Hamer Archtop P90 Goldtop XT

You've seen all the feature stuff in the previous reviews.

The stock pickup's really sucked. They didn't seem to have any real P90 character whatsoever. But I swapped them out for GFS P90s and have been extremely happy.

Stock pups = uninspired.

Aftermarket = wonderful.

Extremely nice to play. That's why I spent the money on the new pickups. I love the neck, the weight, the finish, the fit, fret ends - everything is top notch on this!

I have an Echotone also. Probably 6 or 7 years old. No problems with it. So I'm guessing this should be good.

Never had to deal with them.

I'm 51 and started play when I was 12. I play at church 1 to 2 times per week. I've got a load of other guitars and amps (and been through a lot more over the years).

I really love this guitar. It took me a while to get the setup the way I like it - but it's really a wonderful playing and sounding instrument. I was really disappointed in the stock pickups though.

Rating based on what I would rate as a 'normal' standard dual coil guitar. The P90 single coils do add character, but more of that later. The rest of the control are basic - 2 volume and 2 tone, plus coil selector. Of course the gold carved maple top is really very nice at this price range! All other hardware is pretty unremarkable - not bad, just well, normal.

I play all styles of music except heavy metal. Like the harder riffs for fun though! This guitar is not suited for heavy rock. My main intention was a more bluesy rock/jazz and then this beauty delivers.
To appreciate the tone I'd recommend going direct to amp or amp simulator - have done so with a variety of fenders and Vox, Boss, Korg simulators - the out of phase dual PU sound is very useable.

Naturally the single coil sounds are slightly noisy - not unlike that of a fender strat, but the tone and volume is definitely not Fender. Again something I appreciated because if want a Strat sound - I'd buy one.

Noticeable volume change when switching from dual coil to single front or back - might bother some folk; I find that handy when moving from rhytmn to solo work.

Others I noticed rated the action rather well - this was not the case with my model. I found the frets a little to high and the action as well. In fact playing above the 12th fret required some serious concentration!

After taking in in for a fret re-dress and set-up, the guitar was excellent. Interesgly the Hamer compnay pride themselves with the fret set-up; perhaps the QA of the Korean models requires some improvement?

The overall finish is pretty good - in fact for the money, its pretty excellent!

...eh its a wooden guitar not a jack?

...I live too far away from the USA to be bothered...

I knew that I wanted a sound unlike a Les Paul std or Fender Strat std - this guitar achieves that easily. I wanted a gold top guitar without breaking the bank - this guitar is perfect. Would I buy another if damaged or stolen - yes.

This is the product as mentioned before; these are the highlights. It has a great big fat neck; its light but substantial, good balance of neck and body, and the headstock is nicely flared out.

The best feature on the guitar is the switching and volumes; you can really get three usably different tones from just switching based upon combinations.

I gave this an eight. I play straightforward replacements-husker du and GBV style rock and roll. I use a Vox modeling amp usually with a 70's marshall sound. The P90's aren't super noisy at all; just a bit of a hum; I can't believe that a 200$ guitar sounds this good. Its rich and thoaty, barky but smooth; the neck pickup is smooth as hell; the bridge has just the right amount of bite; It has phenomenal lead tones, but holds it self up beautifully to Strumming and power chords; it is truly a single coil on steroids, without the muddy quality of the humbuckers.

Made in china- but fantastic; no flaws; no rough edges, no blemishes; no cheap feel; set neck is perfect; tuners smooth- it even looks like it will age well.

For what this is- its rock solid; barring a smash, its a really solid and stays in tune well; I wouldn't have a problem gigging with this.

No Opinion

I have been playing for a long time; I have owned a bunch of guitars and still have a tele american standard 1983, and 1997 American strat HH. This is the classic les paul p90 sound. Its fantastic and a super value for the money; if you see one buy it.
I will be looking for a HAMER A/T HH soon.

Made in China in 2005 (I think). Les paul special double-cut type shape. 22 frets, gold -top (pretty good). This is a 2-piece mahogany body with a maple cap. I can't see the maple cap, yet -- haven't looked in the pickup cavities and I can't see it via the back access panel. Has two volumes and 1 tone knob -- useful. Two 'hamer' P90 pickups that actually sound ok, but are a little weak (more later). Has typical tune-o-matic bridge with a stop tail piece. Regular sealed tuners, also marked 'hamer'. Black plastic nut does the job. No case or gig bag but did come with practice cable and allen wrench for the truss rod. Good feature set for the price.

