Guest Luthier Series: Jol Dantzig

[Jay 77]

Reading this thread has been the highlight of my day, and I'm sure others will agree! Okay, show of hands - who plans on buying a Hamer now?

Thanks to Jol for doing this and to Evan for making it happen. You guys are class acts.

[Luís]

Is there anything you would like to build commercially but think/know nobody would buy?

What do you do then? Build it for yourself and be done with it?

[BloodRose]

I had a blast making those designs, but that was then and there are so many people doing it now. We even named the Californian as sort of a tip of the hat to guys we admired. Like we were in an arms race... "OK man, you think you're cool... how about 27 frets?"

Never say never... but I have Mike Shannon's phone number at Jackson if you need it! My buddies over there make those superstrats every day.

Thank you! I like Jacksons too, but love the old Hamer headstock shape and the boomerangs.. Its just gotta be a Hamer!!


Great insight on the Priest settups!! .007 guage strings?? OMG!! I didnt even know those were made.. Explains why they never used Floyds.

Time is ticking down, so this will be my last entry..
Jol, again, I thank you and will say that you have a fan and friend in Jax FLA!

[grumptruck]

This was on the first page and I think it also fell through the cracks. I think it might have been asked loosely through the other posts but here it is.

How does it feel to have a part in molding the sound of Rock and Roll?

What were some of your favorite custom guitars you made for someone famous?

What is your personal favorite tonewoods for your guitar... If you had unlimited access to money/material and had a perfect clone of yourself to build it (so you don't have to spend time doing it yourself)? What fret size, fret number, pickups etc... to sum it up what's your perfect dream guitar that you would build for yourself.

[B2D]

Mr. Dantzig - I just wanted to pop in to thank you for doing this Q&A session for us. This kind of look into the guitar industry in a rare treat for us.

My question: In retrospect, can you attribute Hamer's lasting success to any one particular factor, or has it been a combination of things?

And just for fun - what kinds of music do you like to listen to? What are some of your favorite artists?

Do you have any major hobbies or pastimes aside from luthiery?

[Andrew Lamprecht]

When you made the Hamer guitars for Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing, did you meet them? Did they seem like good guys?

And

What is your absolute favorite guitar if you could only have one?

Thanks, Andrew

[ganzosrevenge]

what type of neck joints do you think are the best for not only the working musician, but for the one who is at home just playing for enjoyment?

Also, I have seen neckthrus with trussrods in the neck, if such a guitar were to have its relief changed by turning the rod, would that adversely affect the entire guitar structurally, and not just the neck, or just the neck.

What is your view on the methods and mentalities of FMIC and Gibson, and do you think they've done their time and should leave, or that their size does in fact provide positives for the guitar industry?

Jason

PS: Saw your blog, your work is AMAZING!

[Fender_Punk]

I'm sorry man, that was just a joke. When people ask me if I'm related to Glenn, I tell them that, and then start singing "Mother, tell your son to clean up his room, tell him to do his homework too..."

Well, you had to be there I guess.

We've made a few carbon fiber guitars here, and they are not cheap to make. The whole time, people are playing them they are comparing the sound to their wooden guitars, so what's the point really? It's like a plexiglass piano. They have their place, but it's not what I want to do.

Lol, excuse my ignorance, I didn't catch the difference in the spelling of your last name. Great joke thought! My last name is Hanson so I get asked every day if I'm related to the Hanson brothers, to which I reply "No, I don't play hockey!" (Slapshot reference)

Thanks for your input on wood supply and carbon fibre.

Being a "tree hugger" I welcome the use of alternative materials or harvesting younger forests that are grown for industrial use rather than "old growth" or ancient forests (as I believe the signal chain has the main influence on tone). That being said, I'd rather see Brazillian rosewood harvested for guitars than being slashed and burned.

[dmandude123455]

hi jol, thanks for doing this, i think its really cool that you would go and take the time to answer questions about your trade.

my question whats its like working as a luthier and how/where did you get started?

reason why i ask is because iv become intrested in luthier work and in guitar work in general.

[darnright]

Mr Dantzig, First, Thank you for your very valuable time. Now, my question...is about Hamer guitars. I currently own two USA model Hamers. A 95 FM and an '04 Artist custom. I understand why they sound different, I'm not quite sure why the FM (the newest to me), "feels" so much better when I'm playing it. The body contours are very similar, except the FM has rounded body edges. Just curious if you had any ideas. I think the biggest difference in feel is in the neck, though. Thank you so much.

I have to say that this Artist Custom could be the most beautiful guitar I have ever seen.. Honey blonde and tons of flame!!!!

-thanks,

-dave

[Steve Haynie]

Hello, Jol.

I have been elected to ask this question. Is there any chance of ever seeing an official Hamer checkerboard strap again? The originals have gotten extremely expensive if you can find them for sale.

[Evan Skopp]

Ordinarily, this thread would end now, 5:00 PM Eastern, but I just got a call from Jol. He had to head out to an appointment. But he's going to come back on a bit later and answer the questions he didn't get to.

Thanks for everyone who has posted so far. We'll announce the winner of the contest later on tonight.

