Hamer Echotone

This is an update of my recent review of this guitar mostly intended as a clarification since I feel, after reading bPlayer's review. I may have done this guitar an injustice by referring to it as a "budget guitar" not realizing that that expression automatically implies "cheaply made", something this guitar isn't. I only meant that its affordable to the average joe.

I habitually refer to all guitars under $700 as a "budget guitar" in a world where some of my guitars cost $2000+. It's an arbitrary thing I tend to do. By no means did I mean to imply this is some low cost entry level guitar with compromised "budget" quality. This is a pro guitar that rivals a Gibson ES-335 and several people online have said its as good or better. You be the judge. I'm too busy aiming for a Hamer Monaco III to care.

The quality of my korean echotone is not only top notch, it has become one of my favorite guitars especially now that I have my string action set up perfect and tended to a few maintenance issues. I have added Duncan PAF style bridge pickup which was the plan from the beginning.

I've also since added a used Hamer Californian to my collection of guitars which is perfect.

I purchased this guitar second-hand for $350. It is a beautiful red colour. It is somewhat heavier than a Gibson ES 335. Apparently, it was made in Korea, but I can't be 100% certain. I may replace the tuners with a more expensive, stable set at some point, but this is far from being an urgent requirement.

The Echotone seems heavier than a Gibson ES 335, but it has better sustain than the Gibson (see below).

This guitar has excellent tone. In fact, one particularly experienced guitarist colleague who also builds guitars told me that in his opinion, this Hamer has richer tone and better sustain than any Gibson ES 335 he has ever owned or played, in spite of the fact that the ES 335s bodies are made with more expensive woods and their necks have bone nuts. Another colleague also thinks that this Echotone has better sustain than any ES 335 that he has played. Others on this site will disagree with the above assertions, but I wanted make the point that the Hamer Echotone is much more than an ES 355 for people on a budget. It's a great guitar, period.

My guitar tech has offered to replace the plastic nut with a custom-carved bone nut for $60, but has also said that in view of the already great sound of this instrument, it's certainly not required.

In the words of my guitar tech, "unlike some brands like Epiphone, Hamer doesn't make cheap guitars" and he is particularly taken with the workmanship on this instrument- "great construction and finish".

When I bought the guitar second-hand, the set-up was not great. After a professional set-up, it became a pleasure to play.

Unlike some much more expensive instruments that I own, this guitar has had no maintenance issues whatsoever.

I have never had a reason to contact Hamer, so I have no opinion.

If you are in the market for a hollow-body electric, try this guitar, even if you can afford something more expensive.

It's a very good copy of a Gibson ES-335. Bought it used in 2006 for $250 and I knew it had electrical issues. Beautiful red finish, this one of the best looking guitars I've ever seen. The binding, neck,
frets all wonderful. I had to fix a grounding problem and a bad pot, so while I had it apart I replaced all 4 pots the wiring and the pickups. This allowed me to check out the internals, the wood construction is first class. Can't say I like the tuners too much and that's why I gave it a 9 and not a 10.

Both the neck and bridge pickups were nothing to brag about, even though the were stamped Hamer. They weren't bright nor were they muddy. They both sounded very similar and boring. Replaced the pickups with a set of GuitarHeads Alnico Supremes. Now I would rate the sound as a 10, but only after 3 hours of work and a Humbucker transplant.

reat all around. Setup was very minimal, bridge required slight adjusting, again I don't like the tuners.

This is not a toy, it has size and weight. It is build very solid and feels solid in hand. The finish may be prone to scratching due to its bright glossy luster. I use a high grade car polish as a precaution.

Bought it used, and I Doubt I'll ever need Hamer Customer Support. If it got damaged to the point that I'd need a lutherier, I'd just buy another.

Only been playing for 4 years and own three electric's, a Custom Strat, a Nuno Washburn N4, and my EchoTone. This is a Great guitar for a great price, there might be one other ES-335 copy on the market that's as good
a value.. I'd buy another if something were to happen to this one.

