22 Vintage Guitar June 2000 www.vintageguitar.com BY MICKAEL WRIGHT, WITH ANDREW The Different Strummer LARGE, STEVE MATTHES AND PETER FUNG cializes in repairing and restoring old in- struments, it’s not a big step to think about making your own, and in ’73 that notion put Hamer Guitars in motion. Dantzig and Hamer were well-matched in those early days. “Paul was the salesman. He liked to shake hands,” Dantzig explains. “I was the hands-on guy who liked to make gui- tars and do marketing. I’ve always been a gearhead.” Already deep into vintage lore, Dantzig and Hamer believed the golden age of guitars ended in ’63, and the last good guitars had been made. Fender instru- ments made after the CBS takeover in ’65 had gotten a bad rap from guitarists by the end of the ’60s, based in part on some quality control problems and the infa- ’73 Hamer Vee Bass, Hamer’s first ’76 Hamer Standard (#0017) with early mous three-bolt neck controversy (Fender instrument, with a ’50s PAF and DiMarzios, small logo and early thin, ’76 Hamer promotional sheet with endorsers. engineers felt four bolts were overkill and Gibson EBO at the bridge. long headstock. Courtesy Steve Matthes. they could save money without sacrificing stability; players didn’t see it that way). Basically, Dantzig and Hamer consid- ered most ’60s guitars a joke. Likewise contemporary Gibsons and Fenders. And Hamer Guitars they considered the copies emerging from Japan beneath their attention. Instead, High-end boutique or budget vintage? they decided to create their dream guitars, new guitars worthy of the respect they e didn’t quite get it,” ex- 1970, Dantzig was playing bass in a club “We would buy old Strats for $150, gave to the vintage ones. plains company cofoun- band called Heartbreaker. Through a Jazzmasters for $80,” he adds. Soon they The first Hamer guitar made (in ’73) der Jol Dantzig, discuss- friend, guitarist Gary Gant, Dantzig met were selling vintage guitars to some of the was a short-scale Flying V bass built for “W ing the birth of Hamer another guitar player named Paul Hamer, biggest bands of the time, including Bad Dantzig. It had no serial number, and Guitars. “It was kind of a mistake. When and the two struck up a friendship. One Company, Wishbone Ash, and many when it was done, Dantzig began to take it we created Hamer, we created the high- thing led to another and in ’73 Dantzig and other big-name outfits. And these con- to gigs. Other musicians would ask what end boutique guitar category, but we Hamer opened a music store called North- tacts would prove useful. it was and would be incredulous when told didn’t intend it that way. We were seeing ern Prairie Music in the northwestern Curiously enough, even back then their he made it himself. vintage ’50s Les Pauls selling for $3,000. suburb of Wilmette, Illinois. Among their best customers were not Americans. This first Hamer pretty much repli- We thought we could make guitars just as activities was buying bashed up old guitars “We used to literally sell crates of old cated a Gibson Flying V. It had a variety good and sell them for a third of that and banjos and restoring them for resale. guitars – maybe 75 instruments at a time – of pickups, though the bridge pickup was price. The irony was that to everyone They were, in fact, one of the early vintage to Australia and Japan, where buyers would always a Gibson EB-3. The neck pickup else, we were this upstart company sell- guitar stores, before there was such a thing pay twice what Americans would pay,” changed, finally landing on a Höfner ing guitars for twice the amount of the as the vintage scene we know today. recalls Dantzig, who quickly amassed a “staple” pickup. Dantzig still has that first most expensive Gibsons at the time! So “Vintage guitars were called ‘used gui- huge collection that included some of the bass. our perspective has always been a little tars’ in those days,” laughs Dantzig. “Af- earliest Broadcasters, P-Basses, Strats, and When asked why Hamer was chosen as skewed.” ter all, a late-’50s Les Paul was just a little Les Paul Standards – a stash many would the brand name, Dantzig replies, “Well, High-end or budget, there’s no doubt more than 10 years old.” kill for today. These, too, would come in we just thought Hamer sounded more like a guitar name than Dantzig. Besides, I es. Hamer Guitars have been successful and Dantzig and Hamer did well with their handy before long. earned the allegiance of players and col- business. Once you have a music store that spe- thought