Hamer Newport

Double cutaway, carved spruce top, carved mahogany back and sides, Mahogany neck. Duncan Phat-cat pickups. Smallish 335 shaped body. Grover rotomatic tuners that look like Grover Imperials. 3 way pickup selector, 1 vol, 1 tone, Bigsby. Fairly fat neck that retains the same profile end to end.

It is, despite its look, an amazing sounding jazz guitar that can change in an instant to strat and tele sounds. It's uncanny. Best sounding pickups I've heard yet, punchy, bright, well defined even with the treble rolled off. Hugely versatile. For me, there is no guitar that sounds better than this.

The instrument is perfectly executed. The finish is a nice transparent orange with, and I can do without them, gold sparkle flecks all over. These are the only things I don't like about the instrument, but meaningless given the sound and playability. It's the highest quality instrument I've had in the 40 years I've played guitar. Nine for the gold flecks, otherwise ten.

I can hardly wait until it gets a little beat up and some weather checking, I think the patina will offset the goofy finish. But after a year of frequent gigging I'm afraid it's going to take a while for that because it has 14 coats of laquer and an unfortunately durable finish. I play live all the time and I only use one guitar unless I'm on something where I have to worry about breaking a string and won't have time to change. Otherwise for clubs I don't worry about it.

I don't know.

I've played for 40 years. I play different styles of jazz and blues type music. When I heard about the instrument, I thought no way, it doesn't look like a jazz guitar and it's goofy looking in a way. But in another way beautiful, but not something that I'd pick up because it looks like my type of guitar. When I played it though, I was completely gone, there was no turning back. Made my other instruments sound dull in comparison. I had to buy it. I didn't want to. I've even considered selling it, and I can't. I've owned probably 20 main guitars through my life, mostly big hollowbody jazz boxes. The resonance of this top, gives it the best woody sound of any of them despite the thinline design. It's like an evolution of ES330 meets the Byrdland. It's all the best features from guitars past rolled into one: Imperial style tuners, Mahogany Back and sides, spruce top, P90 type single coils, perfect big neck, Bigsby. There's nothing I can't do with this guitar. Sounds from Barney Kessel to Danny Gatton, and even my own somewhere in between. It's great. But I shouldn't have got the orange with gold flecks, I don't think the other finishes were available till later though. Oh well it's growing on me.

The guitar sounds amazing! If a word could describe the tone of this guitar, it would have to be 'passionate'.

I play the Newport through a Lexicon MPX-G2 and a Yamaha DG130/DG-S412V Speaker Cabinet configuration.

The action was maybe a bit too low when I bought it, so I had to
adjust it some myself. Over all, the guitar was beatifully crafted.
The cherry burst finish is just amazing!

After putting in some hours on the bigsby, the guitar could use another setup since it tends to go flat or sharp depending on the last push or pull of the tremlo bar.

I can't imagine why I couldn't depend on this guitar.

I've never dealt with them.

I've been playing for 18 some odd years and this is truly an inspiring instrument to play. This guitar is just a pleasure to play and it feels wonderful!!

Yes, I would buy another Newport in a heartbeat if mine were stolen :)

You know all the features from the other posts. I love the Bigsby, the Imperial tuners, the Fit and Finish, and the binding. All perfectly done.

I play Pop music (REM, Petty, Byrds, Police) and this guitar excels! The very useable tone control, turned to half, with the neck pickup, nails the 335 vibe. Tone wide open, bridge pickup, instant Rick/Tele sound. In the middle it has a sound all its own. Not as noisy as my tele with single coils.

No flaws in this beauty and the fit and finish are excellent. I never expect the pickups to be set perfectly as we all expect something differently. They were balanced, but I moved them both a bit higher for better break up.

The guitar is a hollowbody...proceed with caution. Feels ultra solid and has withstood my windmills and hard picking fine.

I have only used their dealer (Down Home Music, thanks Doug!).

I had my hollowbody jones and was ready to pull the trigger on a Paul Reed Smith Hollowbody. I posed the question to the PRS Forum with my expectations and the type of music that I play. The overwhelming majority on the Forum told me to try the Hamer Newport. They were right! The guitar exudes CLASS (With the exception of their name on the headstock...Come on guys! Would it have been that much work to put a little inlay versus the Silkscreen?- For this I will take off one point!)