Its hamer's low cost budget copy of a Gibson 335 I guess.
It has all the features you would expect to find on a typical 335 copy so I gotta give it a 10 for features since its not missing any (unless you consider a varitone a feature which this doesnt have). Yah, it would be cool if it came with a jet pack, but......ok.... 10.
Sure, i wish it had fancy frilly things like a "bone nut" and "tone pros bridge" and "high end locking tuners" but... this is a budget guitar. The purpose of this guitar is to be able to rock'n Roll on a stage several hundred miles away from the poorhouse.

I have the model that I think is made in korea? It has an input jack on the side (as opposed to top like my previous chinese echotone) and I assume this is the model with the duncan design humbuckers. My pickups are covered and it doesnt say "duncan" on the covers or anything,but, I will assume they are.

At first I wasnt terrifically moved by the tone, that is, until I recorded a mix with it. This guitar rocks under distortion. It has just a good raw rock and roll tone. Not a "PAF" rock tone but.. .rock nonetheless. (I was never able to plug my chinese echotone in, so, I cant comment about the stock hamer pickups on that version. I sold it before I had time to fix my amp).
I dont play the blues. I rock and I was happy with the end result of my demo recording. The guitar was the perfect blend of bright, lively and charismatic.

But you know, so many pickups so little time. I will likely throw something else in there made by duncan. The stock pickups are not bad, however. I just prefer the traditional PAF tone.

Unplugged, this guitar had a nice bright jangly tone which is why I bought it. I have a rare discontinued epiphone semihollow and as much as I love that guitar... its too dark sounding. So I bought this guitar to be the polar opposite of that particular epi. When I strum the strings... it rings as opposed to thuds.
Praise Hendrix!
The sustain? When you play an open G chord, be prepared to have someone feed you intravenously while waiting for it to quell. Sustain is a NON ISSUE on this guitar. If you need more sustain, you are holding your chords too long. Change chords already.

I also like that this guitar can get loud and punchy when you really dig in a pick hard.

I have had two echotones. Korean and china. I had the "made in china" version for a very short while. That one had a much thinner neck and much better fretwork. NIGHT and DAY compared to my korean. Loved that neck a lot. I sold that guitar to make room for high end guitar I bought but I missed it so much, I bought another echotone.
I didnt know there was a "made in korea" version of the echotone and thats the one I bought (used). I was shocked at first by the difference. The neck was much thicker which bummed me out at first (I'm a small hand guy). Now I think I actually prefer it chunky. The input jack was on the side rather than top (not a big deal to me). The fretwork was nowhere near as nice as the chinese I had. The nut on the korean SUCKED BUTT (the chinese nut KICKED butt). I'm not even sure the nut is seated properly on my korean. It seems higher than it should be. I am not saying the korean model sucks. Oh quite contrary. It totally rules. I'm only being comparative to my former chinese version.

But, alas, enough with the girly whining. I LOVE this guitar. Its superior to most anything else I've played of its type in its range. Semi hollows are my main style guitar these days. This guitar requires a little work. A new nut (or work on my existing nut. A tech will have to decide that), a little more polishing/dressing of the frets and a string set up and it will RULE THE PLANET. I'm positive of that.

The tuners are ok but I too am having "binding" problems with one string in the nut. Thats an easy fix. A little graphite and maybe a run thru with a file and that should be a problem of the past. The tuners stay in tune otherwise very well.

Overall this is a VERY well made guitar. The weakness is the nut (on my guitar anyways. Yours may vary for all I know). Its not very bad but I swear it seems like its just a tad too high. Maybe filing the string grooves deeper will solve that problem. I dont know.

Man this is a SOLID guitar. With normal maintenance I expect this one to last a lifetime if I was so inclined to keep it that long.
But.... I'm having problems with the pickup selector. For some reason it sometimes pops up from the bridge position to the center position as if there is a prankful ghost trying to lure me to suicide. Easy fix: NEW SWITCH.
Other than that ... this guitar can be used as housebuilding material in earthquake country.
I havent played this guitar live yet (my live performances are kind of sparse these days) but I would have no qualms about gigging with it once I've dealt with its minor deficits.

