Hamer Guitars
Hamer Guitars is an American manufacturer of electric guitars, whose beginnings date back to the year 1973. The company's founder, Jol Dantzig and later Paul Hamer led in the early 1970s together a shop for restoration and sale of vintage guitars in the U.S. state of Illinois. In the workshop, the store also electric guitars were made in small batches on demand. Early instruments of the team were inspired by the designs of the electric guitar models and Gibson Explorer Gibson Flying V. Hamer Guitars is generally regarded as the first manufacturer of "boutique" electric guitar (English: Custom Shop ), who built specifically for professional musicians. Today, the company offers a wide range of electric guitars and electric basses, and has focused on producing high-quality instruments with vintage aesthetics and creative innovations since its inception.
Company History
The first Hamer guitar was an electric bass guitar in the style of the Gibson Flying V. Paul Hamer and Jol Dantzig led to this time Northern Prairie Music, a respected vintage musical instruments store in Wilmette (Illinois ). This business took care of musicians who were interested in high-quality instruments. The first instrument was the basis for a new company that was baptized Hamer Guitars (which sounded better after an interview with Dantzig as " Dantzig Guitars" ).
Hamer applied the tools from 1974 with small-format black and white advertisements in trade journals and was officially founded in 1976. The founding members were Hamer, Dantzig and two of the guitar restorers of their retail store. In 1977, up to seven people were employed in the company already. The majority of the instruments that have been produced up to that time, were customized ( "Custom" - ) versions of the original standard and Flying V guitars. Customers of the time were almost exclusively known music groups such as Bad Company, Wishbone Ash and Jethro Tull. In order to address a wider market was introduced in 1977 model Sunburst; an electric guitar whose design with two cutaways on the Les Paul Junior from Gibson is based and this further developed. The electromagnetic pickup the Hamer Electric Guitars were developed by Larry DiMarzio, who later founded the specialized Pickup DiMarzio U.S. company. Production was reportedly around ten guitars per week. During this time the company was known by Rick Nielsen, guitarist for the rock band Cheap Trick, and the use of 8 - and 12-string Hamer bass guitars in their music. Another prominent member of Hamer Guitars was the end of the 1970s, Andy Summers, guitarist for the British pop band The Police. Even Paul Stanley, guitarist and vocalist for the rock band Kiss often played the Hamer Standard model.
In 1978, Frank Untermyer joined as a partner and investor in the company. His investments and contacts paved the way for international transactions outside the United States. Untermyer's stake in the company in 1980 allowed the relocation of Hamer Guitars to larger premises in Arlington Heights, a suburb of Chicago. The staff had grown to twelve employees and Hamer introduced a new guitar models - such as the Prototype ( the company's first fundamentally own design ), Special, Cruise bass, Lightning and Phantom. Paul Hamer, who worked as a sales manager in the first place, left the company in 1987 to pursue his career in other areas. The Kaman Music Corporation cared then to the sales, while the remaining owners continue to focus on the production of instruments. Kaman Music bought Hamer end of 1988. After five years of collaboration with Dantzig Kaman also left the company in 1993 to California, to devote himself to a design and consulting business.
In the late 1980s, Hamer was also known for a series of so-called "power- Strats ". This based on the design of the Fender Stratocaster instruments were popular at that time, especially among musicians of hard rock and metal area and possessed usually a combination of details (eg, Floyd Rose vibrato, humbucker-single -coil configuration, good and fast recordable necks with jumbo frets, effect coatings ) (including the models Californian, Diablo, Chaparral, Centaur and Steve Stevens). In the 1990s there was also a made in Korea Hamer model line was expanded to include the word " Slammer " on the headstock of the instruments.
Because the market was saturated for guitars in the medium price segment, Hamer was looking for new ways to improve sales and returned to the old product philosophy of offering classical guitar models. In 1997 the company moved to a small shop in New Hartford ( Connecticut ) was performed. For this purpose also Dantzig was recovered as technical director. Hamer began to focus on a core of high-quality designs that were targeted to the collectors and high-end market.
On 31 December 2007 Hamer Guitars was acquired by the U.S. musical instrument manufacturer Fender Musical Instruments. Jol Dantzig left Hamer Guitars back in 2010 to produce its own line of high-quality instruments.
Hamer can also create a lower-priced line of their instruments, which is marketed under the name " XT Series" in Asia. Furthermore, it was mainly for the U.S. market an instrument series called " Slammer by Hamer ", which was also made in Asia and set in 2009.