NGD - Hamer Unicorn

Bennyboy-UK

Just this week something very special arrived.

This is my ultimate Hamer.

I'm a massive Hamer bore and to someone afflicted like me this thing is as HOT as it gets.

Take a look at this thing in the sunshine this week!

 
What the hell is it?
It's a Hamer Jeff Watson Signature Model made in 1992. These never featured in any catalogues or on any price lists, they were custom order only and genuinely rare.

There were a few dozen made in total between about 1988 and Hamer closing in 2014. A run of 30 was made for the Japanese Market in 95-96 which were mainly black and gold top.

Heres the only slightly dated advert - I'll be nailing that pose presently!



Jeff had previously had some custom Hamer Vs including a double-neck 'W' - those were one offs for him - and I think he still has the W.

Jeff and Brad Gillis were Hamer users whilst in Night Ranger - Brads old red Strat had a Hamer neck made and fitted to it for a spell.

This model was designed between Jeff and the Hamer team in the late 80s. Heres a quick quote from Jeff the other day on his facebook page when discussing this model and my example with him.

"We designed it together to allow both tapping and left hand access to all 27 frets. They built beautiful pieces, with my neck specks (sic), weight, carved back, etc Just a great relationship with a top notch guitar company."

Jeffs original spec for the guitar was to have a tunomatic bridge and fine tuning tailpiece or regular stop tail, however this one has a Floyd rose - which is useful to me, and I think suits the design.

Other Special Watsons

This of which this is one of two made with the locking trem. 

The other one with a Floyd was made for Nancy Wilson of Heart, and that guitar also included a Sustainiac - pretty cool - here it is below:






Nancys guitar was auctioned in 2013 in the US for a pretty penny.

(Interestingly (to me) Nancys Watson is the previous serial number before the transparent green Custom Vintage S (made for Bob Davis) which I play a lot, and next SN was for a double-neck Californian Made for Tommy Shaw.)

Neil Zaza had one made with scalloped frets different pickups and switching and dot inlays - which looks awesome too.



Waited yonks for it!
I bought this guitar in almost  exactly 2 years ago to the day from a collector I know in San Francisco whom I've purchased a few special Hamers from over the years - he also owns Nancy Wilsons, and Neil Zazas Watsons amongst others.

I had this guitar shipped to Mike Shishkov (ex Hamer top builder) to do a little bit of a touch up on a couple of areas of finish - and things ended up delayed for a few reasons Covid being one of them, so I ended up shipping the guitar over for the final leg last week.

Thats a long wait but - I'm totally thrilled with it - its a wonderful, wonderful thing!

Spec
One piece Honduras mahogany body
Three piece maple set neck with a little bit of figuring - 25.5" scale length
Mega Figured maple top
27 frets on a 14" radius Ebony board
Mother of Pearl crown inlays - with mini crown, and side dot on the angled binding at
Schaller M6 mini machine heads
Schaller FR and furniture
PJ Marx Pickups


Pickups
The pickups are interesting - as a 92 guitar this guitar would have been built with Seymour Duncan units - in fact I have found a photo of this exact guitar from years back with SDs installed. Somewhere along the line someone has put a PJ Marx set in to recreate the original spec from the 80s.

Jeff Watson originally specified his signature PJ Marx Humbucker to go into this guitar, (Brad Gillis also had a signature PJ Marx Humbucker too), along with a PJ Marx single coil.

While Brads was a high output unit - Jeffs was a lot less so.

In anticipation of this one landing I sourced and bought some more PJ Marx pickups in order to have spares for this guitar, and to use in other guitars if I was bowled over. They are pretty scarce.

Here is a video of Gary Moore playing a Heritage LP with PJ Marx pickups and the tone is pretty fierce:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0nKJFVVoYM


PJ Marx himself is long out of the pickup game - theres precious little info about his pickups out there - please tell me more if you know more

These days he's making special ammunition for home defence... ahem...

Whacking a multimeter across the pickups in this guitar the neck unit reads 9k ohms, and the bridge humbucker reads 6.5k ohms.

I know DCR is not an accurate measure of output but the guitar tones between pickups are superbly balanced - in between selector 'sounds' out of phase to me - which is a useful tone to have.

Anyway - more pictures front and back.





 

 
What do you reckon?

