Hamer Slammer (Strat Style) Reviews 4

I purchased this guitar at a local music store in my neighborhood. I am 44 years old and have fooled around with acoustic guitars all of my life, always playing a hand full of chords and riffs and never much more. Then I finally walked into the local music shop and got intantly got the jones for and electric guitar after pulling a few off of the wall. I was back the next day to purchase the black Slammer for $89 on sale. It was gone. Luckily, a salesman found a half dozen of them in boxes. He sighted necks and inspected them all and handed me one. That was in 1999 and I have purchase a more expensive electric since. I have been advancing quickly with my playing skills and theory. Guess what! I keep going back to the Slammer!

It has very comfortable neck and plays fast leads. The tone is awesome through my Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. I think it hold its own against any expensive guitar for looks and playability.

The perfectionist that I am, I needed to do some cosmetic deburring and polishing as soon as I got it home. I can't do anything about the Slammer name but it is a Hamer so I accept it. I polished up the logo to protect it from rubbing off and wear it proud. I did have to replace the five way switch. It just quit switchin one day. Luckily it was covered under warranty.

I have some pointers to make this a viable gig guitar as I am a fine woodworker by trade and enjoy making good things even better: 1. I removed the neck to shim the angle back slightly to improve the action and to file the ends of the frets along the neck edge to make them smooth for catch-free sliding. This is also when I polished the whole neck and logo. 2. I removed the bridge and tremolo block to clean all burs and smooth edges where strings make contact. 3. I carefully tightened all screws in the pick guard, bridge, machine heads, etc. 4. I set the neck relief, the action, pickup height and intonated the guitar with DR Pure Blues 10's.

I would not have bothered with this guitar if I was more experienced with electrics. It was inexpensive and I was experimenting. Now that almost four years have past and I am more skilled educated I would recommend the Slammer to anyone. It looks, plays and sound great! An added bonus is that you can easily change out pick guards and knobs for a periodic cosmetic changes.

Michael Whitney rated this unit 4 on 2002-12-29.

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