Hamer Diablo

This is the Korean Slammer version, mark 1. Dot inleys rather than the 'reverse boomerangs' that you'd find on the newer version.

Two humbuckers (one of which is slanted, no idea why but it looks pretty good), 3-way selector, double locking trem, reverse jackplate (which is the single-most useful thing on this guitar). No coil tap, which is a bit of a shame, but each of the 3 sounds is useful.

At this point I should state that, since my surname is actually Hamer, I might be a little biased in my review! So, I really want to love this guitar and I bought it as much for its superb looks as the name on the head stock. Its a pitty, then, that it's rather a bad guitar. Read on...

The pickups have the weakest output I've ever heard from a humbucker, but they record very well. I've used this for everything from jazz to 50's style twang to metal, so although they're low-output they're by far the most versatile I've come across. Just not so good for lead, you really have to work at it!

If I was going to change one thing here it would be to fit a Dimarzio Super Distortion, but then I already have guitars with them on and I'd lose the versitility of these stock ones. I've heard that they're Duncan Designed, but it doesn't say so under them. A bad advert for Seymour if they are!

So, plus points for it being a jack of all trades. Minus points for being master of none.

My god, this guitar looks soooo good! It has a dark translucent green finish over a two-piece maple body - the grain of which, although not flame or birdseye, or even bookmatched, shines through.

It's topped off by matt black knobs, a black headstock and highly-polished chrome hardware. The only fly in the ointment here is the fingerboard, which is a very pale rosewood. Rosewood boards on cheep guitars are almost always dyed darker anyway, so at least they've been honest and left it as it is. I have a '72 Levin acoustic that has an even lighter board. I do prefer them darker, though.

The fit of the neck is fine, and a nice touch is that the backplate covering the springs is recessed. I normally take these things off because, well, how can I put this? If you're a bloke and you play standing up for an hour at a gig, the thing rubs over a certain part of the body and it can lead to quite sore situations. So, a small touch but a welcome one!

Also, the electrical plate has a foil covering on the inside. Not sure if this does any good (it's a very quiet guitar) but it makes you feel like you're peering inside a professional instrument, rather than a cheep Korean one.

Ah, now we come to the bad part. First of all, the trem springs ring when you pick a string, so before you can record with it or even play live the springs must be dampened.

So, I've had to pad the spring-chamber with cotton wool. Secondly, and much worse, the trem block is a little too long leading to the springs springing out of the block at any given opportunity, such as when you use the trem-arm, or even play a chord to hard. So, more cotton wool was needed while the plate was crammed down. A very difficult proceedure, like trying to knit spaggetti with boxing gloves on.

On to the action! The action is truely terrible - lower it to anything below stupidly high levels and you get unacceptable fret-buzz. And of course since this is a Floyd Rose-type trem (but not a real Floyd Rose) if you lower the action you lower the trem block, which makes the problem with the springs worse!

Third problem: I think there should be a string-retainer here, but its missing, so if you tighted up the locking nut it pulls the strings down, putting it all out of tune by almost half a tone.

Maybe all thse problems could be rectified by a compitent repairer, certainly the neck bend is beyond truss-rod adjusting by the likes of me, and I've built guitars!

Never dealt with Hamer. If I did, I would expect a free Archtop or something since my name is Hamer and I'm gonna be famous someday. Oh yes...

Ok, I got it for #180 ($270) from a pawn shop. It looks superb, truely the nicest looking guitar I've ever seen. It's the most versatile guitar, recording wise, I've yet come across. It's even got my OWN SURNAME on the headstock!

But its becoming unplayable, the bridge is terrible (worse even than those single locking Floyd Rose and even worse than the Kahler trem!) and the action is like something from a European guitar from the fifties. Is it worth taking to a repair-person and having it fixed?

The jury is out on that one. I'm saving my money for a Powerhouse Strat. Meanwhile, I've got it hanging on my wall just behind my mixing desk so I can at least enjoy looking at it.

My diablo is an import, made in korea, I don't know the year, it has 24 frets and a beautiful emerald green finish. It has a volume, tone, and a three-way switch. pickups are H/H, duncan designed, and passive. Body and neck are maple, fingerboard is rosewood. Basically this guitar looks like a pretty strat without a pickguard. It has a floyd rose trem. I also like the reversed jack plate that directs the cable through the strap.

I have played this guitar through many amps (marshall valvestate, fender deville, line 6 ax/sys, line 6 spider, mesa boogie mark IV, etc...) and have made some observations.
clean: this guitar is impeccable. It is smooth and warm sounding, clear at the bridge pickup, and buttery at the neck. One of the best sounding clean guitars i have ever heard.
distortion: obviously this depends on the amplifier, it has a very thick, warm tone. It is crunchy, but not quite as crunchy as i would like it to be.
it makes no undesirable noise whatsoever.