guitarmaking was going to be a lectors alike. The beginnings of Hamer Guitars (pro- nounced Hay’-mer, not hammer) go back to those heady days of the early ’70s, when Chi- cago was the breeding ground of soon-to-be- famous rock bands such as REO Speed- wagon, Styx, and Cheap Trick. Circa LEFT October ’75 ad for the Hamer Stan- dard dot-neck, endor- sed by Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick. RIGHT ’75-’76 Hamer catalog. Courtesy of Steve Matthes. All ads/reprints copyright Hamer USA Guitars. ’73 Hamer Vee Bass photo: Steve Matthes. ’76 Hamer Standard photo: Steve Matth subscribe @ 1-800-844-1197 Vintage Guitar June 2000 23 LEFT TO RIGHT May ’77 ad for the Hamer Standard with crowns and bound ’board. March ’77 ad for the Ultimates, Hamer guitar strings. ’77 ad featuring the V headstock of the Hamer 12-string. Courtesy Steve Matthes. Different Strummer short run and I’d end up a famous musi- der was from Ted Turner (VG, June ’92), cian or race car driver or something.” bassist for Wishbone Ash, who ordered an Then he quickly quips, “But Dantzig is still Explorer Bass with serial number #0001. available.” Martin Barre of Jethro Tull (VG, October The second Hamer was an Explorer ’97) also ordered an early Hamer. So did copy made for Paul in ’74. Dantzig isn’t their friend (and occasional jam partner) sure, but he thinks they may have gotten Rick Nielsen, of Cheap Trick (VG, Janu- the plans from another Chicago luthier ary ’92, September ’97). “That’s how he named Jim Beach. Apparently, a number ended up with #0000, which he still has,” of people around town were beginning to recalls Dantzig. “We took so long to make make copies of Gibson designs. In any his guitar that we just gave him Paul’s to case, Dantzig and Hamer decided to build satisfy him.” a hybrid of their favorite guitars. They In ’76, a meeting was called with every- ’78-79 Hamer catalog. Courtesy Steve Matthes. copied the Explorer shape but added the one who worked at Northern Prairie Music flamed maple top and binding of a Les – Dantzig, Hamer and two repair guys. It Paul Standard. The guitar was finished in was held in Dantzig’s Volkswagen Mini- a cherry sunburst lacquer. Pickups were bus. They reasoned their shop was selling original Gibson PAFs. Soon, this guitar guitars to players who would put down would become known as the Standard. $2,500 or $3,000 for a vintage Les Paul, They gave this guitar the serial number but didn’t want to take them on the road 0000. for fear of breaking them or having them Part of the early Hamer philosophy stolen. They felt they could make and sell was making guitars the way Gibson did a cheaper “modern vintage” guitar to these when Ted McCarty was running the com- same people, and they wouldn’t be afraid ’79 Hamer Sunburst (#9 0915). pany. McCarty, by this time, was running to take them on the road. From these Bigsby, in Kalamazoo, Michigan. In ’74, beginnings, Hamer USA Guitars was born, Dantzig packed his guitar and bass and with all four as partners. visited McCarty, hoping to get some ad- It was from this perspective that Dantzig vice, and perhaps a blessing. To his dis- and Hamer began to hawk their guitars. may, McCarty couldn’t care less about They’d take them to concerts passing guitars. through. It wasn’t long before word got “He showed me a few of the new Bigsby around and other musicians began to or- products they were working on,” recalls der guitars and basses. Contemporary Dantzig with some amusement. “But his stars like Jan Akkermann and Rick Der- real passion was for this new product he ringer (VG, August ’98) were clients. had, called the Flex Light. This was a little Technically speaking, Dantzig’s ’73 flashlight with a flexible lens you could Flying V bass was the first Hamer, the turn in different directions and put in your model never went into production. Paul pocket.” Hamer’s bound flametop Explorer was McCarty was not impressed with the given the name Standard and became the new Hamers and reminded Dantzig that first of a long line that would be offered the Explorer had been a failure when it from ’74 until ’85 during its first run. was first introduced. Crushed, Dantzig Keep in mind that while Hamer offered returned to Chicago. specific “catalog” models, the company Nevertheless, Dantzig and Hamer con- was, especially in the early days, pretty tinued to play with their new creations and much what we would now call a custom got the attention of more and more curi- shop. In other words, while you may ous musicians.