As a couple of others have said, Hamer is around and they still make basses. However, Joel Dantizg’s company Hamer that made that bass has been gone for a while. Cool picture though.
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Kasim Sulton's Hamer
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As a couple of others have said, Hamer is around and they still make basses. However, Joel Dantizg’s company Hamer that made that bass has been gone for a while. Cool picture though.
Know what I can't figure out about Kasim? Why his career as a frontman never even got off the ground a little. Kasim has one of the very best voices in the known universe and can sing anything. He's also a top flight bassist and plays good guitar as well. Yet he's only known for being a sideman, and when I saw him with Blue Oyster Cult, he sang very little at all.
Thanks for posting the picture and inspiring me to break out my Cruisebass. Mine's a first gen PJ with the Schaller style bridge and unlike the one pictured, no guard. A bit of paint has flaked off in the buckle rash zone, and it does appear to be a nice piece of mahogany under there.
That is a mystery!
He is a fantastic performer and player.
Cruise Bass FTW. Hamer made some awesome stuff, lots of custom things for some of the greats. I have an Echotone (Gibson ES335 clone) and it rocks every bit as hard as the real thing. Of all the discontinued and hard-to-find Hamers out there, this is the one I regret the most not buying when they were first released late 80's:
Todd let him do quite a bit of lead singing and co-writing with Utopia. Kasim is a good songwriter and tried to get some solo artist traction, even had Rundgren behind him and once when I was at a Utopia show Todd let him sing a couple of his solo songs. Not bad stuff, and I like the guy's voice. It just never took off.
And you're right, he has played a lot of different basses over the years.
EdwardofHuncote
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McVie played a Hamer Cruise bass during the Mirage tour. (circa '82)
Hummergeist
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Me too. Rare as hen's teeth now. IF you can track one down for sale, be prepared to dip deeply into the kid's college fund.
Limited run, but I recall seeing Kip Winger, Jack Blades, Michael Anthony, and maybe one or two others playing one.
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Hamer were always cool and unattainable, especially here in the UK. Beautiful instruments.
I have never had the pleasure of playing a Cruise bass, I'd have thought I would have cross paths with at least one by now but no such luck. Kasim Sultan began playing with Todd on the RA album and tour which was 77' if I recall correctly, we had like 3rd row seats for that tour, didnt know anything about him but was very impress by shows end. He's been Todd's go to guy for most of that time since.
The thing about the Pilot, they were always (I think) equipped with EMGs. So they had that EMG sound, which you either love or hate.
I always thought some Pilots had them and some didn't, then I did a Google search and I couldn't find any with anything else. Fine by me. I had EMG actives in my basses for years, long long before I got a deal. Still the only actives I like. But that's just me
I had 2 of them in the 80s while I was still on the road with my show band. The original Cruisebass was a killer bass, light with a slightly slimmer neck than a Precision. This is my 2nd one.
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Wait, wut?!?! Why am I always the last to find out?
edit: So wait, did some other company just buy the rights to the Hamer name? New Hamer Guitar Models
Kaman Music bought Hamer in the 90's, then Fender bought Kaman in the 00's, sold them to a Canadian company called JAM, and they're doing guitars only at the moment.
