Hamer Daytona

Made in 1994 in USA (I believe - bought it used) 25 1/2" scale, 22 frets, maple neck and fretboard 2-piece solid ash body, Transparent red finish 1 volume, 2 tone (neck and middle), 1 5 way switch 3 Seymour Duncan Alnico Pro II Strat pickups (single coil - passive) Strat body style Wilkinson "vintage" vibrato (6 screw type) Locking Spertzel tuners Flat (16"?) radius fingerboard, nice and beefy shape, big frets Came with case
Basically, it has all of the aftermarket "add-ons" that people modify their strats with.

I use the Hamer with 2 setups: Hamer -> Korg A4 -> Rocktron Chameleon -> Marshall Jubilee Hamer -> 6 Boss Pedals -> Mesa Boogie .22+
I play primarily blues/swing with some classic rock. I already had one custom made strat that did the classic rock thing really well, so I wanted a strat to do the "glassy" tone - think SRV's "Riviera Paradise". The Hamer delivers that as well as a really good dirty tone. Very well rounded sounds. The neck pickup is mellow if you play soft, but has a satisfying bite when you dig in. The middle pickup is nice and sharp, and cuts really well. I hardly ever use the bridge pickup by itself (on any instrument). The "in between" settings are the best I've heard on a strat for clean rhythms. Glassy and smooth. The single coils do hum a little on their own, but the cavities are shielded, and you wouldn't hear the hum if you weren't listening for it.
One thing that surprised me was the accoustic volume. This is the loudest unplugged solidbody I've ever heard. I normally practice unplugged (the joys of aparment living). I almost always pick up this guitar to play unplugged.

I'm not the original owner, so I can't comment on the factory setup.
The wood is beautiful, the routing is perfect. The cavities are all shielded. I have yet to find any real problems with the construction of this instrument. The body seems a little thicker and more "substantial" than the Fender's I've played.

The finish was perfectly done, but it will chip. I banged a small chip of the face of the instrument with what seemed like little force. Nothing major, but that speck of bare wood looks wrong in the sea of red laquer. It will look great beat to hell, though. :)
I replaced the strap buttons with locking Shallers (why gamble?) that have not given me a problem.
I have had to buff the bridge once to remove some tarnish, but I had sweat into the thing for 3 years before it showed up.
I gigged with this instrument continuously for 1 1/2 years, and I had one problem - a broken string. Other than that I have not had any problems with it. I've used it on many nights without backup, and I never felt like I was taking a risk. This is made the way Fender *used* to make them, and it will outlast me.

I've been playing 12 years now. My other instruments are a Fernandez tele, a custom made strat, and a PRS Custom 24. If my Daytona was stolen, I would replace it with another before I had a settlement check from the insurance company.
I purchased it because I was originally going to build a custom strat. It was going to have Spertzel tuners, a Wilkinson vintage bridge, maple Stew-Mac neck, ash body, and SD APSII pickups. I priced out what it was going to cost me, and then started saving. I ran across this, and the whole, completed guitar was significantly less than what I was going to pay for the exact same parts, so I bought it. I'd never played a Hamer before, and I figured I could at least use it for the parts if I hated the guitar. In retrospect, I'm the luckiest dog on the porch. This guitar has delivered in spades, night after night, song after song.
I have complete confidence in this instrument's ability to outplay me. I have yet to get into a situation where I wouldn't know how the instrument would react. I can't imagine a better strat-styled instrument for my needs.

I got this guitar (a '94 model) in '95, and it has been my main axe since then. It has 22 frets on a one piece, skunk striped maple neck with a rosewood fingerboard. The body on mine is swamp ash, although I've heard that others were made of alder. The finish is a nice transparent burgundy that shows off the grain well. It has the standard strat volume/tone/tone and 5-way switch controls, and three Seymour Duncan Vintage single coil pickups with adjustable pole pieces.) Other hardware includes a six-screw Wilkinson trem, graphite nut, and Sperzel locking tuners (staggered post hole height so there is no need for a string tree.) It came with a hardshell case and a set of tools for making adjustments to the bridge and truss rod.

Like any good strat, it has a variety of useful sounds available, and I've found it well suited to everything from warm clean sounds to skanky funk to grungy alternative sounds. With no humbucker, it doesn't seem to me to get a great heavy metal sound though. I run it through a Marshall JTM 312 or a Carvin Vintage 50 and a Marshall 4x12. As with most passive single coils, it does generate some 60hz hum, particularly if it's close to my studio computer. Otherwise, however, it sounds very good, with warm clean rhythms, good strat "quack" on the middle settings, and a well-defined attack on the bridge pickup. To my ears, it is the best sounding newly made "vintage" style strat out there. I compared it to most of the current Fender (American and import) strats, and it came out on top.

The factory set up was good for my tastes, although the action may be a little high for those used to super-low shredmaster action. The only flaw was a saddle height screw that was a little high, requiring about 3 seconds with an allen wrench to fix. The pickup height was set for good volume balance between the rhythm and bridge pickups. The fit and finish on the neck and frets is nothing short of amazing. You won't get your business card into the neck joint of one of these! The body finish has no flaws, and the wood has a nice grain.

I've had no problems with the guitar in the three years I've had it. I don't tour, so I can't comment on how it would be on the road. Its intonation and tuning are stable, probably as a result of the quality hardware. The four bolt neck joint is stable, and hasn't caused me any problems.

It has a warranty, but I've never needed to use it. I can't remember the duration of the warranty.

I've been playing for 15 years, using a variety of Fender, Washburn, Takamine and other guitars, and the Hamer is my favorite. When I got it, I had the choice of pretty much any non-custom shop/pristine vintage guitar I wanted, and I chose this one. I would definitely buy it again. The tones and playability are great, it looks fantastic, it's well built from quality components, and it's not outrageously expensive. I've seen nice used ones for as little as $425. The only thing it doesn't have is a good hard rock, high-gain sound. But hey, if you want the Les Paul through a Marshall stack sound, don't buy a strat :)