I don't actually believe it — I've been trying to review a Hamer guitar for the past five years that I've written for this mag and now it's actually happened! I've come close in the past, though only to be let down at the last hurdle. The problem has been, of course, that Hamer guitars are produced in the States — Arlington Heights, Illinois (such sweet poetry) to be precise — and up to now they have never had a reliable UK importer. All that (hopefully) has now changed. London retailers Allbang and Strummit are now importing the instruments so hopefully the UK will at least get some well needed exposure to the Hamer phenomenon.

A phenomenon it is too, certainly one of the most respected names in the States, Hamer produce a vast range of guitars and basses, conventional and outrageous designs, some 24 standard colours, 5, 8 and 12 string basses, multi-necks, etc. etc. Their early instruments — including a Les Paul Special/TV shaped six-string — found favour on both sides of the Atlantic, although unbelievably it was recently discontinued until John from Allbang and Strummit informed Paul Hamer of its UK popularity. Since then, of course, Hamer have found that fashion dictates nouveau shapes and colours as well as hi-tech guitars to interface with the Roland and Synclavier guitar synths.

Certainly some of their designs and colours are enough to put you off your breakfast, so I chose a conservative(!) pearl pink coloured Phantom to take a well overdue look at why Hamer's reputation is so good.

Construction

Despite the flash looks of this Hamer the actual construction is extremely traditional with obvious elements taken from the Gibson Rock'n' Roll guitars — the SG and Les Paul Specials. The guitar uses high quality Honduras Mahogany for both body and neck, with Rosewood chosen for the fingerboard. The body styling owes a little to the Strat shape although stood side by side, a Strat looks overweight and middle-aged in comparison. The offset horns are long and sleek and the bottom curve is reminiscent of the trashy Sixties Hofner and Futurama designs. At 40mm the body depth is thin contributing to its light weight while the edges of the body are chamfered rather than radiused. Contouring is in the usual Strat positions, the front contour is nicely rounded and flows into the shape while the back 'belly' contour is more angular. The extended top horn, which stops in line with the 12th fret, contributes greatly to the excellent balance of the guitar, as does the offset lower bout.

Hamer always prefer a glued-in neck as opposed to the bolt-on or straight-through designs and this . Phantom is no exception. The heel is well-shaped with a flat curve as opposed to a rounded 'Spanish' style heel. The combination of this flat heel and shaping of the lower horn allows excellent access to the top of the 22 fret board. While most American manufacturers seem to be aiming for a flat curved neck profile this Hamer has a pleasant and comfortable curve. While the dimensions at the nut end of the neck are similar to a Strat the neck is a little wider at the 12th fret. The string spacing at the bridge, however, is a little smaller than the usual humbucking 50mm size resulting in a little extra space between the outside strings and side of the board.

It's nice to see the traditional real mother of pearl dot markers on a fingerboard for a change, and although the fretting on this sample is good some of the medium (2.5mm) gauge frets are left a little rough at the edges.

The original Hamer headstock design was a stubby three-a-side shape which suited the earlier models but looked out of place on the Phantom. The change over to the six-a-side offset shape certainly suits this guitar a lot more. The head angles back, presumably for aesthetic rather than practical reasons. The angled back head provides the correct, behind-the-nut string angle, although on all trem guitars using a locking nut this consideration is no longer important. Hamer have lots of trade marked items on their instruments, one of which is the Lubitrack™ nut. I'm not sure what it's made of — it's black and very well set — although I think it's probably a carbon impregnated plastic.

The truss rod adjustment is accessed at the head end of the neck keeping with tradition, as well as having standard shaped truss cover on a black faced head with the bold white Hamer logo — stylish and safe.

Hardware

The Phantom is offered with or without tremolo. If you choose a trem version you have a choice between a Kahler or Floyd Rose locking system as well as (presumably) Hamer's own improved Strat-type system. A Kahler black chrome unit is fitted on this sample with steel saddles. It's a waste of space to say any more about this system apart from the fact that it works perfectly. It's a little easy to get blasé about high-tech trem units and one must remember that although it's a smashing piece of engineering both a Kahler or Floyd Rose have a definite snob value, and either systems adds a lot of green back to the eventual retail price. The addition of a Kahler alone does not a guitar make!

The machines fitted here are black chrome mini M6-types bearing Hamer's own logo.

