HAMER GUITAR FACTORY TOUR 1987

THIS IS VINTAGE FOOTAGE OF A TOUR OF THE HAMER GUITAR FACTORY. LOTS OF GUEST GUITARISTS. RARELY SEEN FOOTAGE INSIDE HAMER'S ARLINGTON HEIGHTS FACILITY.

[@alsautner1732]

I got my first Hamer Guitar in 1985 and I put it in a case and never played it. I looked at it yesterday and it is still like new in the case. Plays beautiful and sounds great. I have my Sunburst guitar USA like new.

[@uv77mc85]

what a waste

[@Schnitzengruben]

As a long time Hamer fan, I watched this video many times, it's just hilarious... RIP Hamer.

[@SARATT69]

Thanks!!! I really appreciate it. I recorded the segment on VHS back in 1986.

[@gustanoid]

@@SARATT69 and here we are in 2020 still loving these instruments

[@auntjenifer7774]

What's so comical about this segment !? I don't find any of it funny but I'm just kind of looking for info on why my guitar is the best one in the whole world !?

[@altemu]

from an old Hamer ad "we don't have a custom shop....We are a custom shop!"

[@johnreddinger4904]

I wish I could afford to buy one now. I used to play when I was younger. I had two Fenders a 73 and 75. I needed money for a bill and sold them. I’m on disability and really can’t afford to buy a good one. I really love the watch Hamer Guitars sound.

[@draelyc]

I'm lucky enough to have three USA Hamers, and I'm a complete fanboi. Thanks for posting this vid.

[@paulthomasbranda7591]

Def Leppard, Palladium NYC ‘82. ALL HAMER that night. Explorer bass, Willis switching 2 Explorers b&w and Steve double cutaway. What a great show oozing of potential.❤

[@kreuzzer2845]

Very cool! My Virtuoso guitar is from here!!!great! Love this guitar!!

[@randombassguy5780]

That light-up Dusty Hill (RIP) Bass, damn what a beauty. I am lucky enough to get my hands on an '83 Blitz Bass and it is wicked.

[@kennethmeeker6369]

I have a hammer blitz guitar from 84 black and silver metal flake checkered 👍

[@randombassguy5780]

@Kenneth Meeker that finish sounds awesome, mine is off-white with lacquer cracks. I kinda like the hamer blitzes/standards better than traditional explorers.

[@Rob9mm]

Bud ordered one, fell off a ladder and had his arm in a cast for months. Beautiful quilted maple. All he could do was look.

[@Demiglitch]

Interesting piece of history.

[@blackrichard1029]

I enjoyed the clip w/ Clapton and Collins at the end.

[@Jhihmoac]

I once worked for the machine shop that made ALL their (Dantzig designed) hardware before the Floyd Rose switch in the mid 80s that almost every guitar manufacturer was making.... Many say that their own hardware made the guitars better sounding than the later Rose stuff did...Our shop continued to make the truss rods and specialized bridges for their 12 string bass models before the company was sold to Kaman Music Corporation in 1988 and then moved to Connecticut sometime in the mid 90s... KMC was then bought up by Fender, whom discontinued the Hamer brand for about 4 years in 2009... As of 2013, Fender has resumed the Hamer line under KMC... However, neither Jol Dantzig nor Paul Hamer are associated with it... Dantzig now designs and manufactures his own line of specialty and custom made guitars in California...

[@auntjenifer7774]

I had no idea fender got Hamer in the early 2000's ! But I've got the 2017 Flame maple top Hamer Vector Flying V made in the world Indo factory that makes PRS SE and other high end import guitars like ESP and such ! Honestly this Hamer Vector Flying V is my new favorite guitar and I haven't looked at my GIBSON let alone taken it out of the case since ! I'm now on the hunt for a 2017 Hamer special double cut p90 Jr from the same initial batch from 2017, but not to say the older Chinese ones aren't good, they are very good but there was some really cheap crappers that carried the Hamer name on the early 90's that just sucked ass and were inferior to even the Epiphone Jr of the time ! But these modern 2000 import Hamer branded are great !

