#6014 – Hamer Monaco Elite – used/2006 – Aztec Gold

£2469

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I know the full history of this used USA Hamer Monaco Elite – I sold it brand new to one local owner, over 15 years ago, and am delighted to be able to offer it for sale once again – The serial number, plus appropriate certificate, clearly indicates its date of birth as 2006, therefore pre the Fender buy out that took place shortly afterwards – The FMIC buyout subsequently and sadly brought an end to the days of Joel Dantzig and his 30 year reign at the helm of the Hamer Guitar Company

Overview comments with regards to this used Hamer Monaco Elite  :-

£2469 will allow you to buy a boutique hand built instrument that is loaded with tone and emotion – There is of course an obvious comparison to a Les Paul, yet the Hamer Monaco Elite offers far more than just outstanding cosmetic features – Granted, it is hard to ignore that delectable flamed maple top, decked out in a aztec gold nitro gloss finish, but it only gets better once you hook it up to your amp and put it through its paces – From chilled out blues licks, to bone crushing rock riffs, this Hamer is a blaze with expressive tones, thanks to a one piece Honduras mahogany body, a highly figured maple top, along with the traditional Hamer 3 piece mahogany neck construction + rosewood fingerboard – The hand built, impeccable attention to detail is present and correct throughout, including  22 medium jumbo frets, that are profiled and polished to perfection, along with the ‘victory’ mother of pearl fingerboard inlays, plus ‘Hamer’ headstock logo – An extra nice touch is the  cream ivoroid grained binding around the body, fingerboard and headstock – The hardware is all from the top draw, with Schaller 3-a-side tuners, plus TonePros locking tune-o-matic bridge and tailpiece, whilst even the pots are specially spec’d/ordered with an improved taper, that allows you to preserve that expressive tone, whilst backing of a notch on the volume pot – This allows you to control the amp, from the guitar, so wind it up for more singing overdriven tones, or back it off, for more clean or subtle overdriven  tones – The Monaco Elite retains the Gibson-esq 24.75″ scale length, so re-strung and set-up with a set of 10’s you’ll experience a slinky playing action that responds to a light touch – The mahogany neck has a fullish, Les Paul-esq profile which again should please those who like such Gibson attributes, but prefer the hand built attention to detail that Hamer offer – I almost forgot to mention that the Monaco Elite is equipped with a pair of Seymour Duncan humbuckers, with a Custom humbucker in the neck position, whilst a Custom Custom model sits in the bridge position  – This is one of those instruments that the more you play it, the more tones you’ll find, especially when both pick-ups are selected together, allowing the two volume controls to blend the pair of humbuckers as required – Whilst the guitar has a 2006 serial number, it has only had one careful owner from new – Used sparingly, so very little in the way of any blemish to report – It might not quite earn that ‘as new/mint condition’ tag but it is certainly very clean – Any superficial surface graze, that you may find on a first or second viewing, is subtle at worse – You’ll find the usual hint of tarnish to the hardware, but overall a very clean guitar

Further details :-

Tonal character : – An obvious lean towards the tonal character of a Les Paul will be expected – Overall I’d say it is more Slash, than Gary Moore/Pete Green, on overdriven amp settings – So no shortage of gain/sustain, but not to the extent that it looses its natural musical warmth and maybe this is more reflective of its tonal character with a classic rock amp set-up – With less gain employed on the amp and it produces more of a cultured voice that is akin to Robben Ford with warmth and articulation – On clean amp settings it possesses enough natural character to avoid sounding ‘bland’ with a lush, laid back voice pouring out of the neck pick-up – With more of a hot ‘country’ pickin’ voice available from the bridge position – Like many Les Paul’s it is not a pure hot ‘death metal’ guitar, yet it doesn’t lack girth and energy if/when required – In my opinion the guitar shows its true colours when played with more subtle gain on the amp, that is somewhere between Green/Kossoff and Bonamassa/ZZ Top – Now utilise the volume pots on the Hamer to control the level of gain that you require – As such a volume setting of 6 or 7 will deliver more of a chilled out cleaner voice, yet it won’t loose any of the guitars goodness – This option can be your ‘base camp’ setting – Now turn the volume back towards 10 as and when you require more gain, with a touch of extra bite   – This approach delivers far more expression, soul and emotion, as you and the guitar now control the amp – A great guitar for fans of Robben Ford, or Steely Dan, whereby the guitar’s class and culture offers more expression

A pity that new USA Hamer Guitars are no longer available, so the hunt for nice second hand examples is now under way

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For additional product info, to arrange a showroom visit + viewing, or indeed any other questions, then please do not hesitate to contact me.

Call: 01335 345777 or email: mark@guitars4you.co.uk. Please note that showrooms visits are strictly by appointment only.

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Guitars4You is not another corporate high street guitar store - My selection of premium grade guitars is about quality not quantity. Every guitar has been selected, inspected and approved by me, with particular attention to the set-up and playing performance. Every sale, phone call, email and mail order transaction is handled by me. A journey that is now over 40 years old, has fuelled my knowledge, experience, love, devotion and passion for exceptionally fine guitars.