JB's Gear

The History of Hamer

Excerpts From Part Three

By M. Wright, with A. Large, S. Matthes, P. Fung

The Hamer story began in 1973 when vintage guitar store owners Jol Dantzig and Paul Hamer decided to begin making upscale versions of vintage guitars to sell to touring rock stars as alternatives to putting their vintage axes at risk. The result was one of the first “boutique” guitar companies, although their intent was really to provide a budget alternative to expensive vintage pieces. We’ve tracked a ton of guitars so far, and now we move to the departure of Paul Hamer, and more guitars from the late ’80s. At about this time (perhaps slightly earlier) Hamer hooked up with Jack Blades, the bassist whose resume includes bands such as Rubicon, Night Ranger, and Damn Yankees

Blades ordered a number of instruments in a variety of appointments. The basic Blades Bass featured a double-cutaway body similar to a Sunburst. Dantzig recalls that the objective of these designs, like many other Hamer basses, was to emulate the look of guitars. Most Blades Basses had a medium scale (32") and the typical Hamer two-and-two headstock design. They featured a pair of active cream-colored EMG humbucking pickups, again to look more like a guitar. Blades ordered quite a few, some with maple tops, bound or unbound, some with custom inlays. However, perhaps the best known had a Sunburst body with a cherry back and a Hamer-shaped headstock with a scroll.

The other new instrument for ’89 was the Impact Bass, often seen in the hands of Jack Blades. The Impact had quite different styling for Hamer; it featured a sleek, rounded offset double-cutaway shape, with a long, extended upper-cutaway horn and a small, sharply pointed lower horn. The narrow waists were offset, and the lower bout a little asymmetrical. The Impact featured a mahogany body with a glued-in rock maple neck. The headstock was a reverse three-and-one style. Tuners and the cast bridge assembly were gold. The two-octave fingerboard was ebony with pearl boomerang inlays. Electronics included two active EMG humbucking and P-style pickups, with two volume controls plus master bass and treble tone controls. The original four-string Impact was made until ’92, when it was replaced by the Impact 5-String Bass. This had the same profile, but was a neck-through with a body made of exotic timbers such as African sapelle, purpleheart, and Bolivian rosewood.

The fingerboard was quartersawn pau ferro. The headstock was reverse three-and-two. Electronics included two active EMG humbuckers with an additional piezo transducer pickup under the bridge assembly for more acoustic sound. Controls put both humbuckers through a single volume control (no way to select) with a master bass and treble tone control for all pickups, but with a “blender” volume control for the transducer. The Impact 5-String Bass lasted two more years, until ’94.

NOTE: Jack plays exclusively Mesa-Boogie 400+ bass amps and a combination of Mesa-Boogie 2x15 and 4x10 cabinets.