Meh. I dunno. I've never personally dealt with them.

I've been playing since I was tiny boy (about 20 years+). I own a bunch of guitars (mostly peaveys, high end epiphones, low end gibsons, MIM fenders and a couple high end ibanez guitars).

I am a new Hamer fan. This guitar has really woken me up to hamer's line and I have since tried a few of their high end guitars and LOVE em. So, its inevitable that I will get rid of this guitar as a trade up into the high end of the hamer line. Or I may just keep it. I havent decided. Overall this is a great great guitar for the money. Like any budget import guitar, you may have to put some work into it to bring it up to your snotty pro standards but this is so close already you might not even bother with all that.

I have never owned a gibson 335 but I couldnt resist the urge to try the gibson 335 at a shop in New York City for comparison sake. Yes, the gibby was a better guitar. The neck was a bit better feeling (compared to my korean echotone. My chinese neck may have actually been better than the gibby.). The fretwork of the gibby was better than my korean echotone BUT.. overall the gibson 335 wasnt ONE MILLION FREAKEN DOLLARS BETTER than either of my echotones. After trying the gibby I began to feel even better about the Hamer. WHAT A BARGAIN.
I would recommend this guitar to anyone needing a budget semi.
I haven't decided which I like better. The Korean or the Chinese? I prefer the chunky neck of the korean a little more than the thinner neck chinese but the chinese just felt more "polished" or something with better fretwork. Tough call. I have to give the echotones a 10. I'm tickled silly over them. Fantastic value.

If you're reading this you already know

I was just playing this thing unplugged while my parts order was being processed. It blew me away with it's tone. then i plugged into a Fender deluxe...

I have a Peavey Classic 30 and an early 80's Fender Princeton Chorus. This thing is so versatile. it has so many different tones that actually sound good it's hard to believe they all come out of one guitar it'll go from jazzy to full rock to anything in between. Incredible guitar for the price

I always set up my guitars myself. The factory strings were rusty. Only real complaint I have is the wood grain looks kind cheap, but I put tone ahead of looks anyway. The pup selector was loose, but a lock washer fixed that easily enough. I put on Grover tuners just as a precaution, and I also put a Bigsby on it in keeping with the vintage vibe.

This thing will easily stand up to live playing. The finish is holding up just fine, & i always use strap locks. I depend on all of my axes. If they can't hold up they are useless to me. I had thought about new pups, but every time I play it I decide it's fine the way it is

n/a

Been playng for 30++ yrs, I have 13 gutars currently If stolen I would be real upset n have to hurt somebody Been wanting a 335 for some time but couldn't justify the big $$$ this scratches that itch for under 600 with case, plus it actually is a great guitar! Looks good, sounds great hard to beat this guitar value

Well described by the hundred or so other reviewers - ES335 style guitar, made in Korea, Duncan Design Humbuckers,stop tailpiece and tunomatic bridge. Mine is an absolutely beautiful two tone vintage sunburst. Bound body and neck. Rosewood fretboard, medium frets, klusonesque tuners. Output jack is on the side (my preference) - the new Chinese-made echotones have top-mounted jacks ala Epiphone and the others. I bought this one used, without a case (but my friends at GC gave me a great price on a really nice SKB case)for it.

I play jazz and some blues through a Marshall Acoustic Soloist. This guitar produces very tasty clean tones and great jazz tones with plenty of definition and clean bass (important as I drop tune to D frequently). Cranked up a bit for the blues - it sings! From my point of view, there is no need to swap out the pickups.I mostly use the neck pickup, sometimes with just a little bridge for accent. With the bridge kicked up, it produces plenty of bite and twang. No dislikes here.

I bought this one used at my friendly Guitar Center during a recent G.A.S. attack. It was perfectly clean and very well set up by its previous owned and came with Flatwound 13s, which I replaced with new flatwound 11s. The action was perfect and the neck dead straight with well-finished frets. Don't know if the previous owned put some dough into this one, but it was perfect. Electronics were first rate. This is a really beautiful guitar and the finish was nicer than the Gib$on I compared it to (for a few thousand bucks less). I particularly like the relatively slim neck. The Epiphone I played it next to felt like a baseball bat in comparison. The Epiphone sounded weak next to this guitar and I thought the Gib$on was comparable. All around, I liked the Hamer the best.