I'm surprised more people haven't reviewed this instrument; it seems to be all the rage. As mentioned in the review before (or "below") mine, it has a bit of the ES-335 vibe: double cutaway, thin semi-hollow with the block to reduce feedback; but it has a solid carved spruce top, which is very nice. Two Seymour Duncan "Phat Cat" single-coil pickups, and a Bigsby. Just one volume and one tone control, which I like. I bought it used in April or May 2001; it was near mint, and it couldn't have been earlier than a 2000 model. It's the black cherry finish -- termed the "Montgomery Ward finish" by Matt Smith, but it's a sweet look. Has a nice set of Imperial tuners, I assume they're Grovers. Made in USA. Apparently the pickup cavities for the Phat Cats will accommodate humbuckers if you want to make that swap.

Very nice instrument. I took a chance because I bought it online and had never heard one in a store. I was hoping that the Phat Cats would pretty much give me a P-90 sound. It's a little more complicated. The Phat Cats are incredibly dynamically responsive; your picking attack has an enormous influence on your tone. They're just a little too "spanky" to be a true P-90 sound; but by the same token this is a more versatile instrument tone-wise. I don't think there are any pickups around that sound like these. With the neck pickup alone, you can get nice jazz and blues sounds. But at heart it's a rockabilly guitar, with the Bigsby and all. Very versatile instrument. Very well made, with nice appointments. The neck is a tad wider than I'm used (it seems to me somewhere between 1 11/16 and 1 3/4). With the solid spruce top and the Phat Cats, you get a lot for the money with this guitar -- it's easily a better deal than an ES-330 or ES-335, in my view.

Everything's fine. The frets (by design) hang a bit over the fretboard on both sides and catch the neck binding -- it's a cool look, but you can catch the high E-string on the fret when doing bends or pull-offs and that seems like a negative to me.

Couldn't say.

Never dealt with them. Them = "Hamer."

Not sure I'll keep it, but it's clearly an excellent guitar. Hamer made a lot of interesting choices in designing this instrument -- while it covers some of the territory of Gibson and Gretsch semi-hollows, the Newport is its own guitar. There's probably nothing on the market that exactly replicates it.

Much the same as the Newport Pro but with a Bigsby.Semi-acoustic, two f-holes, very 335 looking.Two Seymour Duncan phat-cat pick-ups seemingly specially designed for this guitar. Single tone and volume controls, three way switch. Bigsby trem, mahogany body, carved spruce top with nice wood matching.Ivory binding on body and neck. Fingerboard unfinished rosewood. Came with a nice hard-shell case.

With musical roots firmly in the 60's (Byrds, early Clapton) the Newport is ideal for this sort of sound. Plenty of jangle as well as a very BB King sound if required.A nice bright sound with plenty of depth. For me, the neck pick-up gives the best all-round sound. The bridge pick-up seems a little bright and sees to lose its edge when rolled off. Used through a Peavey Classic 30 it sounds just fine If distortion is your sort of thing it is very easy to get it to squeal like crazy and great for pinched harmonics! It really has a sound all of its own although leaning towards the Strat end of the spectrum rather than having the grunt of a Les Paul in spite of the humbuckers.

Played beautifully straight out of the box. Whether this was due to the set-up from supplier or manufacturer, impossible to tell. Low action and very easy to play. Wide,Gibson feel neck, although not nearly as deep as a Les Paul and much easier to play.Wide enough for easy finger picking. Bigsby is very stable and smooth. Very light in weight. Finish of this guitar is nothing short of amazing. Since it was bought unseen by mail order the color especially came as a surprise, a deep cherry burst with a really deep laquer. Almost too nice to gig.

It's a semi, so by definition its not going to take the hammering that a solid will. However it's very well put together and given reasonable care and attention should survive as long as its not stood on too often.

Apart from the impressive lifetime warranty (which incidently excludes claims against tone!) no comment except that Hamer have a web site with a section on specific queries.

Having played for over forty years this is a welcome addition to my guitars.(Les Paul, Strats and a Rickenbacher 12 string). Started out looking for a 335 but in the end delighted to have chosen the Newport. The only reservation might concern resale values where it might be outscored by the Gibson name. A really versatile good looking guitar capable of covering a wide range of styles and a delight to play.