Kittyfrisk

I think you know way too much about Hamers...  
Enjoy very mutchly  

Lodious

Looks amazing, and great write up! I

FelineGuitars

It's nice . I saw the thread on the Hamer group and Jeff joined in too which is v cool.

Hamer are one of my inspirations - congrats on getting such a cool axe

Funkfingers

Well, that's one Hamer model that evaded the clutches of @HarrySeven

I imagine that he would prefer a fixed bridge.

Schmo

Super cool axe - I'm a massive NR fan, so this is a special piece for me too. IIRC was PJ Marx not NR's guitar tech ? Also big fan of Sambora's early Hamer Explorers...congrats & enjoy !

prowla

I reckon that is a rather nice looking guitar!

guitars4you

wow - that is obviously your specialist subject to go on Mastermind with - wow awarded - should be a super wow

And a nice bit of kit as well - Can't ever recall seeing one in the flesh only pics

Talking of rare-ish Hamer's I've had a T51 on the bench this week on behalf of a customer for a set-up

CHRISB50

I always lusted after Hamers in the Guitarist ads. 

I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen one in person. 

That’s lovely. Enjoy! 

timmypix

Wow, wow and wow again - first for the guitar itself, then for your knowledge and passion, then for your explanation of just how special this guitar is. 

bassbora

Wow congrats that looks stunning

Mellish

Never owned or played a solid body. Frankly, didn't want to....

But I'd like to play that. Very nice mate. You must be very chuffed. Congratulations on your NGD  

AK99

prowla said:

I reckon that is a rather nice looking guitar!

Yup. Even the shot showing the carve and grain at the rear of the body would be enough to set my want-juices in motion.

hollywoodrox

Awesome congratulations , great history too night ranger are ace 

prowla

The ony criticism I have would be to the usefulness of the frets at the angled end of the fingerboard - you'd have to be telling yourself "don't bend the string!!!" all the time.

Offset

That's just a bit special.  Congrats.

axisus

I'll be honest, I never liked the look of Hamer guitars, but that one actually looks real cool! The first Hamer I've ever liked!

Philly_Q

@Bennyboy-UK that looks amazing!  I'd never noticed that weird little inlay at the 27th fret before.  Is this the first Watson model you've owned?  I thought - or maybe just assumed! - you already had one.

Bennyboy-UK

Philly_Q said:

@Bennyboy-UK that looks amazing!  I'd never noticed that weird little inlay at the 27th fret before.  Is this the first Watson model you've owned?  I thought - or maybe just assumed! - you already had one.

It is indeed the first one I've owned - although if one comes up for sale anywhere in the world - I'll be on that like a flash.

I've had a few Californians - and they're somewhat similar especially with 27 frets and HS pickup set up.

In fact I sold my last Cali a fortnight ago - which was actually the first Hamer I ever owned.



 

By comparison there were LOADs of Calis made

Although I will keep my eyes open because I would like a REALLY nice one

Philly_Q

Dare I ask how many Hamers you've got?  Don't say if you prefer not to. 

Bennyboy-UK

HAHA - I must admit it fluctuates - Hamers are by far the most populous of the guitars I have - others are mainly EBMM with one BC Rich USA in there for good measure.

I sold a lot of my guitars over the past couple of years - maybe 15 or so - Californians, Centauras, Steve Stevens, Special FM, Chaparral Custom.

I reckon I'm under 20 Hamers at present? - but they are all mega.

The idea being to concentrate on a much smaller number of the Custom order specials, and particularly excellent examples of the production models.

In the couple of months - I've bought one - the wonderful 79 Sunburst from Cam @funhouse - and sold that Cali - so that nets out!

I'm at critical mass now - there are none I'd consider selling.

I'm focused on finding some particular examples of models - down to the exact guitar - specific custom ordered guitars which are known about, but potentially unknown whereabouts - its a very exciting prospect for me to track these things down.

At the same time as I'm playing a lot more these days  after concentrating on work and family since the early 2000s.

I want to find a less precious guitar which would not be irreplaceable if damaged of stolen.

Something like my old Centaura with a maple neck which went through three owners in the last two years and is now with @grappagreen - I think it was his first Hamer - and I think he's got affliction now as well

It's not at all posh by comparison to some of these mad things I track down, but it's a bloody superb guitar.