Hamer Factory Tour

photos and content by george calobre

Hamer Guitars opened its doors to the Hamer Fan Club (HFC) for an Open House on October 22, 2004. This event included a tour of the Hamer Factory, the Ovation Guitars Factory, and later that evening, the HFC Jam at a local hall. Hamer limits attendance to this event to approximately 75 fan club members and dealers.

The Hamer Factory is located in picturesque New Hartford, Connecticut on a hillside. This year, the leaves were in full color, so the views on our drive to the factory were spectacular. The building that houses both the Hamer and Ovation factories was built in the late 1800’s, so large bare timbers and large plank wooden floors are visible throughout the structure.

Hamer produces its USA guitars and basses with a staff of only ten employees. Everyone on the staff performs a variety of skilled tasks, so this does not resemble an assembly line as much as a large luthier’s shop. Most of the shop skills take several years to master, so all of the staff has considerable experience in the guitar building industry.

Our tour was conducted by Jol Dantzig, the co-founder of Hamer Guitars. Jol began our tour with a trip to the wood storage area of the building.

The Wood

All great instruments begin with great wood, and Hamer dedicates a large portion of their space to house the wood for future instruments. Hamer only buys the best wood available from its suppliers, and then Hamer examines each piece of wood to decide what will be kept. Only the best of the wood shipments is kept, and the rest is sold to other companies.

Hamer also takes the time to reassign the “grading” of the wood sent by its suppliers to match its own high standards. Some of the maple billets that suppliers call AAA or AAAA flame are considered Hamer’s “Premium” grade, while the most uniquely figured tops are what Hamer designates as their “Ultimate” grade.

Frank Murello runs the wood shop for Hamer and is responsible for buying, grading, and managing the wood supply for Hamer.

Frank stands next to one of several large racks where wood that has already been graded is stored in a temperature and humidity controlled environment waiting for use.

Hamer has many manual processes in its operation to ensure absolute quality. One of Frank’s jobs is to take the maple billets and split them in half in preparation to book-match them. This is done on a band saw and requires a very steady hand. During this operation, some wood is rejected due to internal flaws that make the billet unsuitable for use in a guitar or bass top.

Frank also matches the grain and color of the maple and the mahogany that make up a single guitar to complement each other. Frank then cuts out the rough shape of the guitar on a band saw in preparation for later machining.

Carved top guitars start life with a very thick top layer of figured maple that will later be ground and shaved down to the desired contours.

Hamer once produced its guitar bodies and necks using a variety of hand operated machines and guided by various templates. Hamer now uses CNC machines to do the routing and shaping operations. Frank programs the machines to do these tasks based on his instructions. The machine performs several operations in succession: it shapes the body of the instrument, routs cavities for pickups, cuts an edge for body binding, routs out F-holes, and routs a neck pocket.

The Workshop

The Hamer workshop is where most of the guitar building process takes place. Jol explained that when Hamer moved its USA factory from Arlington Heights, IL to New Hartford, CT, they actually reduced the number of guitars they produce. This was done so they could focus more on the custom shop approach that had built Hamer in the first place.

Hamer builds their guitar necks using a stressed neck construction system. They assemble the neck from wood with carefully sorted for grain orientation and color, but the wood is glued together with opposing grain patterns to resist warping.

One of the most surprising things we saw at Hamer was the shaping of the contoured tops on the Monaco line of guitars. This task is done by Mike, a very skilled Hamer employee. Here our group looks on while Mike uses a hand held grinder to rough out the shape of the contoured top.

Hamer does not take shortcuts with this operation either. The CNC machine cuts a precise notch into the top edge of the instrument for the binding. We saw a beautifully figured left-handed Hamer Standard being prepared for binding.

The material is hand fitted by heating with a heat gun, bending it into shape, and gluing in place. The binding material is flexed into position in several steps to ensure a good, tight fit. Todd spiderwebs the glue to help release the solvents and help the bond to be stronger.

Hamer guitar and bass necks are given several weeks to rest after being glued up and cut into their basic shape. Once they have settled, they are machined again to eliminate any twists or curves that may occur in the natural shifting of wood. By waiting until the wood has settled, Hamer avoids the problem of having finished necks twisting after they are further along in the construction process. This approach ensures a perfect playing surface.

Next, the finished necks must be fitted to the body of the instruments. Phil uses chisels and files to hand fit the neck dovetail into the slightly under-machined neck pocket. Hamer prefers to have this step done by hand to ensure maximum neck to body contact.

After the instruments have been assembled, they are sanded carefully to smooth all the contours and blend the glued joints together before the finish is applied. Sanding is done at several times during the construction process. Once the instruments are ready for finishing, they are put on racks outside the paint room.

To get a smooth, lustrous surface, Hamer sands between coats of finish. They also spend many hours, wet-sanding and hand buffing the finish of each instrument. Here we see Bruce buffing out the finish of a guitar.

The last step in the finish area is machine buffing on the buffing wheel. This is a critical step in bringing out the beauty of the finish, but it is also a step requires a very experienced hand. The proper amount of pressure brings out the best in the finish, while a wrong movement can send the guitar crashing to the floor or burn through the finish.

The instrument is now complete, except for the electronics and hardware. The Setup Room is the place where final assembly, setup, and testing of the instrument occur.

Hamer prides itself on delivering guitars and basses with an excellent setup right out of the box. The pride that Hamer employees feel is evident while watching them work. You can tell they enjoy what they do every day.

Thanks to George Callobre and everyone at Hamer Guitars!