Pickups and Electronics

It must be a mite frustrating to be an electronics whizz-kid if you're employed for a guitar company. Certainly you could go away and design a very special and unique circuit only to be told that it's too complicated for average consumption. The answer, as so many companies are finding, is to design a pickup and circuit configuration that stays within accepted boundaries while incorporating a modicum of innovation. This is certainly the case with this Phantom and very successful it is too. By providing both humbucking and single coil pickups with a master volume and tone, a three-way pickup toggle switch and a two way mode switch (not a mini switch but a similar size to the pickup selector) Hamer have provided a system that provides balls or subtlety at the flick of a switch. The pickup mounted by the bridge has three visible coils mounted on a single oversize pickup surround. It is, in fact, two Slammer™ units; nearest the bridge a humbucker with a single row of slot head adjustable pole pieces and a single coil unit providing the third coil but totally separate. An offset single coil unit is placed below the neck dippng on the treble side to provide a little more top. This unit is mounted onto the scratch plate which is weirdly shaped to say the least. Made from a black-on-white plastic laminate, it does look a little old fashioned bearing in mind the current penchant for non scratchplate guitars.

The control placement has the volume and tone close to the bridge and is easy to use with nice black ribbed knobs, while the two switches are quite out of the way. Presumably this is to stop those American guitarists who go apeshit on stage from accidentally knocking the switches mid solo, which is probably quite sensible.

As for the switching itself, it's really simple — the mode switch selects either the humbucker or single coil in the bridge position while the three way selector acts as normal selecting bridge, bridge and neck or neck pickups.

The circuit is actually sandwiched between two metal plates to provide the screening — the controls are mounted on one under the front of the guitar, while the coverplate is the other. A neat idea which certainly works well.

Sounds and Playability

Initially the Phantom feels a bit weird, mainly due to the light weight. It hangs really well, although the bottom strap is offset from centre and while that improves the balance, it makes the guitar hang lower than normal. Not the best time to realise you can't shorten your strap! However, once you're correctly adjusted, the overall quality of the guitar becomes very apparent. The neck is really comfortable and while the feel isn't super fast the frets and action combine to give an easy and responsive fingerboard. There's a little bit of string buzz on the low 'E' string but nothing too serious, and intonation, sustain and tuning stability seem first class.

The sounds produced from the Phantom are also rather special; the single coil units produce a very classy Fenderish sound — the placement of the bridge unit means it's a little warmer tonally and provides an excellent 'vintage' tone. The humbucker again has a little vintage characteristic, but with a lot of top end providing quite a powerful and strident tone. The switching configuration gives a very sensible and effective 'modern' guitar sound — the single coils for chords sound especially nice through a chorus while flicking to the humbucker for solos gives an increase in volume and power without sounding muddy. At higher amp levels the differing pickup outputs become very useful to clean up or distort depending on which you need. Personally I'd have liked a more powerful unit in the neck position to provide a 'creamy' overdriven sound, but this obviously depends on your personal style.

Violin effects are slightly hampered by the placing of the volume control, which is also quite stiff, but again that's a matter of taste. The tone control is effective providing quite a biting throaty tone when fully anti-clockwise.

Surprisingly then it's really quite a Fender-sounding guitar, when the two single coils are switched together we even get that identifiable 'out-of-phase' tone synonymous with a Strat. Classy sounds with a nod to the past, but also more than an eye for the future. Hamer's philosophy I believe.

Conclusions

You may have noticed that in this review so far I've not mentioned the little matter of money. There is a simple reason for this — the guitar is easily one of the best American instruments presently available in the UK in all aspects — the trouble is the price stinks! That's not to say that anyone is making a fast buck — certainly John at Allbang and Strummit has managed to import these guitars at a price that is only marginally greater than their equivalent Stateside retail price. The problem lives in the exchange rate and that our standard of living just doesn't compete with that of the Americans.

However, economies can be made; the non-locking Hamer trem fitted to a Phantom will give an approximate retail of £650 while a non-trem version would be around £636.

Mind you, if you want the best you won't go far wrong with a Hamer — with no exceptions, all the guitars and basses I've ever played (especially the Cruise Bass) have been more than excellent.

It's quite a sad admission that 99½% of the guitar playing public won't ever be able to afford/justify spending this kind of money on such an excellent and complete guitar. Meanwhile, I suggest you pop along to Allbang and Strummit or hassle a local dealer to get a Hamer in, so at least you can have a strum on one. Of course you may like to start doing the pools/rob a bank or record a hit. Maybe that's the reason there's so much garbage in the charts — everyone wants a Hamer!

FOR: Style, construction design... everything
AGAINST: Price

HAMER PHANTOM — RRP £823

Product imported and distributed by Allbang & Strummit, (Contact Details). Trade enquiries to Scott Cooper Marketing.