I love P90 pickups, especially in solid body mahogany guitars (LPJr, PRS SE, SG classic, etc.) This one sounds actually pretty good right out of the box. I've had it for just shy of a week and I'm actually fairly pleased with the sound for 300 bucks. In general, P90s are great sounding pickups that have awesome clarity with a little bit of mid-range edge. These pickups do the P90-thing pretty well, although, I am seriously considering swapping in some name brand pickups, probably Duncan's vintage soapbars. While the sound is good, it does sound a little weak. I did some side-by-side comparisons with a PRS SE and an SG classic and the Hamer's just don't hold up as well. They sound almost like the SE and SG do, when the volume is turned down to around 5 or 6. Unfortunately, on the Hamer, the volume is at 10, so there's nowhere to go. So, they have less output. But, they do have very good clarity, I believe. With a tube amp, they sound quite good. Also, I noticed that they are lacking a little in the depth department. A/Bing the bridge pickups on the same guitars, the hamer sounds noticeably (not horribly, though) thinner. It's still useable, but there isn't that lead, chunk, throaty-ness that you might expect.

Finish is very good for the price. There are a couple of oversprays and the gold (sort of sparkle) top has a couple of blemishes that you can see but not feel. The binding is pretty good, but shows stress cracks around the horns. The neck is where this thing really shines. I can't believe that this neck is as nice as it is for this kind of money. First, the frets are really immaculate: nicely shaped jumbos, with no sharp edges, nice intonation, too. The neck is a little bit chunky and silky smooth because of the finish, which I assume is poly. Anyway, the pretty good body and excellent neck make it a 10. Really, on other guitars in this price range, you'd be very hard-pressed to find as nice of a neck. (I had to tweake the truss rod to lower the action and it was very easy to move. Now the action's at 3.5/64 and there's not buzzing anywhere!)

Can't tell this one, as it's too early. The hardware seems kind of cheap. I plan on changing out the pickups and pots soon. I don't think the tuners or other components will go, but they might. The bridge seems a little cheap. When you adjust the intonation, the little screw sometimes rides out of the socket under the stress, but that is remedied by lifting on the little horizontal wire that holds it in place. The neck feels great and reliable!

Sigler music seemed friendly enough.

I've been playing for 27 years. I've only recently started collecting different types of guitars. This guitar is very, very good for the money. At a $300 price point, you'd expect a so-so neck with some sharp fret edges and non-low action, but this one pleasantly surprises. I would give this guitar an 9 overall because it's relatively cheap, has decent P90s and an excellent neck. For another 150$ or so you can turn this into a really great P90 solid-body guitar (my plan!).

Warning: This is a real review, all categories start out as a 5, I will justify the ratings through my commentary. I view a score of 5 as "average" or better said, "what I would expect". I also contend that a 5 is a decent rating, a 7 very good and 9/10 as an excellent.

Made in China 2005 and based on the USA Hamer Artist style, double cutaway mahogany body, carved maple cap with natural body binding. Set neck, 3+3 headstock, rosewood 12" radius fingerboard with dot inlays. 2 cream coloured P90/soapbar style pickups, sports 2 volume and one tone control, ABR style bridge. Goldtop is the only colour choice.

In other words, this is Hamer's version of a double cutaway Les Paul sporting P90's.

This guitar comes with very little accessories, basically a usless cable and the standard allen wrench for truss rod work.

So basically I give the guitar a +1 for the carved top and body binding in the sub $500 range. But then I have to remove a point for lack of a gig bag or case. Otherwise every other feature is "as I would expect" therefore, the rating is a 5.

I wanted a guitar with P90's so I set out to play anything I could find in that category. And although the PRS McCarty Soapbar played and sounded fantastic, the price tag prohibited such a purchase - hey I'm realistic, not rich :-)

So based on the fact that my Strats will remain my main axes, my mentality was that of a backup guitar that would fill a niche, look good and also fill that "here's something not too many other people will have".

I played a ESP EC with P90's (also goldtop), this guitar featured Seymour Duncans, but no body binding and I was not overtly thrilled with the neck. I also could not find any reference anywhere on this guitar, apparently ESP disavows knowledge that they ever created this thing.

I also tried the new Aerodyne Tele which I did like very much, and basically came in a close second (so if you're looking into this guitar, I would suggest a comparision at ye olde guitar shop) However the only colour option is black, and I already have two black guitars so that nixed that choice.

