Jol let Production Orders go with Sam Ash, Guitar Center, Musicians Friend because he refused to try to keep up with production demands. Hamer is a Custom Shop by all means of the word. His attitude has always been to remain small and keep the quality consistant. Jol is a Hell of a guy who happens to be an exceptional player also. His CS guitars today look very similiar to the Mirage and retain a Cult following. He coincidently left in 1996 after he designed the Hamer Mirage II which went out of Production in 1998. I like the Mirage II's who Terry McInturff of "Terry McInturff " designed for Hamer. Some of the guitars built while he was gone? All the Bolt-On's the T-51, T-62, Daytona are considered by MOST to be equal to or better than Fender's Custom Shop? It does play nice with pedals, which is a saving grace.Yes and he was back in Hartfort CT by 96. I did get a chance to plug it into my pedal board, and playing it through a compressor/sustainer or an overdrive pedal that adds some sustain will work wonders with this guitar. And as long as you keep your expectations aligned with what this guitar has to offer, it’ll serve you well. Like I said, the XT Sunburst has a sweet, bright voice.įor a sub-$500 guitar, it’s not bad at all, and as a start guitar, it would be perfect. The guitar was recorded dry, and I added just a touch of reverb after the fact. Volume was set at just the edge of breakup. The guitar was plugged straight into the drive channel of my Aracom VRX22. The saving grace is the very beautiful voice it does have.
The thin body and neck don’t provide enough resonance to hold notes for very long, so if you’re looking for a guitar that will sustain for a long time, this ain’t it. Tonally, this is a very nice-sounding guitar. I would suspect that with a good setup, this guitar has the potential to play very nicely. But mind you, it’s not so bad that the guitar is unplayable. The high action made it difficult to move with speed across the strings. It’s not my guitar so I didn’t want to adjust the truss rod. I confirmed this with a quick spot check. The action was set pretty high, and lowering the action just a fraction immediately caused some string buzz which means that there’s a bit of a bow in the neck. Here’s where the poor setup that I mentioned above came into play. I love the short neck butt of this guitar, which allows you to reach real high notes without first having to do hand-stretching exercises.
It felt pretty good in my fretting hand, and made it easy to get around the neck with ease. The neck is an extremely shallow C-shape neck. Overall though, the finish is quite nice. It’s not bad, it’s just kind of funky looking. The body wood is made of two pieces mahogany that look like they came from different parts of the tree. Hamer calls it an “archtop,” but it’s more of a carved top, with gorgeous lines. It is also extremely light in weight, which is a huge point in its favor. It is a very beautiful guitar, and the burst finish really accentuates the flame maple top. Taking the XT Sunburst out of its gig bag, I was struck by its looks. I had only played USA Hamer’s in the past, so this was to be my first experience with one of Hamer’s Chinese-made guitars. Recently, he made the purchase of a Hamer XT Sunburst that he let me test. In addition to being an incredible amp builder, Jeff Aragaki of Aracom Amps is as much a gear slut as I am, probably more so with guitars. It’s a nice-looking and with a little work, a nice playing guitar that would be perfect for which to start out a new guitarist. Tone Bone Score: 4.0 – This is not a bad guitar, and it would definitely be something I’d consider as a starter instrument for one of my kids. Hamer headstock is huge (that’s just a personal nit)! This would be a great starter electric guitar!Ĭons: Not much inherent sustain, especially in the upper registers where the guitar seems to lose gas. Pros: Sweet, gorgeous voice at mild breakup levels, but is quite comfortable doing high-gain, which is probably where it’s best applied. Featuring a solid mohagany body and neck with flame maple top and rosewood neck, the XT Sunburst has a naturally bright voice that’s both versatile and expressive. Summary: Modeled after the Hamer USA Studio, this Chinese-made axe is an affordable alternative to its American cousin.
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