December 2001 Issue - Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick and His Famous Hamer Guitars
By Larry Meiners
Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick is a great guitar player, has sold millions of albums, has produced many hit records and released a color photo book of part of his vintage and rare guitar collection. Rick's guitar collection includes many fine and rare vintage guitars as well as several custom and unusual instruments. He has also met and played with many legends of rock music, including John Lennon. Rick is a true rock-star.
During the early 1970s Paul Hamer and Jol Dantzig owned a guitar shop near Chicago. They built custom guitars as well as repaired and sold vintage instruments. Paul, Jol and a few partners started Hamer Guitars officially in 1974 after selling guitars to players from Focus, Bad Company and other popular bands. These instruments were patterned after the highly demanded vintage Gibson models like the Les Paul and the Flying V. That year they built the first Hamer Explorer-style "Standard" prototype for Rick. The knobs of the prototype Explorer are parallel to the neck. Subsequent production models beginning in 1975 angled the knobs in line with the treble bout of the Explorer-style Hamer Standard guitars.
Hamer made many unusual and now famous instruments for Rick, including the Checkerboard guitars, the Coffee Table Explorer, Beatles model, Uncle Dick Double-neck, among others. The most famous and recognizable perhaps is the 5-neck models. Pictured below is the Checkerboard model that consists of a 12-string and four 6-string necks with a vast combination of pickups and bridges. Rick stated that the 3M Company perfected the Checkerboard finish used on the Flying V and Explorer guitars for Hamer. Hamer also made another Orange 5-neck guitar for Rick in 1981 and each neck has a separate serial number!
For a cool experience, check out Cheap Trick's great records and Hamer's
early and current model guitars. Thanks to Rick Nielsen for use of the
picture and to Mike Graham for taking the great and colorful photo.
Copyright © 2001 Larry Meiners All Rights Reserved