Fender shuts down Hamer production! - Page 2

superflybass · #21 01-04-2013, 05:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BoomBoomOGTL

Old news. They priced themselves out of the marketplace. Hamer employees are now producing Guilds as FMC owns both brands. They were already a niche manufacturer (as of late), and then raised their prices significantly.

..and I love Hamers, I own 2 so no hatin' going on here...

Actually guild hamer and ovation USA are all made under the same roof

**BoomBoomOGTL** · #22 01-04-2013, 06:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jlepre

Oh that's right. This is old news from this morning RIGHT?

No, it's been discussed in the guitar forums for over a week now. Check TGP and LPF.

electracoyote · #23 01-04-2013, 06:40 PM

Boo! I have a couple of their six string electrics, a very innovative company that always made good looking and good playing products across all price points.

Damn! That sucks.

BawanaRik · #24 01-04-2013, 07:03 PM

I sold my Hamer simply because the neck was too narrow. It was the best built guitar. The Heritage that replace it has a birds eye top so I can pretend to have a Bigsby.

I've been looking for a (set neck) Cruise 2 TEK but either never pulled the trigger or it was sold when I noticed it.

But guitars and bass building is a business. and anything in the music business is a hard row.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Handyman

Hamer was basically the redheaded stepchild no one wanted after the Fender buyout of Kayman, and its hard to have hard feelings for FMIC about this given Hamer's long term struggles with turning a profit.

They made great, great instruments, but a business must ultimately make money. Especially after incurring significant debt during the Kayman buyout.

I, for one, will never let my Hamer go.

In a way I think its better to see the brand ended than to watch it languish like has for the past few years.

pickles · #25 01-04-2013, 08:35 PM

They were dead to me as soon as the cruise 2tek era ended. Since then it was just imports and the bizarre Monaco bass. From the mid 90s into the early 2000s they made one of the best basses you could get.

**hsech** · #26 01-04-2013, 08:56 PM

Hamer guitars were big stuff in the 80's but then came a long line of cheap import Hamers. I think they lost their quality and just can't compete.

dlenaghan · #27 01-04-2013, 08:59 PM

Ah, bummer.. I loved their style of symmetrical double cutaways for their basses..

lposavad · #28 01-04-2013, 09:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BoomBoomOGTL

No, it's been discussed in the guitar forums for over a week now. Check TGP and LPF.

This was first reported on the Hamer Fan Club website on 06 December 2012.

JoeWPgh · #29 01-04-2013, 09:10 PM

I would much rather see Fender concentrate on bring the Guilds back into existance than maintaining Hamer

Kmonk · #30 01-04-2013, 09:14 PM

No surprise.

dannster · #31 01-04-2013, 09:18 PM

The last few years I've been watching Joel build some seriously beautiful guitars. http://dantzig.com/

jlepre · #32 01-04-2013, 09:31 PM

nerds

nixdad · #33 01-05-2013, 11:42 AM

Fender purchased Kaman (pronounced Ka-man) to gain the huge catalog and distribution of music staples & accessories, as well as the American distribution of Takamine, and probably Ovation - Hamer just happened to be one of the products owned by Kaman, and I'm certain was not one the primary acquisition factors.

I don't think it's any surprise that Hamer production has now been suspended. They let master luthier Joel Dantzig go several years ago, as well as Hamer product manager Frank Rindone, and probably others (long time Takamine product manager Mike Markure was also let go sometime within the past year.)

Aside from Hamer owners, what most people do not realize is that Hamer was basically a custom shop without "custom shop" prices, especially in the early to late 90's (prices did not start escalating until the early 2000's as far as I recall.) The materials used, the craftsmanship, consistency, build quality and end result were second to none. For example, the Hamer Studio (double-cutaway guitar) had an incredible AAA-AAAA flamed maple top, 1 piece Honduras mahogany body, dove-tail neck joint, Seymour Duncan pickups and top-notch hardware, was impeccably finished and retailed for only $1,295 (thousands less than comparable Gibson's & PRS's at the time.) Nowhere else could you get an American made guitar of that quality for anywhere close to that price.

I worked for Kaman between '93 & '97 (Hamer & Trace Elliot product specialist,) and was part of the 90's Cruise Bass design team (I believe it was the first bass at the time to receive a perfect rating in Bass Player magazine.) The quality and craftsmanship of (all) basses was just a impressive. As far as I recall, the Hamer Slammer series (import models) were introduced sometime in the mid 90's, not unlike what Fender did in previously introducing Squier models to increase market share.

What I never understood while working for Kaman was why Hamer was never aggressively marketed. Although there was some great artsy-fartsy ads that Hamer had produced (ex. http://www.the2tek.com/engine/inspect.asp?Item=16), they never chose to really inform the public how good their instruments were, how good of a value they were, and how they blew away most of the competition (many of which which were riding their laurels - name brand recognition over quality) at a fraction of the cost. There were also some interesting decisions made at the time regarding endorsees, etc. We had a golden opportunity to let the world know what a gem we had, but it never happened.

Fender is a great company, but I'm sorry to hear that Hamer is done.

Rob Martinez · #34 01-05-2013, 11:50 AM

Where will Rick Nielsen get his custom guitars made now????

ggvicviper · #35 01-05-2013, 11:58 AM

I remember Andy Summers used to have a number of Hamer guitars.

Sting eventually bought an 8-string fretless explorer too. He hated it, according to someone here, and the bass ended up in a shop in Pittsburgh. He also owned a Cruise bass for a time, but that was eventually sold too. I found it once on some website of famous people's guitars.

JTE · #36 01-05-2013, 12:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BawanaRik

I've been looking for a (set neck) Cruise 2 TEK but either never pulled the trigger or it was sold when I noticed it.

A SET neck Cruise with the 2-Tek? I have NEVER heard of one. There are the original Cruise Basses with the set-necks and the P/J configuration from the '80s, and the later Jazz-styled Cruise with the dual J PUPs and a bolt-on neck which was available with either a Gotoh or a 2-Tek bridge in the late '90s.

John

D.M.N. · #37 01-05-2013, 12:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoeWPgh

I would much rather see Fender concentrate on bring the Guilds back into existance than maintaining Hamer

As much as I hate to see Hamer go, I have to agree with this.

JimmyM · #38 01-05-2013, 12:42 PM

That's a shame. Hamer was awesome in the 80's and kept somewhat awesome in the 90's, but just completely fell apart in the last decade. But oh well...it happens.

electracoyote · #39 01-05-2013, 01:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rob Martinez

Where will Rick Nielsen get his custom guitars made now????

No kidding. Some of those custom jobs have almost as much to do with Cheap Trick's success as their music.

Bassist30 · #40 01-05-2013, 01:21 PM

I had a blue 2TEK CruiseBass which I thought was made pretty good for the price. I believe I paid 600 new in 99 maybe.
I thought it sounded good to but I wanted another bass that was much more expensive and i sold it. But I thought it sounded good, but heavy. The 2tek was a good idea but maybe should had been made with lighter materials. I am sorry they are no longer making guitar/basses. I have a friend who loves there products. Has many Hammers. Made exceptional well.Probably made better than the original models from Gibson and fender. I think there advertisement dept could have done a better job selling it. Not sure but I am not surprised but still sad about the outcome.