Hamer DuoTone - any love?

TTony

Prompted by the enthusiastic reception given to a couple of US Hamers listed here FS, I wondered what the informed view was on this model?



AFAIK, it's a mid-90s US-built guitar.  This one has got a BKP MQ in the neck position in place of the original HB.

Views?

FelineGuitars

Makes sense - Kaman owned Hamer at the time and so it has Ovation acoustic p/u and bridge
Interesting chambering in them too

TTony

Cheers Jon @FelineGuitars. ;   See lots of comments re the Artists (I've got one of those too) but very little about these.  Beautifully made.

Didn't realise that it came out of the same organisation as the Ovations, so you've added to my knowledge!

FelineGuitars

Kaman bought Hamer in 1988. I was working for Shadow in early 1989 who supplied acoustic pickups to Ovation so ended up mixing with the Hamer crew at Music Messe show.

The DuoTone was introduced in 1994 as an acoustic/ electric stereo hybrid guitar. It features a semi-hollow mahogany body with a spruce top, a piezo pickup mounted in the bridge and three functionally tuned circular soundholes. The standard model came with two humbuckers, but in 1996 only, Hamer offered this model with P-90 pickups. The guitar sounds good in your band since P-90s are typically brighter than humbuckers, but not as crisp or tinny as Fender single coils. It also has acoustic capabilities with the piezo pickup, which is extremely useful when switching between acoustic and electric tones in the middle of a song. This guitar was introduced at the height of the alternative scene in the mid-nineties and several noted artists played the DuoTone including Stone Gossard of Pearl Jam, Chris Cornell of Soundgarden and Dweezil Zappa.

FelineGuitars

listened to this tonight ....nice interview with Hamer founder Jol Danzig

https://guitarbusinessradio.com/episode-76-jol-dantzig-creative-journey-with-some-common-threads/

Bennyboy-UK

These are pretty unusual especially in the UK, and they are their own thing with the combination of features. I know guys on the HFC who use them for practically every/any genre of music in various bands.

i love that one  

TTony

@Bennyboy-UK - any idea on value?

It's pretty clean - amazingly clean for its age - but not pristine.  With a Hamer branded case - looks original.

Bennyboy-UK

I’ve seen a few come and go over the last year or so, but not many - I’ll whack you a PM @TTony ;