• Hamer Serial Number Lookup

GUITARS AND BASSES OF HAMER U.S.A. 1975 -2008

The guitars and basses described in these pages are those which havebeen produced by Hamer U.S.A. since 1974 and up to the present date. Obviously Hamer also made many one-of-a-kind custom instruments; the hardwareand style of production instruments may be different on SpecialOrder instruments. It also does not include specially ordered instruments that were not generally available. Therefore thelist is not exhaustive. The dates are also approximate due to the reasons given above and several models may not appear in catalogues. It should be remembered that Hamer builtinstruments to order, so many models were still technically available after they had been deleted from the official catalogue.

Some pictures are shown in the text, but most can be found by following the links to other pages.

A Note on Hamer Serial Numbers

• Enter the Serial Number that you are looking for in the box below the text 'Serial Number' You can search for one serial number by typing in the EXACT serial number. (The search is not case sensitive, you can use lower or uppercase letters.) You can search for similar serial numbers by leaving off the final digit of a serial number.
• From 1974 through 1981 Hamer USA employed two separate serial numbering systems, one for custom instruments and one for production models: Custom Instruments: These instruments are easily recognized by the use of a four digit number stamped into the wood on the back of the peghead. The numbers ran from #0000 through #0680.

In 1974 Hamer used a four digit number stamped into the wood startingwith guitar #0000 and, until the launch of the Sunburst, this system wasused on all guitars. Some instruments (notably Standard guitarsand basses, Eight-string basses and some custom order instruments) were numbered using the four digit numberingsystem up until 1985(e.g Standard #0722 was completed in May 1984); in total about 750 instrumentswere numbered using these four digit numbers.

This would be a 1982 guitar the 2,047th guitar ever built not including the 680 custom guitars that used the original serial number system. Some samples would be #7 4871 Made in 1987 the 4,871st Guitar Made #6 45892 Made in 1996 the 45,892nd Guitar. Also see Headstock Styles and Logo Styles for help determining when your guitar was made (particularly helpful if there is no serial number). Note: Any guitar with a serial number with the prefix 'SI' is Indonesian-made. Note #2: Guitars with no serial number were produced at many different times. Samick branded models did not start using serials until around 1987.

The Sunbursts were numbered using a different system: the first digit represents the year of production and the following four(or later five digit number) is the total number of guitars made by Hamerand numbered using this system. So for example guitar #8 0196 was madein 1978 and was the 196th guitar to be numbered using this system. Similarly# 8 21416 was made in 1988 and was the 21416th guitar to be numbered. Thesenumbers are printed using ink or paint (black on most but yellow on blackand dark coloured instruments). By 1980 most models with the exceptions noted above were numberedusing this latter system. From late 1987 the serial numberswere stamped into the wood rather than printed. Recently, USA has been stamped under the serial number in the same font.

Hamer Serial Number Lookup

Just to complicate matters,many one-of-a-kind and prototype instruments have numbers that do not relateto either of the above systems.