I bought this from a friend and he knew nothing about set-ups or anything. Even so, the guitar played really well, and once I changed the strings and learned a few things about intonation, it played unbelievably well. In my opinion, this is the easiest guitar to play that i have picked up. The string action is so low. there were a few nicks in the wood, but as I said I bought it used from a friend who kind of neglected it. otherwise, there are no flaws.

i have careless friends and this guitar has been dropped many times. The dents that result are very miniscule. none of the hardware or electronics has malfunctioned in any way and I am extremely pleased with this guitar's dependability

i have no experience with this as i have had no problems with this guitar at all

i am so attached to this guitar. A lot of my friends love it too. I would certainly purchase another if it were lost. I wouldn't change a thing other than maybe putting a ballsier pickup in the bridge position. I have had this guitar almost 4 years and I have had no problems. I give this guitar a very strong recommendation

1994 Hamer Diablo USA. 24 frets, Transparent Red Fininsh, with a push-pull volume knob for coil-taps, and a push-pull tone knob for gain-suppression. I ordered it with a George Lynch Seymore Duncan Screamin' Deamon in the bridge, and a Dimarzio Tone Zone in the neck. It is absolutely beautiful, with a painted reverse headstock and a pao ferro fretboard.

I am a session player who plays anything from light jazz to blues to heavy metal. This guitar has the tonal capabilities to do all this and more.

The guitar came to me from the factory absolutely perfect. It has low action, with no fretbuzz whatsoever. The Floyd Rose system and the pickups are not set in plastic or metal braces. They are drilled and set directly into the wood of the body, causing even more sustain and smooth sound.

This guitar has withstood 6 years of live playing, constant studio gigs, and being my main guitar. I cannot emphasize how unbelievably satisfied I am with the stability of this guitar. It doesn't even pop out of tune.

I will be completely honest. I have never had to deal with Hamer on this guitar. I called them once about one of my other guitars, a Hamer T-51, and they sent me a replacement part UPS 2 Day free of charge. I have never met a company so easy to deal with as Hamer.

This is an imported (Korea, I think), Diablo, 24 medium-jumbo frets, slim fast neck/rosewood fretboard, two Duncan design humbuckers, standard Hamer strat-y headstock, 1 vol, 1 tone, 3 way pickup switch, side jack, finish is a VERY nice deep green over what looks like ash. floyd rose style trem.

I play progressive instrumental hard rock- Greg Howe/George Lynch style and this guitar suits my playing very nicely. The sound is warm and smooth, not as punchy as my Fender Floyd Rose strat, but still nice. The Duncan pickups are suprisingly high output- tons of smooth gain and with the rosewood fingerboard, it has a pleasingly dark tone, very Lynch-like. The neck humbucker is also a nice suprise: a warm full, round tone, perfect for smooth speedpicking and sweeps.

The action is great- I've tweaked it a little lower and it's still buzz free. In fact, it has THE LOWEST ACTION I'VE EVER SEEN ON A GUITAR without buzzing. The neck profile and slightly lower profile frets are perfect for fast, slippey runs, tapping and sweep-picking. This is tjhe easist guitar I've ever played, even compared to the Ibanez RG550 I had a few years back.

No production flaws that I can see. The trem is smooth and fluid (this guitar stays in tune VERY WELL). the only drawback to this trem is the arm is threaded so it screws in and isn't adjustable. However, it feels nice and fits snug and smooth once you attach it. The string tension is also very smooth, allowing me to really bend the hell out of the notes when I play blues on it.

The emerald green finish is VERY NICE and the ash figureing pops out at you. For the price, this finish is sharp.

One customization I did was lighlty scalloping the fretboard Yngwie-style (I usually do this to most of my guitars or I buy them this way). It isn't a very deep scallop, just enough so I can grip the string better for bending. The Hamer took this modification perfectly with no adjustments having to be mad to accomadate the scalloping.

This is a studio guitar, so it won't see the road, but it feels very durable and solid (this is a heavy guitar!). The neck is particuarly impressive- very strong and the action hasn't shifted an micormeter since I bought it two years ago. Everything on this guitar is solid as a rock.

Considering the price I paid, this is a great guitar, comparable to $500-600 axes. The playablity factor alone is worth it, not to mention that it's a classy looking and sounding guitar. Hamer has impressed me with this one, and considering that it's an import, it destroys other name brand imports in the below $300 price range. After playing this, it would make me sick to spend the big bucks for an ESP or Ibanez.