That's when I tried the Hamer. The store had a few US models, but none with P90s. So I was able to compare the two side by side. Basically the US model was definetly a quality instrument and I would love to own one someday. But in a side by side comparison, the Chinese model held it's own. The body was a little thiner (and thus lighter)and the binding not quite the same, however the necks on both instruments played very well which is what sold me on the guitar.

The sound was also what grabbed me. The P90 pickups have a chunky quality that places them squarely between a humbucker and a single coil. Of course a P90 is a single coil, but built in the style of a humbucker. P90's used to rule the rock and roll world so when you start playing, you immediately go back to those goldy oldy days. If you go to the Seymour Duncan website they offer a audio comparison between there four choices for replacement P90 pickups. I would say these pickups are similar to the "Seymourized" or middle set of replacement pickups. Hotter than stock but not so hot as to be brittle.

The sound clean is good on all three choices although the neck pickup shines as it keeps a tight bottom end while still allowing a little chime to come through. The bridge pickup is similar to a Texas Special Strat bridge pickup, a little chunky but depending on effects (read: chorus) can be too harsh. A pinch of distortion would likely solve that problem.

Distorted either the neck or bridge pick work very well, the neck pickup gets a somewhat "American Women" lead tone. The bridge pickup is closer to a "Boston's Rock n Roll Band" style of sound. Since the pickups are single coils there is some hum and the pickups are NOT reverse wound/reverse polarity so the combination of both produces an unusable hum once you start to lay on the serious distortion. This guitar would not suit metal heads, however I would think most other genres would work well with this guitar. This guitar would make a great backup instrument that could sub for a set.

So out of the possible 6 pickup choices (3 clean, 3 distorted). Both clean and distorted feature 2 very usable sounds and each posses a third choice that can be used provided certain limitations. Also there is much more sustain than I would expect even from the slightly lighter mahogany body.

I would have to give the pickups (and sustain) a +3 because they offer far more range that I would expect both clean and distorted. However a minus 1 due to the hum, especially given the lack of RW/RP when combined.

Here the guitar holds it's own. Being abel to play it before the purchase definetly helps, as I could pick out the one with as few flaws as possible. The fret work is very good, although I'm not super thrilled about jumbo frets. The binding has no ply (or I guess it's one ply then??) but it's placed well except in one spot where the golptop paint job bleeds into the binding. The mahogany body is fantasic and the dark stain looks great and runs through back of the body and neck. This guitar plays very well even compared to American versions.

I would give the finish a +2 as for a $300 dollar guitar, there is not a single scratch and one minor paint flaw.

My heavy playing days are done, so it's studio work and charity (get the old band together) gigs for me. This guitar should hold up if treated well.

n/a

In comparisons with more expensive guitars this guitar actually out performs many of them. It is easily an equal (if not better) to a Fender Aerodyne Tele and Epiphone 56' Goldtop Les Paul, both twice the price. Is it as good as a PRS, hell no, is it equal to a US Hamer, well, it's close but also, no.

So if you're in the same spot as me, looking for a 7th guitar, something a smidge different and willing to accept a more niche instrument this is worth a look. Looking at the scores given it is a no frills instrument that exceeds sonically. I'll give it a 7 as an import, as an American guitar it would likely score a 5.

this is an new model for hamers import guitars with p90s.
Hamer announced the addition of a new Sunburst Archtop P90 to its XT (XTreme) Series of guitars at this year's Winter NAMM show. It's modeled after Hamer USA's double-cutaway Studio model.

Hamer's Archtop P90 Goldtop features a Mahogany body with Maple cap and a set-in Maple neck capped with a Rosewood fingerboard and dot inlays. "This is the first time Hamer has offered an imported model with P-90 pickups
tHE fret work is simply amazing and so well done i am amazed for a $250-300.00 guitar..WOWWWWWWW setup out of the box was excellent and the hardware seems solid and the finish is pristine and rich. The set neck is a real suprise as it seems very solid and well done.

WELL THE p90s are not name brand of course but they really sound great...they scream and have balls yet are not super buzzy.The neck position sound is hollow and sweet and the middle position pickup select sounds so sweet that i am not going to replace these pickups.

action out of the box is great but a little high for me so i lowered it a bit. Finish is amazing for the price and the goldtop color is stunning.Fretwork as i stated is amazing as well with real care taken to finish the frets(unlike higher end teles and strats with sharp edges and overgang.)

seems very solid and reliable...switches and pots and of decent quality and hardware is great.

overall this guitar is amazing for the price and the finish..sound and looks just make it the deal of the century! I also forgot to mention its thinner then a tele but feels excellent when held and weight is perfect. I would buy another in a heartbeat..and maybe i will...