As evidence of this, some overly ambitious fellow on my local Craigslist is attempting to hock his Japanese-made FG-180 for over a grand. Guitars that were once screaming deals on the used market are now being priced in accordance with their quality, not the name on the headstock. As with all unheralded great things, the small secrets of the informed, the bargains for those who are in the know, the word eventually gets out and the prices start trending northwards. Some of them are very good guitars, but the market for them is becoming overly bullish. They are told of in song on Internet forums as if they were crafted with golden files by teams of small magical elves. In certain circles, old school Yamaha acoustics like this FG-335ii seem to have a reputation similar to Japanese-made Fender electrics.
Deal of the Century: 2001 Hamer USA Special. I’ll just say that if you could funnel the entire target market of the Hamer Virtuoso into a single super-shred neoclassical-loving whackjob of an individual, it would be this dude. If you would like to see one in action, a gentleman has created a video of himself playing one on Youtube. Today’s prices would certainly be even higher, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see the right Virtuoso, such as the Celestial pattern here, break into five figures.
You could expect to pay double that for something like this black-and-gold beauty, offered in January of 2008 for $6500. Even the most basic ones were changing hands for over $3000 in the middle of the recession. It would be interesting to own a Virtuoso, but damn if they aren’t expensive. You really have to appreciate the attention to detail on this finish, even if it’s not your style. I imagine his workload decreased substantially post-1993, as the dominant guitar aesthetic shifted away from over-the-top custom work. He spent the 1980s working with guys like Wayne Charvel to create stuff like this and was also responsible for the Jack Daniels bass played by Van Halen’s Michael Anthony. The stunning airbrush work on this guitar was done by Jim O’Connor, who was a go-to guy in the world of outrageous custom guitar finishes. Body materials also varied, but several of them are made from Korina. Some of them have Hamer Sustain Block hardtail bridges and at least one has a Kahler. This one has a straight single coil sized humbucker (many were slanted) and a Hamer-branded Floyd Rose. Most of them have fully-scalloped fretboards, too.Īt the time that Hamer made these, they were operating as a custom shop as much as a main-line manufacturer. The longer scale is supposed to make the last 10 frets usable, but it still looks really cramped up there. They featured a 36-fret neck with a 26.5 inch scale. The company made about 24 of these guitars during the golden age of shred. This piece of exquisite ridiculousness is the Hamer Virtuoso.
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