Product: Hamer Artist
Price Paid: US $1629
Submitted
04/15/1998
at
08:57am
by
Jim Miles
Email: Mokngbird at aol<dot>com
Features
:
9
USA made, 22 frets, semi-hollow with curly maple top, two volumes, one tone knob, Hum/hum pickup config (duncan Seth Lovers), Passive electronics. Mahogany bod, neck with aforementioned maple top. body style is roughly an LP with double-cutaways. Tune-o-matic bridge with stop tailpiece. stock tuners (schaller, I think), Neck scale, I think is 24 3/4". Came with a nice case.
Sound
:
10
Very sweet sounding guitar - I use it for many styles, my favorites are jazz & blues. I've mostly played it with my digitech rp5 & 6 thru my church's PA and have gotten many complements about the tone. I like to play it through my Mesa/boogie Studio Caliber, with which I can get very convincing rock/blues/jazz/funk sounds (with radical eq/channel/efx changes between each style) I can also get (surprise) a good country quack using both pickups.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
No Opinion
To be honest I'm no judge of finish quality, but I've found nothing wrong with it, even after playing it for a year and a half. I bought the guitar out of town and never even got it set up for the big strings (13-56) I use, and it plays great. The only electric guitar I have to compare it with is a Hamer Special, with which I am equally satisfied - I'll not impose a rating in this category.
Reliability/Durability
:
10
I have had exactly zero problems with this guitar, and I have gigged with it nearly every week for over a year. I don't think that I'm rough on guitars, but this one is VERY well built.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Have never had to deal with the company, I have no idea what the warranty is - never had to use it. (you know how it goes, "you can't play a warranty at a gig")
Overall Rating
:
9
10 yrs playing, have another Hamer, a Fender SS amp, an Ibanez bass, a couple of Seagull acoustics. If it were stolen or lost I'm not sure if I would buy this model again, but that's probably because there are so many other guitars I'd like to try out. then again, I hate the thought of losing it. I'd probably not want to spend this much again on a guitar (and I got about 40% discount on this one) - I think there's a studio (not as fancy) model, plus there are SEVERAL other Hamer models that make my mouth water. I'll give it a 9 in this category - I'm VERY satisfied with it.
