NBD (at last!): Hamer Cruise Bass

[NancyJohnson]

Honestly, you all have no idea how pleased this makes me.  I've lusted after one of these for about 30 years and snagged this one on eBay last week.  Obviously, there's going to be good and bad stuff to consider when you're talking about a 35 year old guitar, so let's cover the bad stuff first (like you do). 

It was VERY grubby and unplayable out of the case; a frankly horrific back-bow on the neck (I slackened the truss rod by may two full turns), the bridge was at best 'gooped-up', so I needed to douse the part in WD40 to just allow the intonation and grub screws to move.  The nut slots are quite wide, but the nut does its job, so no issues.  The P-bass pickup wouldn't adjust up or down, took it out, the old foam wasn't doing anything, but more alarming across both elements of the pick-up, three magnets surrounding the poles had come out and two were magnetised to the other side (imagine two books next to each other with the poles between and then two on top of each other with the poles on the spines) - a chap on the Hamer Fan Club site enlightened me to the fact that 70/80s Di-Marzios were all prone to this problem.  [Edit: I've added details further down the thread...the problem/solution might help someone in the future.]  I've never seen anything like this before.  After I reinstalled it (with springs and some soft foam underneath), I did feel that the D&G strings were quite a bit lower in output than the E&A.  The strap buttons were loose, so I've taken these out and am waiting on some felts to arrive before I install a set of Dunlops.  [Edit:  I'll be cleaning the board and oiling it later today.]

OK, moving to the aesthetics/good stuff, it does look fantastic to me.  Paint is good (7.5/10), zero checking, but there is a bit of chipping around two of the machines and a little (inevitable) bucklerash on the rear (although no paint loss).  It is very light (weee).  [Edit:  There's still a lot of meat on the frets.]  After a set up and a bit of additional tweakage, it plays wonderfully, got the action down to what I'd class as 'clean with a bit of rattle.  Tried it through the Darkglass and the dUg last night, I have to say it sounds decent enough through both, but feel that theDarkglass favours an active bass, this does sound nicer through the dUg.  Nice dirt/grunt with everything open.  Neck is lovely...

Moving forward.  Hmm.  I will get a (black) scratchplate cut for it at some point, but no rush.  While I do love a tweak, so at some point I'll swap out the pickups and loom.  Again, no rush.  

This bass was more about the getting than anything else, I'm happy with it as it stands.  I'll be 100% after I've done with the tweaks.  Might even stain the board...

Edited January 30, 2021 by NancyJohnson

[bartelby]

Nice. I felt the same way when I got my Aria Pro II BnG, after a similar period of lusting for one.

[cetera]

Glad I could help you find your 'holy grail' after all this time!

[Grahambythesea]

Given the grungy condition, I hope it was a bargain.

[Doctor J]

Nice! As a recent addition to the Hamer club too, the joy of discovering that neck is fresh in memory. 

[Simon.]

Really like the shape of that!

So nice to finally land something you have been after for ages. 

[uk_lefty]

What made you lust so much after this bass, I want to hear the story! 😊

[NancyJohnson]

22 minutes ago, uk_lefty said:

What made you lust so much after this bass, I want to hear the story! 😊

OK, this might go on a bit, but this is pretty much it.

When I was a wee lad, Hamer were the new kids on the (guitar) block; sure, I was aware of Gibson/Fender etc. but my exposure to these brands was likely via Beat Instrumental, Top Of The Pops, the Bell catalogue (and so on).  I can still remember the fevered, 'what was that guitar?' conversations at school the night after seeing Slade on TOTP where Dave Hill would be playing the Super Yob or a Burns Flyte.  (This would never happen now, I suppose, which saddens me!)

Anyhow, in the early 80s, Hamer were carrying out some fairly persuasive and proactive marketing...I'd go up to Denmark Street with my mates and many of the shops there had piles of these full colour US-letter sized flyers for the various Hamer models (The Special, Sunbursts, Vectors, Standards, Prototype - just type 'Hamer Flyers' into Google and you'll see how radical this was); we'd all pick up the flyers and have them taped to our bedroom walls when we got back.  Despite none of us having the available coin to actually buy one, we did feel that Hamer was our brand, which was odd considering we were just a bunch of home-counties kids; Hamer were a little bit mental, a bit risky, a bit exciting and a bit edgy.  We were all huge Cheap Trick fans too, which kind of sealed the deal.

On one trip to the smoke, I happened upon the Cruisebass flyer below...early to mid-80s.  There was a small pile of these postcard-sized things and the same shop also had the bass itself (in the same red and black livery) hanging on the wall and it was just beautiful.  Cue angels singing.  Smitten.  The price tag was ridiculously expensive, my memory is clouded, but I think it was well over a grand, maybe £1,250 or more.  Back then I was doing filing in an office and earning £250 a month, £50 of which went to my mum in housekeeping(!), so it was unattainable - which is why I ended up playing Ibanez stuff for so long (£187 for a Ibanez Roadster RS924 was pushing it).