This is no light weight guitar - literally, it is on the hefty side. But, it also has a really solid feel to it. Very substantial strap buttons.Looks very well made. This is a little bit older Korean model so I don't know how the newer Chinese-made models compare.

Don't know. Doubt if I'll ever need it. I have a really great lutherier here that I use.

I have owned more guitars that I care to name, including some pretty expensive ones (Gretsch, Godin, Ibanez, Fender, Gibson, etc.)At the moment this is moy only electric and I am very pleased with it. I also own a Tanglewood TW-73 with a Fishman Acoustic Matrix pickup (very tasty, all solid wood, handmade, parlor acoustic). My current amp is a Marshall Acoustic Solist (AS50D), which turns out to be a great jazz amp as well as a great acoustic amp. OVerall, I'd have to give this guitar a 10, as it is all I could want in terms of quality and sound. If I were dumb enough to loose it, I'd be sad and look for another just like it.

Flame maple top blonde finish, Gold hardware, 335 copy style. Tones are coil taps, 2 humbuckers. Huge Neck. Prototype one off import...China made. Great artistry for an import. Duncan design pu's

SICK 335 tones, gainy , fat...just massive tones.

Great all around. Setup was very minor minus some cheesy hardware.

I busted one of the pickup frames in half, but just replaced it and had no issues. This thing can take a beating.

Hamer customer service some of the best in the business.

Great guitar for great price.

My EchoTone is Korean-built, probably from 2001 or 2002. It's the tobacco sunburst finish, and it has the "Duncan Designed" humbuckers in it. Other than that, the descriptions given in other reviews would fit here as well: solid maple top and back, keystone tuners, double cutaway with F-holes like a Gibson ES-335.

This is a positively gorgeous instrument. It gets a "Wow!" every time I pull it out of the case.

I play through a Fender Blues Junior (a 15-watt tube amp), using an Ibanez TS9 Tubescreamer for overdrive. My musical style ranges from jazzy blues to straight ahead rock and roll.

I absolutely love the sound of this guitar. The neck pickup is warm and woody when played clean, and fat and round when I kick the overdrive on. The bridge pickup is bright without being too sharp, and when I play it with the overdrive, it provides a very powerful, ballsy punch. The middle position is nice as well, though less distinctive than either pickup alone. Quite a range of possibilities!

No noise from the pickups. A minor buzz issue related to setup was easy to eliminate. (See below.)

I bought this guitar used, so I can't speak to how it came out of the factory. It definitely needed a setup when I got it, but hey, it had just traveled 1000 miles in the back of a cold FedEx truck. Once it was set up, it was in great shape.

In addition to the normal truss rod adjustment, I had to have the pickup selector switch replaced because it was slipping from the neck position to the middle position. The tech eliminated a bit of buzzing by cleaning out the notches in the bridge and putting some cork and felt under the pickguard to keep it from rattling. Now that it's been set up properly, it's a tight little package.

Unlike some reviewers, I have no complaints about the tuners, other than appearance. They hold their place about as well as the locking Fender Schallers I have on my Strat.

I haven't had the guitar long enough to address its durability, but I anticipate many years of happy playing. Sure, it's more delicate than a solid body guitar, but I'm fairly careful with my instruments, and it came with a great fitted hardshell case, so I'm not worried.

No experience with Hamer, but the Ebay seller ("heartland auctions") was fantastic. He hadn't noticed the issue with the pickup switch when he listed the guitar, but he still offered to pay for the repair. I give him a 10, but since that's probably irrelevant to you, I'm marking this "No Opinion."

I've been playing a little over ten years, but I've only gotten into electric guitars during the past year and a half or so. I've got an imported Strat that I enjoy, but I really wanted to get something semi-hollow with dual humbuckers (in other words, something in the ES-335 family).

