HAMER 1994 model T51 USA

1994 HAMER T-51 ''Tele Style'' Electric Guitar In ’93, Hamer introduced a trio of guitars that were geared for the Modern Vintage market, the T-51, Daytona, and DuoTone. The T-51 was Hamer’s first venture into making a Telecaster. Except for the straight Hamer six-in-line headstock, this is a pretty close copy of the Fender original. The T-51 lasted only until the factory relocation in ’97. A fine instrument with total attention to the detail of tradition. The single-cutaway body is made from two piece of Southern ash, with a bolt-on hard rock maple neck. The 25 & 1/2'' scale fingerboard is maple with 22 frets and black dot inlays,

The Pickups are Duncan Broadcaster and ’54 single-coils. The '54 has a chrome-cover and is at the neck mounted on a black single-layer Tele-style pickguard. The Broadcaster pickup is the typical black open-coil unit slanted treble-side back, mounted in the slot on a Wilkinson HT-100 bridge assembly (with six adjustable lock-down saddles for improved stability). It's sound is ''hot vintage''.

This Guitar was discontinued along with 20 other great models when the company moved to New Harford CT and came under the corporate umbrella of Ovation/Kaman.

Ovation was a one large company that had earned my respect in this industry for their tendency to try to do things right. This buyout of Hamer happened around the time that Bill Kaman Senior retired & Bill Kaman Jr (Both Billionaires) decided to leave the company. I mean why go to work when you have a Billion dollars. Unless of course you are a workaholic like someone I know all too well.

The Kaman family were rich corporate moguls but with one very important difference.

They Both Loved Their Guitars !!!!! There Was A Passion....

Now the wall street bean counting creeps, who run our country didn't like it one bit that Kaman had diversified into guitars. Guitars aren't as profitable as helicopters and none of the stockholders wanted anything to do with the guitar business. Therefore Hamer became the red headed stepchild.

The new management at Hamer made every mistake possible. It was like they took lessons from Gibson.

First Mistake: Ovation used their jobber reps to sell the guitars. Jobber reps don't know diddley-squat about boutique guitars. Their way of getting orders was to take a dealer out to dinner and get him drinking. (There are some exceptions notably both Ovation reps I worked with were tech-heads and above average reps)

Second Mistake: They let anyone with a warm body become a dealer (Disaster) Oh they made a little show out of authorizing dealers but even a tiny dealer who gave 6 lessons a week and sold strings could now order a Hamer in for someone. The Rep would always get him one sideways.

Third Mistake: Big Corporations have what is known as "The Quota". Every rep had a quota and that's why the Second mistake became intolerable to dealers who wanted to actually get behind the product.

Fourth Mistake: They discontinued all the great distinctive specialty models that had made Hamer their reputation in the first place.

Fifth Mistake: Ovation went to Korea, Indonesia & China to bring in low quality look-alike guitars and call them Hamer's. Oh sure they made tons of money selling $65.00 guitars to dealers for $280.00 who then sold them to the public at $399.00. This destroyed the cache value of the Hamer brand. Hamer collectors got hurt in the process and I relaxed my purchasing.

Sixth Mistake; In The Music Industry Hamer was known as the line to carry when you couldn't get Gibson. Gibson was an easy sell, Gibson dealers made unbelievable profits while Hamer dealers didn't make the same profits because the market would not support the cost of building good guitars. Hamer quality & level of workmanship has almost always been better than Gibson's. Remember Hamer was founded by a bunch of Gibson lovers who wanted to make something better. Clearly They Succeeded.