NGD: Hamer SATP90

AlanRatcliffe

I've been wanting to get a P90 guitar ever since I sold my RVC Woodstock (LP Special clone) due to a neck too thin for my liking.

When Muz was doing the R2K special on these goldtop Hamers, they really appealed to me, but unfortunately I couldn't spare the cash at the time so let it slide. Then one popped up on Gumtree for R1K the other day... I mean, how could I not? My wife was in Cape Town the last few days, so I arranged for her to meet the guy and buy it sight unseen - a bit of a chance admittedly, but I know I can fix most things and could always fix it up and sell it for at least what I bought it for if I didn't like it.

Anyway, the better 3/4 picks it up and phones me to say she's on her way back and it's "really ugly" (but then, she doesn't like gold - not even in jewellery... Yay! ?). So I was prepared for anything.

Anyway, it and she arrived yesterday afternoon. Nice surprise #1 - a perfect condition Warwick student Rock Bag, still with tags attached. Nice surprise #2 - I just found a Billy's Music woven strap in the pocket, still unused with swingtag and Music Mate R99 price tag. Nice surprise #3 - the guitar is in "as new" condition, still with protective plastic on pickups and control cavity cover and absolutely no fretwear. Nice surprise #4 - nice chunky '59 roundback neck.

Here she is:

The setup's bad, but I did a quick bridge action and intonation setup and it's surprisingly resonant. I'm pretty sure that it is all mahogany body with no maple cap (Hamer's site is a bit vague on the Asian models), as it sounds more like a LP Special than a LP. Pickups are decent but not amazing and electronics are cheap, but working. The plastic nut has to go - it's not well cut anyway and is pinging, but I have a bone one handy.

All in all, a nice little guitar for R1,000.

WantzChas

I was looking into the SATF P90, unfortunately the special on Muz is gone. Congrats on a great looking guitar.

guitarboy2828

WOW!!!! what a steal!!! beaut! ?

Jack-Flash-Jr

It's a beaut indeed - I especially like the pick-up selector positioning!

PeteM

Now that's a bargain - nice guitar.

AlanRatcliffe

Thanks guys! Yeah, with a bit of love & labour I think it'll work out pretty nice.

Jack Flash Jr wrote: I especially like the pick-up selector positioning!

Actually, that and the two volume thing are the only things I'm not wild about. ?

On another note and tying in to another discussion recently - how the hell do people play with woven nylon straps? They dig in, the adjustment slips and if the guitar is even remotely neck heavy, down it goes.

RobK

I got one of them Hamers when they still had stock (not the P90 one) and it's a really nice instrument. I'll agree with you on the nut, since mine does the same (pinging), but have no clue on how good the electronics or pickups are - though they might be worth an upgrade (so keep us in the loop if you're doing anything in that respect).

Otherwise I think you scored yourself a real bargain - congrats.

Antman

I also have one of them - the flametop with P-90's, Jury is still out on whether or not I like it, I had it set up, playablility is good, just not sure if the P-90 tone is for me - so might be appearing in the classifieds! LOL

CDee

Nice looking guitar - Congratulations! If you're going to upgrade the pickups or electronics maybe do a before and after sound clip. I'd love to hear the difference between the standard nut and the new bone nut and then with the upgraded electronics... ?

singemonkey

Sweet deal man. And it's a looker. ?

You gonna get Lollars for it? ?

[deleted]

Or the new Kinman P-90Hx? ?

Explorerlover

Alan Ratcliffe wrote: The plastic nut has to go - it's not well cut anyway and is pinging, but I have a bone one handy.

Do have a slotted one already or are you going to slot it? If so, do you normally use the plastic one as a template of where the slots should be or do you have one of those Stewmac rulers?

Sean

Nice Alan, great deal. I've not had my flametop one setup yet, using it as is ( not too bad ), but Gearhead and I will do a basic one soon. Gearhead has offered to loan me his Gibson P90's until he builds the guitar he's planning for them, but I'm afraid I might not want to go back to the stock ones when he wants them back ? which will mean even more gas ☹

Sean

I considered the goldtop one, but there's just something about it that seems to look strange to me.

AlanRatcliffe

Explorerlover wrote: Do have a slotted one already or are you going to slot it? If so, do you normally use the plastic one as a template of where the slots should be or do you have one of those Stewmac rulers?

This one has slots, but with an unslotted nut I do it the old fashioned way - a steel rule and a pinch of maths.

singemonkey wrote: You gonna get Lollars for it? ?

Brentcgp wrote: Or the new Kinman P-90Hx? ?

Am I that obvious? ? (You guys forgot the Fralin hum cancelling ones, BTW). I'll give it a month or two to get to know it first and decide where I want to take it from there. Who knows? Maybe the rudeness of a pair of Gibsons will suit me best...