This is a USA made model from the now closed Chicago factory, made in 1994. My model was ordered with Seymour duncan pickups, with a Jeff Beck in the bridge position, and set up for custom pick-up switching, by pulling out the volume and tone knobs I can switch to single coils in either or both positions. It comes with a locking floyd rose, has a reverse headstock, and a bonus of a fully fitted hard case.

Sound wise I play a large variety of music styles from blues to Very Heavy metal and funk to punk, with a bit of jazz thrown in for good measure. This guitar is unbelievably versatile, I can get just about any sound out of it that I want. The body is alder, and helps by being lightweight as opposed the the shoulder breaking les pauls, but it still has great sustain. The pick ups have great dynamics, and frequency response. I play it through a Marshall Valvestate 8240 stereo chorus amp, and many of my friends have commented on how amazing the setup sounds.

The finish is an Aztec gold see through lacquer, which looks absolutely fantastic, it was the first thing that drew me to this guitar when I saw it in a magazine. The action was setup just about perfect for my style low, but not too low so you can still use a bottle neck, and the trem stays in tune perfectly.

One small complaint, when I got the guitar, it seemed to be humming a lot when i ran distorted, being an engineer, I opened up the back and found that there was no grounding on the pot cases, so I fixed that, and now its fine.

This thing can handle everything I throw at it, I have moved it around with me so many times I can't believe it, and it also got lugged from england to the US, by boat 3 years ago when I moved over here. The trem stays in tune no matter how much ridiculous dive bombing you do. I would use this at a gig without hestation, and if I lost it for some reason I would replace it in a heartbeat.

Never really dealt with Hamer, but the music shop in England I bought it from made sure it was setup well, and, did a checkup for me after about a month of playing

I've been playing for 16 years now, and have played many different guitars over the years. I was given the chance by my wife to replace my hamer with a Les Paul (which had always been my ultimate guitar), and I declined the offer. I would never give up this guitar ever!!! I still like it more than anything else I've played, due to the feel the weight, the build, and the tonal felxibity

This is, I believe, a 1994 Hamer Diablo, "Made in Indonesia" stamped on the headstock, 24 frets, rosewood fretboard, it *had* 2 humbucker ducan designed pickups but i'll get back to that later, floyd rose bridge, locking nut, transparent green finish, 3 way selector, 1 tone 1 volume. It was suppose to come with a hamer case but the place i got it from was out so i got a free charvel jackson case instead, i fits fine so what do i care.

I used to play a lot of punk, now i play mostly metal, i keep it in drop D tuning and it suit the guitar fine. the guitar has a great sound, considering i play through a crappy peavey practice amp. My setup is guitar->digitech xp-100->boss metal zone->ibanez CF-7->vox wah->ibanez DE-7->EH small stone->peavey amp (i like effects, can you tell?) i use it to play tool, rage against the machine, etc. it suits that fine. The stock pickups were good but i switched 'em out for EMGs. I still keep 'em though, maybe i'll put 'em in another guitar. The only problem i had was the pickups would fade out after a couple of hours of playing, as soon as i put in the EMGs it was fine, this happened with another guitar of mine and i rewired it, fixed the problem right up, it wasnt the pickups, maybe it was the factory wiring....

the guitar was setup great, low action, didnt buzz, even in drop D. There wasnt a problem i could find, 'cept for the pickup problem which i fixed.

The guitar has withstood alot from me. i could probably depend on this guitar for a long time and i wouldnt hesitate to gig with it, i dont know why some people have serious problems with the floyd rose, i dont, it doesnt take me like 20 minutes to change strings

never needed to

This was my first guitar, i've been playing for about a year, and have owned other guitars, a dillion "special edition" that is neither a jaguar or a jazzmaster, and an ibanez bass, this one is definitely my favorite. it has the thinnest neck i've ever seen on a guitar, ive grown quite attached to it. One thing though, when i put in the EMGs i had to rout out the jack cavity cause it needed a stereo jack and it didnt quite fit, other than that, if anything ever happened to this one, i would search in vain for another one, i could never see a reason to stop playing this guitar (but if someone wanted to give me a les paul custom, hey, i'd be all for it)

This USA made Hamer has two duncan humbuckers, with 3 way switch. I would like it to have a little more versatility, but all three sounds are distinct and usable. Body is alder, neck is birdseye maple, with thick rosewood slab board. Cool, look. Very light weight on the shoulder, and comfortable to play. Solid feel, for a light guitar, frets are a bit too high for me. Only other problem is the Floyd Rose double locking system. It does what it is supposed to do, but its a Floyd! What a pain to change strings.