[@Jhihmoac]

@aunt jenifer - IDK... Maybe you're ready for the last vestage of true Hamers AND the very best! In my opinion, the ones that retain _ALL_ the original classic Hamer Quality and design _BEFORE_ the days of the Floyd Rose/Ovation-Kaman/Fender imported BS - are the Jol Dantzig Design Brand signature series... But, with their extreme choice quality wood and their original hardware (all made from blueprints derived from the original ones Jol himself drew up in the 70s), every unit is made in a very limited supply and rest assured, these primo axes are gonna carry a price tag comparable to a vintage American Classic Sratocaster... Who knows? Maybe even a Steinway piano!

[@angusorvid8840]

I always loved Hamer. They made some of the best instruments ever. But I do remember a not-so-great period in the mid to late 80s when they had quality issues with their necks. I just knew too many players and guitar techs in L.A. who were having issues with Hamers like necks splitting when truss rods were adjusted or wobbly neck joints. This coincided with the Floyd Rose craze. I did know a player who had a white Scarab with a Kahler and that had a wobbly neck joint. Besides that, most Hamers I tried were extremely well made. Hamer Explorers built in the 70s were more well-built than Gibson Explorers from the last four decades. I also loved the Phantom, Prototype, Sunburst, etc. Although they had Floyds, which were never my thing, I loved the Chapparal Strat, Tile and Steve Stevens II. They either came with Duncans, OBLs or Hammer Slammers.

[@Jhihmoac]

@Angus Orvid - That was well into the Floyd Rose crap which wreaked havoc upon the necks, AND also the KMC buyout, which put cheaper, inferior materials into certain wood portions of the guitars themselves... The old (pre 1985) style wood body and neck components, trem assembly, spring block, bridge, rod, saddles, even the whammy bar (if equipped) and etc. hardware were all custom designed by Jol Dantzig himself back in the early 70s, and they were always engineered to work tonally and properly with everything else... In the early days, Hamer was literally a limited production company that custom built guitars FOR accomplished guitar players, BY accomplished guitar players!

[@Enoch-Gnosis]

Great guitars back in the day !

[@Hamerguy68]

I have a few Hamer guitars (and one bass too), though no custom made ones. But the stock ones are nice players too. Also have a pink Chaparral model. Those were cool times.

[@GUlTARlST]

I wish Hamer USA could reproduce the Phantom guitars!

[@GreenMeanie101]

Would love to have that PINK hamer in the vid.

[@soundpainter2590]

Green Meanie I'll sell you a Pink Hammer for $200... Really !

[@flyonwall360]

In a perfect world, Hamer world return and bring back the Chaparral Custom.

[@TrebleMidBass]

@deapwavelio so fender bought hamer and fender own every right of hamer? for my taste i would prefer only the superstrat jackson/kramer style hamers good ol 80's hamer

[@LioFuzz]

@padawan007 What Hamer is dead? Fender has a costumshop with the name Hamer and is this one. Hamer Monaco Elite is their Les Paul style guitar and I want one.

[@Turboy65]

Hamer was building Gibson pattern guitars to PRS quality standards many years before Paul Reed Smith had made his first guitar.

[@Ibaneddie76]

The factory kind of tour was cool but what the hell, Phil Collins playing drums with Clapton in 86? Where is the rest of that?

[@tomaslopez2940]

3:01 Still true in 2023, even after they moved production overseas...

[@TrebleMidBass]

HAMER,KRAMER tooo bad that both of companies are dead

[@LioFuzz]

@padawan007 Cool.

[@zipchtkdn7804]

No CNC

[@CardgamesonYoshi]

@padawan007 No Hamer is still kicking, I've got a custom lety Vector XT series by them

[@hotpaws99]

Yeah, but this is the USA factory. All hand made. Now Hamer is made in China. Not even in the same ballpark as far as quality goes.

[@themetalghost]

And Clapton ruins cool behind the scenes footage lol jk