Hamer Guitar Serial Numbers

1. Hamer Slammer Guitar Serial Numbers

Well, we near the end of the long tale of Hamer USA Guitars, a saga that began in the early 1970s and is today a great success story in American guitardom. For this installment we bring the litany of Hamer guitars up to dateEclipseNot resting on its laurels, yet two more new Hamer models debuted in ’94 – the Eclipse and the Mirage.The Eclipse (Model GECS) was a new asymmetrical offset double-cutaway design with short horns, the upper somewhat larger and rounded, the lower more pointed, and a rounded lower bout. The body and glued-in neck were all-mahogany with a black-faced three-and-three Hamer headstock and screened logo. The 22-fret rosewood fingerboard had a 243/4″ scale and dot inlays. The Eclipse sported two Seymour Duncan mini-humbucking pickups with three-way select, one volume and one tone control. The bridge was a Wilkinson Hardtail Wrap Around, and the nut a Lubritrak. An Eclipse 12-String was also available with the same specs.

These were offered in Black, Cherry Transparent, Candy Green, Ferrari Red, and Vintage Orange. The Eclipses were eclipsed in ’98.MirageThe Mirage, also introduced in ’94, was another upscale model in an upscale world.

It had just slightly offset double cutaways with a slightly extended upper horn and a slightly deeper treble cutaway. Otherwise it was similar to the Sunburst. The body was mahogany with a carved, figured koa top with a glued-in mahogany neck. The 22-fret rosewood fingerboard had a 251/2″ scale, dot inlays, and a Hamer three-and-three head. The Mirage was equipped with three Seymour Duncan single-coil-sized humbuckers (all perpendicular to the strings) – a Hot Rail at the bridge and two split-rail Vintage Rails. These were controlled by a five-way select and one volume and one tone control. A mini-toggle bypassed the volume control for instant lead mode.

The vibrato was a non-locking Wilkinson VSV vibrato combined with chrome locking Sperzel tuners. Finish options included Cherry Transparent and natural.In ’95 the Mirage was joined by the Mirage II, which differed in that it had a carved maple top and two Seymour Duncan humbuckers, with three-way select and no bypass switch. Finishes included ’59 Burst, Honey, Kool Blue, Red Transparent and Tobacco Sunburst. Otherwise, it was similar to the Mirage.The Mirage and Mirage II lasted until ’97 or ’98, when they were replaced by the Mirage Maple Top (essentially the Mirage II with a flamed maple top), Seymour Duncan ’59 and JB humbuckers, and locking Schaller tuners. This model came in honey, kool blue, and red transparent. The Mirage Maple Top disappeared after only a year.Artist Archtop, et alIn ’95 Hamer introduced the Artist Archtop (Model GATA), the Studio Archtop Artist, and the new version of the CruiseBass.The Artist Archtop (sometimes also called the Artist Arched Top or Archtop Artist -fun, eh?) was very similar to the Sunburst Archtop, introduced in ’91.

Hamer Slammer Guitar Serial Numbers

And like the Sunburst Archtop, the Artist Archtop played more name games as it evolved. The Artist Archtop was an equal double-cutaway (as with most Hamers, upper horn slightly extended) with a mahogany body and ivoroid-bound carved flamed maple top. Other features similar to the Sunburst Archtop included a mahogany neck, Hamer three-and-three headstock (blackface), a bound 22-fret, 243/4″ scale rosewood fingerboard with crown inlays, finetune bridge, stop tailpiece, twin humbuckers, three-way select, volume, and two tones. There were two primary differences; first the Artist Archtop was a semi-hollowbody with a sound chamber and f-hole, and the second was in pickups, which were Seymour Duncan Seth Lovers.After the relocation, the Artist Archtop became known as the Artist Custom, the name it carries today.Also introduced in ’95 was the Studio Archtop Artist. This was essentially the same as the Archtop Artist, except it lacked body and fingerboard binding, and had dot inlays. The original version also had a Wilkinson Wrap Around bridge, although by ’97 this had changed to a finetune bridge and stop tailpiece.

By ’96 the name had changed to become simply the Artist Studio (Model GATA-SO). In ’97, the name changed again to just plain Artist. This model remains in the line to this day.There would be further variations on the Artist Series, as it became known, but we’ll come back to this in a moment.CruiseBassIn ’95, Hamer brought back a number of variations on the venerable CruiseBass, the original of which had run from ’82 to ’90.

The first had the sleek offset double-cutaway body similar to the Phantom guitar, with pointed horns (the upper extended), glued-in neck, and a three-and-three headstock, which changed to a four-in-line. The new version (Model BCRS) was redesigned to have a much more rounded form, much closer to a Fender bass design, just slightly more exaggerated waists. The upper horn remained extended, but was much thicker.

The body was now made of alder, and the maple neck was bolted on, with the four-in-line headstock. The pickguard was a natty laminated tortoise affair, sort of oval extending under the strings from the neck, but with a kind of batwing extension over the treble cutaway horn. The rosewood fingerboard was now 22 frets (34″ scale), still with pearl dot inlays.

Replacing the former P and J-style pickups were a pair of Duncan Vintage Jazz J-style units, one pickguard-mounted, the other on the top near the Gotoh bridge/tailpiece assembly. Controls remained two volumes and a tone. Color options in ’96 included two-tone sunburst, black cherry ‘burst, candy red, candy blue, candy green, emerald green, and white transparent.Alongside the four-string CruiseBass was the CruiseBass Five (Model BC5T). The Five was essentially the same as the four-string except for having a 2-Tek bridge/tailpiece mounted through the body, and the addition of a fifth tuner on the bottom of the headstock.Also part of the ’95 CruiseBass line was the 2-Tek CruiseBass (Model BCRT). This was identical to the CruiseBass except for having the 2-Tek through-body bridge assembly.Finally, all three Cruisebasses were available in fretless versions (Models BCRTF, BCRSF, and BC5TF) identical except for a Madagascar ebony fingerboard inlaid with maple markers.These remain in the line today.Standard RevisitedThe Hamer Standard, the upscale Explorer copy that started it all back in ’74, was discontinued in ’85. However, in the new “vintage” environment of the ’90s, the model was revived in ’95.

It met the same specs as the original, with a one-piece mahogany body, bound bookmatched flamed maple top, glued-in mahogany neck, droopy six-in-line headstock, twin humbuckers, finetune, stoptail, three-way, volume and two tones. It was available in two versions – the Custom (Model GTSC) and Standard (Model GTSS). The Standard Custom had a bound rosewood fingerboard with crown mother-of-pearl inlays. The Standard had no binding on the fingerboard, and dot inlays.In ’95/’96 Hamer produced a limited number of Korina Standards, versions of the original Gibson Explorer of ’58. These featured “korina” bodies with unbound rosewood fingerboards, dot inlays, covered humbuckers, and black pickguards.

Korina is a term which is generally applied to a lightweight mahogany-like tonewood known as African Limba. It is sometimes incorrectly applied to guitars which look similar but are made of other woods, such as ash.The Standard Custom remains in the line to this day. The Standard lasted only through ’97 and the move, when it became part of the Import series.RelocationIn ’97, Kaman/Ovation found itself with excess capacity in its New Hartford, Connecticut, factory and operating a second (Hamer) factory in suburban Chicago. This did not really make good business sense. Double expenses and not operating at full capacity at one plant that could easily absorb the other operation. The decision was made to consolidate all guitarmaking activities in Connecticut, and the Illinois factory was closed.The move occasioned a realignment of the product line.