Product: Hamer Archtop CS
Price Paid: US $300
Submitted
09/12/2001
at
09:35pm
by
derrick
Features
:
9
Made in Korea in early 1999. Maple cap over Mahogany body, double cutaway, sunburst finish, 3-way selector switch, 2 Duncan Designed Humbuckers, gold hardware, 2 volume, 1 tone, stoptail/tune-o-matic bridge. 22 frets, rosewood fretboard, dot inlays.
Sound
:
8
The stock pickups sounded really good, it is a relatively bright guitar when compared to a Les Paul. IMHO, this guitar blows away anything and everything in the sub $300 range, all import jacksons, ibanezes, LTDs etc... An awesome guitar for only $300. I've had this guitar for two years, and have used it in a jazz big band and i recently changed out the bridge pup for a Dimarzio PAF Pro. The sound out of the stock humbuckers was good, they had a lot of bite. The clean sounds out of the stock bridge pup sounded pretty bad, which is the main reason i switched it, but having it completely stock for 2 years, it was still a great guitar. The distortion out of this thing was really good, clean was nothing spectacular.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
8
The sunburst finish is really beautiful, even after two years. The action was good and didn't need lowering. I need to replace the saddles with some graph tech ones, because they keep breaking the wound strings. I might replace the nut with a graphite one too, although I don't really see a need for that. The horrible tuning problems everyone keeps mentioning isn't as bad as they make it out to be. For a $300 guitar, it stays in tune well enough, and if it's really a big issue, just get locking tuners.
Reliability/Durability
:
4
While this was a good guitar, I got a lemon, because i didn't bother trying out any others when purchasing it
1. The 3-way selector switch won't stay in the treble position
2. The input jack makes horrible noises when you touch the cable
3. The Neck pickup wire connection need to be resodered after the connection died
4. One of the strap buttons came out.
After fixing all those things however, it is in great gig-worthy condition. I'm going to put string-savers saddles on it and then it should withstand live playing pretty well.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Overall Rating
:
8
I've been playing three years, and this was my first electric guitar. I really got lucky when I picked this, instead of a fender MIM or Squier or Ibanez super strat. The humbuckers sound great, it's definitely a poor man's PRS/LP. Although mine was a lemon, if you're thinking of buying one, play through a lot to make sure you get a good one. It's not the best guitar in the world, but for $300 there's really not much else for the price that is as good.
