The Hamer Prototype : Part One

• For developement purposes, Hamer also built a test-bed instrument (serial number 1 2580) - this was the same shape as the production Prototype and fitted with the experimental Triple Coil. However, it had no scratchplate: the neck/body joint was obscured by an extended rosewood fingerboard with 24 rather than the production 22 frets (see upper.
• About Hamer Serial Numbers In 1974 Hamer used a four digit number stamped into the wood starting with guitar #0000 and until the launch of the Sunburst this system was used on.
• Hamer guitars are expressed as serial numbering system from 1974 and the hamer archtop guitar company is the sunburst model introduced in korea, celeb. He sadly died in wilmette, in hss specifications online. Mark dalton i am not make every 10 years. He has been produced similar chart for the guitar shop owners.
• Information on how to use these lists, serial numbers and dating Hamers: Explorer, Vee and Firebird styled Hamer guitars: Sunburst and Special: Semi-solid and hollowbodied Guitars: Hamer 4- and 5-string Basses: Archtop Solid-body Guitars; Hamer 8- and 12-string Basses: Prototype, Phantom, Eclipse and Steve Stevens: Maestro and Virtuoso.

The Hamer Archtop. The Archtop 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.

In The Beginning

The Hamer Prototype is an important guitar for Hamer enthusiasts. It represents the first completely original design Hamer to be put into full production. Earlier guitars had their origins in Gibson guitars of the fifties, albeit extensively redesigned by Hamer. The Standard was based on the Explorer but came with a bound flame-top to give the guitar a more opulent appearance. Both the Sunburst and Special were based on the double-cut Les Paul Junior, although again the design was heavily modified and has very little in common with the Gibson model other than the body shape. All these models came fitted with two DiMarzio PAF humbuckers, in keeping with the Gibson influence. Even the Eight-string bass of the late seventies shared the double cut body shape of the Sunburst and Special, with this instrument's design being somewhat influenced by the Hagstrom eight-string bass of the sixties.

The materials for the guitar were unremarkable, good quality Honduras mahogany for body and glued neck. The production headstock shape was identical to the Sunburst and Special but the body shape was new, contoured back and front with unequal cutaways, although hardly radical. The Sunburst's sustain-block bridge with through-body stringing was the bridge option chosen (occasionally in black chrome, a new concept in 1980). A two-ply scratchplate (inscribed with the word PROTOTYPE in block capitals) hides the neck joint, no neck pickup being fitted as on Hamer's other guitars.

It is hard to believe now but the Prototype was genuinely radical in 1981, including a humbucker and single-coil pickup on the same guitar. Musicians had customised their guitars to include both types of pickup and Fender had played with the idea on a few Telecasters but Hamer were the first company to design a guitar specifically to be a hybrid. Contemporary advertising for the Prototype made much of the new design triple coil pickup (sometimes wrongly nicknamed the Motherbucker) but this was in fact nothing more than a DiMarzio PAF (nearest the bridge) in the same mounting ring as a single-coil, again by DiMarzio. The three way switch gave you the Humbucker, both pickups or the single coil, although curiously the switch worked in opposite orientation to the pickup positions. A master volume and master tone control completed the electronics. The sounds available were described by Paul Hamer in an interview from 1982:-

It looks very simple with one pickup, one volume and tone control and a single toggle switch, but the sounds you can get are really quite incredible. The secret lies in the pickup which incorporates a single coil and a double coil, Humbucking type, so it's possible to get anthing from a sharp Stratocaster tone to a richer Les Paul sound with a good midrange Hamer sound in between. And it's only half the price of a new Strat.

Andy Summers of the Police was an early Hamer endorsee, and he was credited with design input by Paul Hamer in the same interview.

The Prototype went into full production in 1981 and very soon became one of Hamer's most popular models. Hamer were selling the Prototype at a very competitive price (well below that of a Fender USA Stratocaster) for an original guitar designed and built in America. The guitar was particularly good value in Britain and many crossed the Atlantic. In 1982 the Prototype continued to be produced in numbers, and in a variety of finishes both opaque and transparent;a limited number of 12-string versions were also built (see the next page). But 1982 also saw the introduction of a yet more radical Hamer design that would, to some extent, supercede the Prototype. This guitar was the Phantom A5.

Hamer Bass Serial Numbers

The Hamer Archtop Tremolo

The Archtop Tremolo 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 Dark Cherry Burst on figured Maple veneer results in a visually inspiring instrument. The SATFW comes standard with a Wilkinson Tremolo and classic Hamer controls and switch orientation.

Hamer Serial Number Iw17051054

Hamer Serial Numbers