Ladies and Gentlemen, introducing Arctic White Korina Vector!

Check it out! Tortoise shell pickguard and binding, Duncan Fat Cat pickups, Transparent Arctic White over African Limba wood ( also known as Korina). Hot from the factory and ready for the road. See me play it tomorrow morning May 1, 2009 on the Today show, hear it live on tour with No Doubt all summer.
-Tom

The Special is finished!

Some photos from rehearsal today, click to supersize them.

This is the "Special", made of African Mahogany or Limba Wood, in Arctic transparent white. It has Duncan Fat Cat pickups and Hamer's own Original Sustain Block Bridge, which I especially love becuase it does actually provide more sustain than all my other guitars. Go figure. This one sounds and plays insanely nice. Like butter. I think it's going to be the main guitar for this tour. Fat Cats are my new fav pickup as well. My new /13 Amps love the Fat Cats. I think it's going to be a humbuckerless tour for me. This Special realy fits like a glove. Thanks everyone at Hamer it's super sweet!!!

Finishing

Top photo we see the Vector in the assembly stage. And then below the headstocks after finishing. Getting close...

Paint

Here we take a look at the Vector all masked up and taking a fine coat of Arctic White paint via airbrush.
Click on the photos to supersize them.

Guitar Guru

Jol Dantzig is the main man at Hamer, he's an artist in more ways than one, and this is his blog.
Kind of the inspiration for mine here, actually. I just love things that are well designed, well made, and by hand.
And that's what Jol and the Hamer folks do, so check it out.
Best,
Tom

More sanding!

Click on photos to giant-size them

Week three, binding the "V"...

Above, the Vector receives a fine sanding by hand. Please consider the binding which has been hand-cut and laid into place. For these instruments the binding is actually done in 3 layers;
the main ply is Tortoise Shell (cellulose and NOT from a real turtle) and Black and White between the tortoise & fingerboard.
The individual plys arrive in sheets, which Hamer luthiers fuse together then cuts into strips.
Next they route - by hand - the channels where the binding will lay.
For these guitars, this includes the headstock, fingerboard, and body.
The binding is then hand bent around the headstock and body, using a heat gun. This can get tricky...move too fast and you can kink the binding. Move too slow and you'll melt it.
After the correct shape is achieved the binding is glued to the channel and cures for
at least a day.
All binding then gets sanded flat with the wood surfaces,
plus the fingerboard binding is scraped along it's edge and around the fret ends.
Click on the photos to enlarge.


Above Dave applies an exacto knife to scrape the edges of the fingerboard binding.
The detail work is simply inspiring to me. Can't wait to make music on that thing!