I played several Epiphone Dots, a couple Epiphone Sheraton IIs, a handful from the Ibanez Artcore series, a few lesser known 335 knockoffs, and even a real 335 with a $2500 price tag. This guitar was easily the best of the imports, and no way would I spend all that extra money just to get the Gibson name on the headstock, especially since I don't think it really sounded a whole lot different. At $309 (plus shipping) including the case, the bang for the buck was incredible.

I bought this 2005 "made in China" used echotone off someone for S$200. It has a 5mm thick 3 ply maple cap(i removed all the electronics to take a look). The configurations are the standard 2 tone and 2 volume pots and equipped with 2 passive Hamer humbuckers. It has a 2 tone sunburst finish with minor binding untidyness at the neck joint. The body is maple and so is the neck. Its finish is better than the most Epiphone 335s that i have seen.

The neck pick up suits jazz and blues tones perfectly since i'm running it thru a POD XT Live(and even with just my Marshall microstack MG15). The bridge leaves something to be desired as its output is low and has inadequate defination for rock of blues. However, with the pick up selector to the middle, it sounds good enough to play mild rock tunes. I have since decided to replace them with Gibson 496R and 500T pick ups.

I usually do my own set ups though the axe came relatively well set up. One problem i noticed with the finish at the neck was that certains areas were not finished well. The gloss finish were coming out. I used a 600grit sand paper and gently sanded it down. Now its smooth and the sandpaper did not tarnish the finish due to its mildness. The set neck fit was perfect. I didnt like the look of the 14:1 gear ratio, white Keystone kluson style machine heads though they stay in tune. So, I am going to change it with a Schaller deluxe keystone ones with a gear ratio of 16:1. The 3 ply black finger rest looks very thin and i will replace it with a 3 ply thicker one.

I would use this guitar live when it upgraded. The chrome hard ware is good enough. I have since replaced the strap buttons to locking strap buttons.

I have had no interactions with Hamer and don't nee any customer support.

I have been playing for about 15 years and more seriously the last 5 years. Of the few guitars that i own, I think the echotone will be the better ones once i get all the upgrades done. the complains i have is that i wished Hamer used standard size cts pots rather than the cheap, smaller pots, switches, and inputs jack as well as bone nut instead of the plastic ones. Overall, I am happy with the axe for the price i paid for it

Paid $424 for guitar ($340) and case ($60). Model Year 2005. Korean made. Bought new at Firehouse Music (firehouseguitars.com) with a Gator Hard Case. Everything else has been discussed previously

I play anything from country to heavy metal using one of two amps (Fender Deluxe or Crate DX212 Digital). Both amps suit this guitar greatly. Very full sound. Bridge P/U is brighter than the neck P/U as expected, duh. Very versitile guitar. No dislikes at the moment.

I haven't had to touch anything, yet. Everything was perfect when I took it home from Firehouse Music. Beautiful guitar. I was looking for a Red Epi Dot, which thankfully this store had sold two days earlier. The EchoTone is a much more beatiful instrument than the Dot. No finish issues found anywhere. Nothing loose, noisy, poorly fit, poorly cut, rusted, etc... Just simply perfect.

I will find out soon if this guitar will withstand live playing. I've had it for only a week. Hardware seems very durable, with the exception of the Kluson style tuners. In a way, kinda twisted, I hope the finish does wear off a bit and make it look vintage. Strap buttons are solid and much bigger than anticipated. I always have a back-up guitar.

Haven't had to deal with them yet, but did wander through their website to register the guitar. Set up nicely, easy to navigate through.

I've been playing for roughly 25 years. I also own a Fender Telecaster, an Ibanez RG450 DXLH, and a Washburn acoustic. If the EchoTone were stolen, I would definitely replace it with the same thing. I love the tone, finish, pretty much everything. There is nothing, so far, that I hate about the guitar. Played the Epi Dot at one store then went to another store and played the EchoTone. I choose the EchoTone which was listed at a higher price, simply because it sounder better and felt better in my hands. I do wish it had Gotoh style locking tuners. I would like to say...GREAT JOB HAMER! THIS GUITAR IS AWESOME.