I was always looking for one; I'd owned other Hamer basses...a Scarab, Chapperal and I still have a FBIV (Thunderbird), but I've always wanted a Cruise.  Sure other basses curried favour (predominantly Thunderbirds) and a couple bobbed to the surface for a while (Rickenbacker), but the Cruise was always there just under the surface, just rare enough for them to be out of reach, with sellers believing they're worth way more than they realistically are.  I paid £600.00.  I know it's not much, but think about it for a moment, it's a handmade (boutique?) bass, made in pretty small numbers by a team of less than a dozen luthiers in a little woodshop in the Chicago suburbs.  These were the same people who made these made the guitars used by hundreds of bands from (love 'em/loathe 'em) Cheap Trick, Judas Priest, Skid Row, Kiss, Def Leppard, Lita Ford, The Police, Aerosmith, Nick Lowe, The Pretenders etc. etc.

Roll forward to 2021, @cetera was the first of many to let me know this was up stupidly cheap.  It was always coming to me...

[uk_lefty]

Awesome!! Glad you got hold of it at long last. £600 sounds like a good deal, from what you described just from a bass collector point of view, but fulfilling the long held dream is priceless! 

[Doctor J]

Great story, great deal and a great bass!

[grenadillabama]

I like your bass ! It was also used by a cool alternative band "Let's Active" (North Carolina 1988 ?) It got a Yes-like tone from a pick near the bridge when played by Faye Hunter . 

[NancyJohnson]

Just as an addendum to the original post, the P-pickup, maybe this'll help someone moving forward.  The image below is identical to the P-pickup on mine.  I've numbered the magnets A-D.

Magnet A had come out and was magnetised to B, likewise C&D, but C&D were both unattached (they fell out!).  Apparently this is a problem with 70s/80s DiMarzios.  I was told on the Hamer forum that they just need to be glued back in with cement glue/contact adhesive.  Evostick to the rescue.

[Mykesbass]

On 28/01/2021 at 09:39, NancyJohnson said:

OK, this might go on a bit, but this is pretty much it.

When I was a wee lad, Hamer were the new kids on the (guitar) block; sure, I was aware of Gibson/Fender etc. but my exposure to these brands was likely via Beat Instrumental, Top Of The Pops, the Bell catalogue (and so on).  I can still remember the fevered, 'what was that guitar?' conversations at school the night after seeing Slade on TOTP where Dave Hill would be playing the Super Yob or a Burns Flyte.  (This would never happen now, I suppose, which saddens me!)

Anyhow, in the early 80s, Hamer were carrying out some fairly persuasive and proactive marketing...I'd go up to Denmark Street with my mates and many of the shops there had piles of these full colour US-letter sized flyers for the various Hamer models 

This resonates so strongly with me - but for Peavey T40/T60. Also the 'what was that guitar' moment, but for me was the geeky bit of the gig reviews in Musicians Only which listed all the gear that favourite bands were using.

[Doctor J]

@NancyJohnson How are you getting on with this now that you've had some time to live with it?

[NancyJohnson]

22 minutes ago, Doctor J said:

@NancyJohnson How are you getting on with this now that you've had some time to live with it?

Over the last few weeks, I've just been putting stuff away in cases as I'm not playing that much (recording all done), so I only have three out, two Lulls and the Hamer.  The Hamer is the only bass I've really been picking up, probably because it's always plugged in.

It's had a few tweaks, several small neck adjustments (which I don't think is fully there yet) and some deep cleaning.  I put some Dunlop Straplocks on it, but the biggie was swapping out the stock DiMarzios for a PJ set of EMG Geezer Butler pickups.  I also took that opportunity to insulate the control cavity with copper-tape.  The DiMarzios were just a bit too shrill for me; the EMGs haven't stripped out the soul of the bass, just phattened and hotted things up somewhat, so highly recommended.  I haven't recorded with it yet...we haven't got anything new to record and it arrived too late for the last sessions (the guy producing likes my five-string Lull tonally, so for now that's all I've been using really).

From a living-with perspective, I'm very happy, yes. 95%.  While subjective, it plays nicely, tonally it does what I want it to do through my gear.  It's quite light, neck profile is comfortable.  It's all good.  If another first-generation one came up for the same kind of price, I think I'd consider pulling the trigger on it.

[NancyJohnson]

Interestingly, I was just looking for Cruisebasses on Reverb and this one was up for sale by a Russian store about eleven months ago.  Certainly seen some miles...

[Geek99]

What does mrs Nancy Johnson think ? Have you let her play it yet ?

[NancyJohnson]

8 hours ago, Geek99 said:

What does mrs Nancy Johnson think ? Have you let her play it yet ?

She's not 'had a go'...

[Geek99]

39 minutes ago, NancyJohnson said:

She's not 'had a go'...

You should - it’s a crucial part of GAS diffusion