Hamer Archtop Flame Top

I bought it on e-bay 1980's Hamer. 24 frets. this is the best guitar I have ever played.

Excellent for all type of music. I use it for metal,rock and blues.With my Marshall Avt275 is sound excellent.Great with distortion or clean sound.

set neck construction. deep finish. an excellent looking guitar. This is one I will never sell!

very Reliable and Durable. I never has given me a problem.

I don't know about customer support because I don't need too! But I have talked to the about a tee-shirt once and they were very helpful.

I have been paying for 30 years. I would like someday to have a Marshall stack, but I don't have the room for it now. I bet this guitar would sound great with it.

This guitar was imported from Korea, but far outshines other imports. It has 22 frets, a beautiful honey colored flamed-maple top, two Seymore Duncan designed pickups and gold hardware, including a tune-o-matic stop bar bridge. The pickup configuration is H-H and the electronics are passive. The body and neck are made out of mahogany, which create a great contrast with the flamed maple top. The finish really shows of the wood; when you look at the mahogany you can see the wood's fibers reflecting light in a cool way, and the maple is just gorgeous for an import of this price range. It could really do with some Gotoh tuners, as it has some no-name make. The body's double cutaway design makes it resemble a PRS or a Les Paul with the extra cut. Mine came with a kick-ass SKB hardcase that fits like a glove. But by far my favorite feature is the guitar's set neck, something you'll be hard pressed to find on any other guitar in this price range. Overall an unbeatable value.

My band plays lots of blues, jazz and hard rock, and this guitar's powerful and warm tone suits all of those well. I use a Marshall, and the guitar sound great through it clean. One thing that I found to be kind of strange, though, was that when I tried it out on a few different amps it just didn't seem to take any drive on some of them. I tried playing it through a Marshall combo with an overdrive channel that should have had plenty of punch to make the guitar scream and wail, but even under full gain settings it sounded almost the same as the clean channel. I only encountered this problem on that amp, and it was easy to fix with a distortion pedal. To my delight the guitar isn't very noisy and doesn't create annoying feedback like a lot of other guitars I've played, and the Duncan humbuckers really do have a lot of warmth and power. The three way selector will reveal a good amount of versatility when switched, though I'm not sure exactly what pickup configurations it's tapping into. As long as you have the right equipment to complement it, the guitar would do well for Progressive/Alternative Rock, Blues, Jazz, Hard Rock and maybe even some Heavy Metal.

The set up is pretty good; the action is just to my liking, but I still might take it in for some fine adjustments. Compared to my old Fender the neck is very well set up, whereas my Fender's frets hang out over the neck's edge and hinder playing. I'm not all that familiar with bookmatched tops but the joint line on this guitar's top is off center. It doesn't look bad and it has no importance other than to the cosmetic value of the guitar. The wood seems to be of top quality and it just shines out from underneath the finish. There are some very minor flaws in the finish, so it isn't perfect but it is definetly of great quality. I rate this guitar high for the quality of the finish it has despite its low price tag.

This guitar is solid and hardy enough to do some intense gigs, though I'm going to be careful not to mar the beautiful finish. The hardware seems like it would last as long as it is taken care of. The finish, once again being one of the best things about the guitar, is nice and thick for prolonged playing. The strap buttons are large and solid. I would depend on this guitar for a gig, but I'd say never be without a backup just in case.

I haven't dealt with Hamer yet but their warranty covers part replacement for life and labor for two years.

I've played for about four years, and I've owned a Strat, a Dean Cadillac and a '78 Fender Bronco. I had to trade in the Dean and the Bronco for this guitar and there is no comparison between this Hamer and the other two, even though they all occupy the same general price range. This guitar is number one for value. It would find no competition from other imports that cost the same amount. If I lost this guitar I wouldn't hesitate to find a new one, as this is now the guitar by which I set my standards for value and quality. This is not at all as good as the Hamer USA Studio, after which it is designed, or for that matter a PRS, which it closely resembles, but it simply cannot be beat by other, more affordable guitars. If you would love to own a PRS or top of the line Les Paul but don't have the thousands of dollars to fork over, my advice is to find one of these guitars as it makes a very reasonable and affordable substitute. The flamed maple top, the gorgeous mahogony body and set neck, and a versatile tonal variety made this guitar my pick. I rate this guitar as a 10 not because it is the best guitar out there, but because of its amazing value.