I play classic rock in a band, so I need maximum flexibility in sound. I get enough of a range with this axe that the band members (that are not tone deaf)prefer its sound over my G&L with humbucking single coils, and that one sounds very good. I use a Zoom multieffects pedal and a Tube Driver Rock overdriver and the thing is quiet, and more "bitey" than my G&L, especially on leads. Bridge pickup can get a decent tele lead sound, believe it or not, and the neck pickkup can get pretty mellow. With the treble most of the way up on the neck pickup, you can do BB King stuff and sound good.

Bought used, so I don't know about factory setup. I set this up originally with 10's, but this guitar likes 9's better. It is the only guitar I have strung with 9's, but they work better on this guitar. Plays just fine, but frets are a little high for my tastes. Neck is wide, flat and thinner than I prefer, more like a shredders neck. Pickups are great, I adjusted the polepieece for the high E string a little higher, to get it to scream on leads when I am up the neck.

Guitar is built wonderfully, Handmade, USA, solid design. Would not use it without backup because of the Floyd. Break a string and you take a twenty minute break. Nah, now it is my backup guitar. On problem, because it has the floyd Rose, there get to be allen wrench marks from adjusting, and it leaves small depressions in the top.

No experience here.

Been playing since before electricity. At the price I paid, I am extatic about this bargain. Pro sound, easy on the back. well made and a bargain, did I mention that? It's not perfect but you could do worse at triple the price.

it made in korea,2pieces strat style maple body,maple neck and rosewood fretboard,it has 2 humbuckers PU 2 control(1 tone,1 vol) amber sunburst finish,it install double locking tremolo,noname tuning machine

it suit for overal music,less bass and not hot ,i buy it from used shop it about 480$ if you want new!! but i paid 150$ for it,the sound not bright,it quite dark it's got the "simple sound",i thing it good for under 400$

the neck is very strengh!!, that it couse buzzing,

good!

This guitar was made in the USA before 1994. It has a double cutaway body made of Alder that is finished in high gloss black lacquer; the neck is made of Maple, has a satin finish and a reverse headstock; the fingerboard is made of Rosewood and has 24 tall/narrow frets. The body starts at the 18th fret and has deep cutaways which makes it very easy to reach the highest frets. The hardware is made by Schaller and consists of chrome tuners, a locking nut and a Floyd Rose II style bridge. The pickups are by Seymour Duncan (H/H) which are controlled with a 3 way switch, a volume pot and a tone pot. The guitar came with an excellent hardshell case. The features are excellent as far as I'm concerned: it's exactly what I was looking for! So I'll leave the rating for this category blanco because it may not be for everybody...

This guitar is very resonant and has a lot of sustain acoustically. The amplified sound suits my needs just fine: clean sounds are clean and distorted tones are smooth. I play a variety of music, but mostly progressive rock. It has medium output and the same sound options that you find on a Les Paul (bridge, combo, neck).

This was the best (not too expensive!?) guitar in the store: the workmanship was excellent! The neck joint for example is seemless and very sturdy.

I only got my Diablo a couple of months ago, but I'm sure it will last a lifetime...

I don't know yet!

I have been playing close to 13 years and this is my first 'real' guitar, because up until now I built and designed my own guitars. My old guitars where hard to play and simply weren't as reliable as I wanted them to be. I looked for an adequate replacement over the period of the last two years and the Diablo had the features and specifications I was looking for. The playability is fantastic. I also like the fact that it isn't a guitar you see very often like a strat, Les Paul or Ibanez RG, so in this way I'm kinda original...

1993 USA made Hamer Diablo. This guitar has an alder body, birds-eye maple neck, with a pao ferro fretboard (24 frets). It has 2 humbuckers (Seymour Duncan JB and )and a 3 way selector switch, one volume and one tone. It has a sunburst-type finish (really nice, but different) over a rounded strat-style body. A really nice Floyd Rose tremolo and really good tuners. The neck is pretty fat, but has a smooth, fast feel (it is a 25 1/2" scale). Plus it comes with a custom fitting case!!!

I play Progressive/Death metal and this suits it VERY WELL. It has great pickups and a smooth feel. It has a thick, refined sound (very articulate)

Hamer does a good job of putting their guitars together. This one was perfect from the start. Not one little problem.

5 years and still plays like it did when it was brand new. VERY realiabile; it has never crapped out on me. ROCK SOLID!!!!

Hamer is a good company (they were better when they weren't as large)but I have never had any problems with them.

I have been playing for a while and this is one of the nicest guitars I have ever played. I would buy it again in a heartbeat(but I have heard a few bad things about the newer ones)