Sean wrote: I considered the goldtop one, but there's just something about it that seems to look strange to me.

Doublecuts are strange to look at 'cos the neck seems stuck onto the end of the body rather than set into it and the cutaways are symmetrical. Maybe the flame draws your eyes away from the neck join more.

I will say, it's not exactly as pictured - the colour is lighter overall and leans a little towards a greenish hue.

singemonkey

Sean wrote: I considered the goldtop one, but there's just something about it that seems to look strange to me.

I think it looks great. I think there are a lot of reasons some early Gibsons look perfect to me. And this guitar violates very few of them imo. I don't like "open-book" headstocks that taper inwards away from the neck, and I'm not 100% convinced by the knobs being in a single straight line on this curvey guitar. But otherwise it has those great curves, colour combinations, simplicity, coherence, that makes me smile.

I think it's the edge lines of the guitar, rather than the cutaways that makes the look. I'd still love a Les Paul if it had no cutaways. ?

Sean

Alan Ratcliffe wrote: Am I that obvious? ? (You guys forgot the Fralin hum cancelling ones, BTW). I'll give it a month or two to get to know it first and decide where I want to take it from there. Who knows? Maybe the rudeness of a pair of Gibsons will suit me best...

Will be following this to see what you decide on ?

Banditman

Nice buy Alan. I nearly snapped that one up myself for one of the teens in my youth group. He's been after a decent electric & I told him that (at R1000.00) he'd be getting a good starter guitar that could then be upgraded nicely & still not cost a mint. Um ahh means he's got to start looking again - good lesson for him.

I spoke to the owner who told me he'd bought it on impulse, played it for 3 minutes & didn't like the action. Good thing for your bargian hunt that he didn't know how to adjust it.

Be interesting to see what you do with it, and I see that RS do a upgrade kit for the Hamer as well...

Keep us in the loop.

AlanRatcliffe

I've replaced the nut with the one I had. That turned out to be micarta rather than bone when I looked at it, but it's still an order of magnitude better than the soft plastic stock one. I didn't glue it in yet though as I'll still put a Tusq one on - the ivoroid colour works well against the dark fingerboard and black headstock. The action is down where it should be on both ends. I had to lower the TOM all the way down to the body. No surprise he didn't like the action - I've taken it down about 4mm at the bridge and 1.5mm at the nut. Also tightened the truss a little too, which also helped.

I'll know when I pop new .011 gauge strings on soon, but then I'll have to clean the overspray off the fingerboard, polish the frets and oil the board too. But early indicators are good - it already feels quite good and is quite loud and resonant unplugged.

I'm gonna have to try get used to the floppier scale length though - it's way too easy to bend the strings accidentally (fight back, dammit! ?).

AlanRatcliffe

This is working out better than I had dared hope. A bit of exploratory digging revealed an all mahogany body as I suspected (and hoped for).

I polished the frets, cleaned up and oiled the fingerboard, put on a new set of Ernie Ball .011s on and did some final tweaking of the nut action and it's playing like a dream. Tiny bit of buzzing around frets 5-8, which should go away if I slack the trussrod off an 1/8th of a turn or so, but might fix itself in a day or so once the neck settles into the .011s. The fingerboard is nice and dark, the visible routing is all neat and tidy and there are no finish flaws. What I at first took for a little bit of finish chipping around the edges of the pickup cavities turned out to be a little bit of screening paint overlap (which polished right off with some fine compound).

Electrically it's all cheap but mostly good. The screening is not very good, with the paint in the pickup cavities not being electrically connected to ground and so thin in the control cavity to be useless. Fortunately all the wiring is screened cable, so the cavity screening is not as crucial. The control cavity itself is a bit roughly routed. Pickups, switch, barrel jack and mini pots are all Asian made but decent quality and everything is working perfectly for the moment. Volume and tone rolloff are smooth and even and no hint of scratchiness.

The P90 pickups are surprisingly decent Alnico models. I had to fiddle with the height adjustments a little to get them balanced with each other and had to tweak one or two of the polepieces to balance the strings, but it all went well and they are doing what P90s should. They are not too hot - in fact I'd put them in the "vintage" power category (as P90s go). The bridge pickup is appropriately growly when driven but cleans up and mellows out nicely when volume is backed off - the unmistakeable star of the show. Neck position is usable but not great - a little muddy and indistinct and darkens a bit too much when backed off, but not so bad as to be unusable unless you pile on the gain. Middle position is nicely "phasey" - fairly articulate but still suffering from a touch of lower midrange mud.

All-in-all, the pickups and electronics are good enough for now. They can be improved on, but aren't so bad that they spoil an otherwise good guitar and need immediate replacement. In fact, I dare say that for most people the pickups will be good enough, especially if the pots and caps are replaced.