This is just an addendum to the review I submitted on 5/19/03. After purchasing my archtop last year and reading reviews touting the Hamer USAs, I got caught up in finding a good used one at a good price. Well I found one and now own it; its a 90's FM Special and it sounds great, plays great etc. I will not be getting rid of my Korean however, it is also a great guitar. Although the new one is constructed a little bit better (better feeling toggle, name tuners, name pus) my Korean actually is better looking (flamed as opposed to black and gold hardware opposed to silver) and has a sweeter sound. The Special has a more ballsy Les Paul sound, the Korean a sweeter PRS sound I believe. They are both excellent guitars, but if you buy a Korean it is more essential that you test it out first(sound, playability and tuning gears) as some have reported problems.

Standard size fretboard with medium jumbo frets. Beautiful flametop maple body with gold hardware (closely resembling a PRS). Duncan designed humbuckers with three way switch providing better tonal variety than any other threeway I've played. Stays in tune.

I demoed a $2000.00 dollar PRS and honestly believe this sounds richer, fuller and more ballsy. This thing was obviously patterned to play like a PRS, and does the Santana thing very well without effects. It has a more complicated spacious sound than any of my other guitars and is somewhat of a compromise between a fender and a Gibson in terms of frequency response. It covers most any style but is particularly great through chorus and delay for that dreamy new age kind of sound.

I bought it from a pawn shop and had to set it up. Even new I imagine you'd have to set it up at the price they sell for (800 on G-base). But the finish is flawless, the frets polished and uniform unlike some other Koreans I've seen. Only drawback I a might have is all hamers (foreign and domestic) seem to feature these medium jumbo frets which like to hiss and spit (not buzz mind you). They take some getting used to.

Very solid. I've notice on G-base that this model listed 2002 retails at 800.00 and the newer version retails at 600.00 which means they must be cheapening their line. The newer version has a more synthetic look to it and no demarcation line joining the maple top halves. This might account for the divergent opinions people seem to have about these Korean Hamers. Mine would stand up with the best.

Never needed it, hear they're better with the domestics.

I now have 8 guitars, each with its own personality. This guitar has more versatility than any but my Strat because of its tonal diversity. I love sound bargains: I have a pre-lawsuit Ibanez LP that thinks its a vintage Gibson, a vintage Aspen flattop that thinks it's an old Martin, a Dillion Strat and a vintage El Degas Tele that think they are vintage Fenders. Most of these copies I wouldn't trade for the original - really!!! they sound that good. This is no exception, well OK maybe but it would have to be top of the line Birds in Flight.

Its got 3 nice tone settings, 2 duncan humbuckers, 22 frets with a really nice arhtop thats kin of a honey color exposing the grain. I would say this model has improve drastically over the last 2 years in quality and sound. the parts are a gold finish, and the bridge is really cool. the comtrast between the maple top and mahogany body is great

i got a 90 watt fender deluxe, and it sounds pretty good through there, though one thing is that is kind of has a nasal sound to it, but i must say it was better than the fender standard strateven though i respect fender. over all, the sound is good

if u take off the cover of the electronics, you can see it was sloppily done. one of the first days i was playing th guitar, one of the wires needed resoldering which guitar center did for me. i must say that the finish was one of the best ibn the store that i saw, over some really great guitars. it it really top notch

as i mentioned, one of the wired needed resoldering from one of the knobs coming loose and tearing the wire.

really, hamer is definetely the best company u can deal with, and guitar center is the best retailer, although ive only needed to use support once

overall the guitar is really good. not great. if u are looking for a hamer usa, dont pay any attention to this review. this is a hamer import, made in korea. this is NOT a slammer, though. if u are looking for a hamer usa, dont get the wrong impression. THOSE guitars are impeccalbe, almost eprfect. their attention to detail is greater than fender and gibson. overall, the guitars are better than fender and gibson by a longshot.