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F R E T T E D

Hamer Hosts 5th Annual Fan Club

Get-together

Jol Dantzig with a selection of guitars made by the company overthe last quarter-century.

On Oct. 4, Hamer USA, a division of KamanMusic Corp., opened its doors to some ofthe their most enthusiastic fans in what

has become a tradition at the New Hartford, Conn.Hamer factory. For the fifth straight year, fanswere greeted by two of the company’s founders, JolDantzig and Frank Untermyer. Attendance waslimited to 75 fans from all over the country whohad the opportunity to participate in a personal-ized tour of the company’s factory, where theywere able to observe all aspects in the developmentof a hand-crafted, custom-made guitar, beginningwith a rough block of hand-selected and gradedwood, and ending up as a fine instrument that will“play great right out of the box.” Following thet o u r, Dantzig and Untermyer treated all guests tolunch at a local restaurant where attendees wereoverhead passionately describing their favoriteHamer guitars, as well as speaking in admirationof the painstaking details that go into the physicalmakings of a Hamer guitar.

Hamer Guitar headquarters inNew Hartford, Conn.

Seventy-five members of the Hamer Fan Club hear from company co-founderJol Dantzig.

Kim Keller, Frank Rindone and Hamerco-founder Frank Untermyer raffle aHamer leather jacket.

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After lunch, the fans met with Dantzig, plant managerand technical director, where he shared some of the com-pany’s future plans, while at the same time fielding ques-tions and comments from the group. Following the forum,all guests received a gift package of Hamer goodies, whileone very lucky guest was chosen in a random drawing toreceive a Hamer Artist Mahogany Guitar. At the end ofthe day, all attendees were invited to join in a Hamer jamsession, where various guitars representing over 25 yearsof Hamer craftsmanship were plugged in and brought tol i f e .

“Bad Accounting, Good Guitars”

For all the Hamer hospitality throughout the day, mostagreed the factory tour was the highlight of the event.Hamer artisans begin by hand-selecting only the finestgrades of maple, mahogany, and rosewood, then slow-dry-ing these woods in an electrostatic kiln for two weeks.“Bad accounting, but good guitar making,” was howDantzig described this time-consuming procedure, whichreduces the breakdown of the wood fiber that can occur ina traditional oven-styled kiln. Dantzig then showed thegroup how the block of kiln-dried wood is cut to form theoutline of the guitar’s body, after which a technician pre-carves the inside of the chamber using an automated, com-

A single piece of Honduran mahagony is cut for a guitar bodyby twenty-year veteran Frank Morrell.

Mike Shiskov (right) demonstrates hand-carving of thetop of the guitar.

Above: Jamie

McAllister

files a Hamer

fingerboard.

Right: Phil

Guglielmi

hand-chisels

the dovetail

neck joint.

After spray-painting, a Hamer undergoes its final preparation for the addition of the electronics and hardware.

70 MMR NOVEMBER 2002

puter-controlled router. This is oneof the few steps where a machinewas used in the process, but byusing a pre-programmed computer-controlled instrument, the result isa more uniform product with mini-mal risk to the safety of the techni-c i a n .

From there the tour moved upto the second-floor production areawere Dantzig showed how thewoods used in crafting the necksare selected and matched. Specifi-c a l l y, they color- and density-matchpieces from the same board in aninverted grain construction, whichthey call the “stressed system.”This design process uses the inter-nal forces of the wood to reinforcei t s e l f, resulting in a neck thatresists warping. From there, theneck blanks are placed in a rackwhere they are allowed to stabilizefor additional months betweensteps, which allows Hamer to cre-ate trouble-free necks that are "pre-aged" to perform sonically withoutthe fear of twisting with time.(Some in the group were heard to

echo Dantzig's mantra, “Badaccounting, but good guitar mak-ing.”) At the next stop, JamieMcAllister demonstrated how theshape of the fingerboard is preciselyshaped with the proper curve toprovide the maximum responsive-ness to the player. He also demon-strated how he installs frets, one ata time, using a hand press. “We dothings a lot differently than otherguitar makers,” Jol was quoted assaying. “Hamer wants to do thingsthe hard way. ”

In the next phase of the designprocess, Mike Shishkov demon-strated how he hand-carves the topfor each Hamer instrument. Thebody is then passed onto PhilGuglielmi, who hand-chisels thedovetail neck joint to provide atight final fit that allows all sides ofthe joint to transmit vibration. Jolexplained that this method, com-bined with the low-mass, singletruss rod design, provides over 40percent more surface area than isused in other designs, resulting inan instrument that has a bold

acoustic voice.Through a glass window, the

group watched a paint technicianapply the finishes to the guitars.Dantzig explained that they usespecially formulated lacquers inorder to build the finish up over aperiod of more than a week, care-fully sanding in between coats tokeep the finish thin and flat. Bykeeping the finish thin, they pre-serve the resonance of the guitarrather than muting it with thicklayers of paint and lacquer. Colorsare custom-mixed and applied withan airbrush in layers, a processthat usually takes eight days. Theguitar is then allowed to dry forseven days before being buffed andfitted with hardware.

Hamer USA was founded in aChicago basement in 1974. Thecompany was later acquired byKaman Music and relocated to Con-necticut about five years ago, bring-ing 10 of their top craftsmen withthem. Hamer USA can be reachedat (877) 442-6371, or on the Internetat www. H a m e r G u i t a r s . c o m .

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