[ImmortalSix]

Big thanks, Evan!

[darnright]

Yes, Thank Evan! This is a great idea. It seems I know so little....

-dave

[KeeperOS]

I do realize I'm late but work took the best of me so if it's not possible to answer I'll understand.

Ok, Jol, first of all let me start by saying that I'm a Rock/Metal and a Strat guy but when I think about a guitar I simply will own someday that is the Explorer and when I think about the name on the headstock it never says Gibson or any such. It say Hamer (Standard naturally, Custom preferably, that guitar is pure class!)

My question is also about the Californian (BloodRose and I have a tendency to think alike).
I know that SuperStrats today are a dime a dozen but one of my two favorite guitars is a Washburn MG-100, a guitar with STRIKING resemblances to Hamers of the day in general (I was later told that many ex-hamer employees had joined the Washburn Chicago Custom Shop when the MGs were designed so that makes sense). That said I would be extremely interested to know whether there would be any plans for a USA version of the Californian (and preferably one without EMGs) since I have an aching suspicion (that comes pretty darn close to certainty) that one such guitar would be the ultimate guitar for a guitarist such as I (ah, forget it, no, what I meant was it would be MY ultimate guitar!)

Thanks again and I'll understand if you won't be able to answer.

[j9fd3s]

many thanks to evan and jol! very cool!

[Jol Dantzig]

Is there anything you would like to build commercially but think/know nobody would buy?

What do you do then? Build it for yourself and be done with it?

Hi everyone... back at my desk, sorry to take so long.

I like this question! I don't think that I really have a real aversion to making what I want for any kind of commercial reasons. Most of what I think about is geared (pun intended) towards musicians like myself. If it satisfies a need for a musician, that's usually good enough for me. I mean, after all, who is gonna play a 12 string bass?

There have been things that I just scratch my head as to why people didn't just go nuts over. Things like the DuoTone in 1991. I figured it was a slam dunk to make a guitar that could go between a true acoustic sound and a great electric sound just by flipping a switch. I guess people didn't believe it actually worked.

Then there's the sustainiac guitar. It allowed you to hold a note as long as you wanted, and even get the octave harmonic by flipping a switch. "Sustain" seems to be on everybody's wish list, but when we gave them endless sustain it was a non issue. Go figure.

There have been far more of these sort of things than not being able to go to market with an idea.

[Got_tone?]

I fell through the cracks also

+1 to what ImmortalSix said.

Jol, thanks for taking time out of your day to answer our questions.

What kind of advice would you give to someone who wants to get into in the world of lutherie (repair work,custom guitars, etc.)?

Do you think they are better off going to some school, learning from a pro (who is willing to teach), or are you better off learning on your own?

[Jol Dantzig]

I do realize I'm late but work took the best of me so if it's not possible to answer I'll understand.

Ok, Jol, first of all let me start by saying that I'm a Rock/Metal and a Strat guy but when I think about a guitar I simply will own someday that is the Explorer and when I think about the name on the headstock it never says Gibson or any such. It say Hamer (Standard naturally, Custom preferably, that guitar is pure class!)

My question is also about the Californian (BloodRose and I have a tendency to think alike).
I know that SuperStrats today are a dime a dozen but one of my two favorite guitars is a Washburn MG-100, a guitar with STRIKING resemblances to Hamers of the day in general (I was later told that many ex-hamer employees had joined the Washburn Chicago Custom Shop when the MGs were designed so that makes sense). That said I would be extremely interested to know whether there would be any plans for a USA version of the Californian (and preferably one without EMGs) since I have an aching suspicion (that comes pretty darn close to certainty) that one such guitar would be the ultimate guitar for a guitarist such as I (ah, forget it, no, what I meant was it would be MY ultimate guitar!)

Thanks again and I'll understand if you won't be able to answer.

Once again Keeper, I love all those old designs... they were a lot of fun to do. I think the Washburn resemblance thing is a little overblown. A lot of guitar designs back then were all coming from the same philosophy and background as we were all making strats with humbuckers and trems. There was a lot of cross-pollenization that just came from us all being about the same age and making guitars for the same market. Kinda when all the bands of an era sound similar., so I wouldn't say anybody at Washburn ripped anybody off. I actually went to high school with Greg Bennett and Dean Zelinsky was a roadie for my band, so we all were coming from a similar place. As for making the Cali again... we'll see. We have an import model, and it's not very popular. Our shop rate is at a point that any guitar we build starts at around $4000, so if there's a reason to build $5-7000 Calis, you never know.

[Jol Dantzig]

I fell through the cracks also

Originally Posted by Got_tone?
+1 to what ImmortalSix said.

Jol, thanks for taking time out of your day to answer our questions.

What kind of advice would you give to someone who wants to get into in the world of lutherie (repair work,custom guitars, etc.)?

Do you think they are better off going to some school, learning from a pro (who is willing to teach), or are you better off learning on your own?

Start by going to school, then working for someone else. It's commonly thought to take about 10,000 hours for a person to become expert in ANY field. This assumes that you have some guidance. If you try to learn it on your own it may take longer.