Hamer Guitars was an American manufacturer of electric guitars founded in 1973, in Arlington Heights Illinois by vintage guitar shop owners Paul Hamer, Jol Dantzig and John Montgomery. The company's early instruments featured guitar designs based on the Gibson Explorer (The Standard) and Gibson Flying V (Vector), before adding more traditional Gibson-inspired designs such as the Sunburst. Hamer Guitars is generally considered the first 'boutique' electric guitar brand that specifically catered to professional musicians, and was one of the first guitar maufacturers to produce a 12 string bass guitar. The company was incorporated in Illinois in 1976 by Montgomery, Dantzig, James Walker and Hamer. It was acquired by Kaman Music Corporation in 1988, which was purchased in turn by Fender Musical Instruments Corporation in 2008.

The Hamer Archtop The Sunburst SATF-TBK is based on the Hamer Studio body, the third classic Hamer design introduced in 1977. Upgraded with a solid Maple top on Mahogany body, the tone is beefy yet focused and a Transparent Black on figured Maple veneer results in a visually inspiring instrument.

Hamer offered a wide array of electric guitars and electric basses, and, since its foundation placed an emphasis on producing high-quality instruments with vintage aesthetics as well as creative innovations. Kaman marketed a lower-priced line of Asian-built instruments called the Hamer XT Series and Slammer by Hamer, which was discontinued in 2009.

In February 2013 Fender announced that the Hamer brand was being discontinued after 40 years of production (Source: Wikipedia).

Ok, I remember seeing these at my local Sam Ash a couple years ago. Import Hamers, seemed to be great values.

I remember seeing one in a purple burst that looked really cool to me. I looked on eBay and Guitar Center's used site, with no luck.

I had trouble even finding a google image of one, but it looked something like this, but right-handed: Sorry the pic is so small, but it's all I could find. Has anyone else seen one of these?

I wish I had bought it when I saw it - it was less than $300, IIRC. Great guitar, great sound even with just Duncan Design pickups. Not the equal of a Hamer USA Studio, but close enough that I felt it made better financial sense to keep it with its $200 price than the $800+ for a Studio. (4x the price for maybe 30% better sound). Despite being an import, it has an AWESOME flametop. Hall and oates our kind of soul rar download free software.

Feel was identical. If anything, my SATF was less neck heavy than the Studios and Specials that passed through my hands as I worked out my guitar stable preferences.

There are still plenty of these via eBay. General consensus in the Hamer import fan crowd is that that imports got worse with each generation. So the best is any Studio/SATF you can find that has 'Hamer' in big letters with 'slammer series' in small letters under that. 2nd best, and very close in quality are the ones that just say 'Hamer' in big letters, nothing else, no USA or anything. These two generations were both made in Korea. 3rd best would be the current Hamer XT series SATFs.

They will have Hamer in big letters, XT or XT Series in little letters by the base of the R, and SATF or SATQ on the truss rod cover. But in my opinion, then SATQs are a little overdone/gaudy. They have nice quilting, but the abalone binding around the body AND the fretboard edge is just too much.

The XTs are made in China, btw, but still seem very, very good. My SATF is an XT series, and as I indicated, I preferred it for the price:quality ratio than a Studio. Same with my 2nd generation Korean import Hamer Stellar 1. I won't seek out any new import Hamers.the USAs are better, and fill out a collection better than the imports. But the imports are credible rockers for when you need decent sound, look, and playability but also need to not worry about it getting trashed.

Axes:Jon Kammerer: Hollow Body; Scorpius: Maple 3SC, Walnut, Cored, Desert Tan; Leo: CherrywoodHamer: 2x USA Centaura, USA Chap 12-string, USA Cali (Nugent signed), XT SATF, Stellar 1, import Daytona (x2)Westone:Corsair GT, Pantera X390 (x2) Pantera X300 (x2), Challenger (x3), Villain Std, Spectrum II, DimensionPeavey Vandy, Parker Nitefly, Cort Garage2, Vantage X-77, Enrique Imperator, Steinberger ZT3Alvarez Dana Scoop Graphite, Dana II, Dana Custom, AES 100 GraphiteYamaha SSC 500; RGX 1212, RGX 420Sd6; PAC1221, PAC812S; RGZ 211M. Axes:Jon Kammerer: Hollow Body; Scorpius: Maple 3SC, Walnut, Cored, Desert Tan; Leo: CherrywoodHamer: 2x USA Centaura, USA Chap 12-string, USA Cali (Nugent signed), XT SATF, Stellar 1, import Daytona (x2)Westone:Corsair GT, Pantera X390 (x2) Pantera X300 (x2), Challenger (x3), Villain Std, Spectrum II, DimensionPeavey Vandy, Parker Nitefly, Cort Garage2, Vantage X-77, Enrique Imperator, Steinberger ZT3Alvarez Dana Scoop Graphite, Dana II, Dana Custom, AES 100 GraphiteYamaha SSC 500; RGX 1212, RGX 420Sd6; PAC1221, PAC812S; RGZ 211M. Axes:Jon Kammerer: Hollow Body; Scorpius: Maple 3SC, Walnut, Cored, Desert Tan; Leo: CherrywoodHamer: 2x USA Centaura, USA Chap 12-string, USA Cali (Nugent signed), XT SATF, Stellar 1, import Daytona (x2)Westone:Corsair GT, Pantera X390 (x2) Pantera X300 (x2), Challenger (x3), Villain Std, Spectrum II, DimensionPeavey Vandy, Parker Nitefly, Cort Garage2, Vantage X-77, Enrique Imperator, Steinberger ZT3Alvarez Dana Scoop Graphite, Dana II, Dana Custom, AES 100 GraphiteYamaha SSC 500; RGX 1212, RGX 420Sd6; PAC1221, PAC812S; RGZ 211M. Axes:Jon Kammerer: Hollow Body; Scorpius: Maple 3SC, Walnut, Cored, Desert Tan; Leo: CherrywoodHamer: 2x USA Centaura, USA Chap 12-string, USA Cali (Nugent signed), XT SATF, Stellar 1, import Daytona (x2)Westone:Corsair GT, Pantera X390 (x2) Pantera X300 (x2), Challenger (x3), Villain Std, Spectrum II, DimensionPeavey Vandy, Parker Nitefly, Cort Garage2, Vantage X-77, Enrique Imperator, Steinberger ZT3Alvarez Dana Scoop Graphite, Dana II, Dana Custom, AES 100 GraphiteYamaha SSC 500; RGX 1212, RGX 420Sd6; PAC1221, PAC812S; RGZ 211M. Axes:Jon Kammerer: Hollow Body; Scorpius: Maple 3SC, Walnut, Cored, Desert Tan; Leo: CherrywoodHamer: 2x USA Centaura, USA Chap 12-string, USA Cali (Nugent signed), XT SATF, Stellar 1, import Daytona (x2)Westone:Corsair GT, Pantera X390 (x2) Pantera X300 (x2), Challenger (x3), Villain Std, Spectrum II, DimensionPeavey Vandy, Parker Nitefly, Cort Garage2, Vantage X-77, Enrique Imperator, Steinberger ZT3Alvarez Dana Scoop Graphite, Dana II, Dana Custom, AES 100 GraphiteYamaha SSC 500; RGX 1212, RGX 420Sd6; PAC1221, PAC812S; RGZ 211M. Wow, my first day signing in in ages, and I see a notification for this old thread.