost importance. I like them on the thinner side, while some players prefer the opposite; it’s a matter of personal preference. But this neck was perfect. (Many years later, when Mike Shishkov was building a guitar made to my specs, I sent him measurements of Blackie’s neck for reference.)

I didn’t say anything to the Musician’s Shop employees, but after Kato dropped me off at home I gathered some cash I had squirreled away for just such an occasion and drove back to the store. I got the attention of the guy behind the counter and said, “I’m kinda interested in that black Hamer, but $820 seems a little high. Anything you can do?”

“Hmm,” he said, and poked at his desk calculator. “How about $775?”

“I don’t know,” I said, “that still seems like a little too much.”

“All right, lemme see what I can do,” he said, and in a classic used-car-salesman move disappeared into the back of the store.

After several long minutes, he came back. “Okay. I can do $725.”

I’ve never been much of a negotiator. I don’t like “haggling” and have always hated the ridiculous cat-and-mouse game traditionally associated with buying a car. So I don’t know what came over me in that moment, but suddenly I was bursting at the seams with a buyer’s confidence I’ve never experienced before or since. Maybe it was because I knew, without a doubt, that that guitar and I were destined to be together.

Ignoring his $725 offer, I calmly said, “How about this: I give you THIS” – I pulled $600 cash out of my pocket and laid it on the counter – “and you give me the guitar?”

He hesitated for a beat and then said, “I’ll go get the case.”

Beneath my calm exterior, I was ecstatic.

He was gone for a long time. While I waited, I browsed some guitar straps on display near the front of the store and selected a blue nylon one. (I always liked the color combination of black and blue.)

He finally returned and said, somewhat sheepishly, “We couldn’t find the case. I’ll make it $525 and you can have this one” – a generic rectangular one-size-sort-of-fits-all guitar case.

“Works for me,” I said. “Oh, and I’m taking this strap too.”

He glanced up briefly from writing up the sale and said, “Yeah, that’s fine.”

And that’s the story of how I got Blackie.

For many years I assumed it was a 1984. But, later, when I learned more about Hamer history and how to read their serial numbers, I realized it was a 1981 – which explains why it was so dirty and the case was nowhere to be found. It sat there in the store for three years, waiting for me to come in and rescue it.

It’s been my constant companion ever since. It went with me every day to GIT when I was going to school there – and it became part of my identity. (At Musician’s Institute in the 1980s, where guitar nerdiness was elevated to extreme levels, people were often identified by the guitar they played: the guy that plays the red Ibanez RG, etc. I was The Guy That Plays the Black Hamer.)

I’ve always been careful with all my guitars, but any instrument that gets as much use as this one is going to end up with some battle scars, and Blackie has plenty. Like where the finish has been worn off where my right forearm contacts the body, or chips in the paint where it got hit by a falling cymbal stand. One night in 2007 during a Rhythm Dawgs gig, the stitching on that blue nylon strap – the one I got from Musician’s Shop all those years ago – came unraveled and the guitar went crashing down onto my pedalboard. The impact knocked several chunks of paint off the lower edge of the body and put a huge gouge in the neck between the nut and high-E tuner. But thanks to rock-solid Hamer craftsmanship, nothing broke.

As my guitar collection has grown over the years it doesn’t get quite as much playing time as it used to, but I know it’s always there for me. It always gets played at gigs, even if for only one song. I’ve changed the bridge pickup a few times – Duncan Distortion, Duncan JB, DiMarzio PAF 36th Anniversary – but a couple of years ago I came across the original in a box of old stuff, so if I ever decide to put it back in I can.

A while back longtime Dawgs/SUIT drummer Bill Asa asked me, “When was the last time you did a gig without that guitar?”

My answer?

“Before I got it.”

1990:

 

2023:

 

 

 

Edited October 30, 2024 by Dana_V

[RobB]

Cool story! Thanks for sharing. 

[kizanski]

Sorry, I read "my bandmate, Kato," and this is all I could think of.

[bry4321]

3 hours ago, RobB said:

Cool story! Thanks for sharing. 

Yeah that’s awesome!

[BTMN]

Yeah man. 😎👍🏁❤️

[hamerhead]

Great guitar! I love that it's earned every bump, bruise and scar the honest, old-fashioned way. Fuck yeah! Congrats on finding the one. You're a lucky man!

[gorch]

Very nice story! Your hat fits nicely.

[Montelovesco]

As I wrote on FB: A great story, thanks for sharing. And I guess we all made the „this is home“-experience with an Hamer once or twice (or nearly always, in my case)… 😁