Hamer

Special

Hamer took the binding off the Sunburst. Rick Nielsen took five of them and glued them together.

Outside Chicago, around 1980. Hamer has a gorgeous bound double-cut called the Sunburst, and it builds a plainer one: same mahogany, same thin flame top, no trim. That plain one is the guitar players kept making their own.

Introduced: 1980
Type: Solidbody electric
Class: Production

Read the story · 3 min

All guitars More Hamer

Have a photograph of this guitar? Send a picture

The short version

1973
Wilmette
Paul Hamer and Jol Dantzig start Hamer in the Chicago suburbs.
Late 1979 or 1980
The Special
The third Hamer model arrives, a Sunburst without the binding. The accounts don't agree on the year.
1980
Arlington Heights
The shop moves, a March price list has the Special at $699.90, and a checkerboard logo appears late in the year.
1981
Five necks
Five Special bodies are cut apart and laminated into Rick Nielsen's orange five-neck.
1984
The Floyd Special
An all-mahogany version with a Floyd Rose, the one people call the Gary Moore Special. Gone after 1985.
1988
Kaman
Kaman buys Hamer.
1992
Modern Vintage
The name comes back, all mahogany, with two P-90s.
2017
Special Junior
An imported one-pickup Junior revives the name at Winter NAMM.

Side A

Five bodies, one guitar

Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick wants one guitar that does everything. His brief, as he tells it:

"I wanted a 12-string and a fretless, and one that sounded like a Stratocaster and one that sounded like a Junior."

The answer came out orange, with five necks. Frank Untermeyer describes how they got there:

"For this guitar, we cut apart five double-cutaway Hamer Special bodies and laminated them together, and then sanded in between the necks to get that sort of swoopy look."

Five Specials went into that guitar. Not Sunbursts, Hamer's fancy one. The plain ones.

That was the Special from the start: the Hamer you could do something with.

The Sunburst without the jewelry

Paul Hamer and Jol Dantzig had been building guitars in the Chicago suburbs since 1973, and early on they built Gibson shapes. First the Standard, on the Explorer outline. Then the Sunburst, a bound double-cut with a flame top, loosely on the outline of Gibson's 1950s Les Paul Special.

The Special was the Sunburst with the jewelry left off. Same rough outline, same mahogany, a glued-in neck, and on most of them the same flamed maple on top, just a few millimetres thick. What went missing was the binding and, in Hamer's own words, the arched top. No cream edge around the body, no trim on the board. Rosewood, pearl dots, 22 frets. One historian calls it a slightly downscale Sunburst, and that's all it was meant to be.

When it arrived is one of those arguments. Hamer itself says 1980, and a March 1980 price list already has it at $699.90, plus $119.90 for the case. The same writer who dates it to early 1980 elsewhere puts it at the end of 1979. Either way it was the third Hamer model, and it showed up as the shop moved to Arlington Heights.

Wired a little wrong, on purpose

The sound came from two DiMarzio humbuckers, a cream one at the bridge and a zebra at the neck. One account has them wired out of phase, the thin, quacky sound you get when two pickups partly cancel each other. Another puts that trick on the Sunburst, and only in the middle position. The control layouts in the two accounts don't match either. Pick your historian.

What isn't argued is how it looked by 1981. Sunburst, transparent cherry, natural, yellow, green, and then opaques: red, blue, orange, black. By 1981 there were black-and-white graphics. A checkerboard logo turned up on the headstock toward the end of 1980. Those early heads with only the Hamer script are the thin end of the pile now.

Flip the record · By the numbers

$699.90
List price in March 1980, plus $119.90 for the case
5
Special bodies cut apart and laminated into Rick Nielsen's 1981 five-neck
A few mm
How thin the flame-maple cap is on an early Special
3rd
Hamer model, after the Explorer-shaped Standard and the Sunburst

Side B

The one they call Gary Moore's

The '80s happened to it the way they happened to everything. From 1983 a lot of Specials took a vibrato, a few in 1984 got a Kahler, the transparent finishes gave way to pearl and graphics, and by the end of 1984 the first version was gone.

In its place came a short run that people still nickname for Gary Moore: all mahogany, no flamed maple at all, a Floyd Rose, a slightly smaller headstock, Slammer humbuckers. It was offered only until 1985. Moore owned at least two, and they're called his because he favored them. It was never a signature model. Hamer did draw up a real Gary Moore guitar in 1984, on its Phantom body, and that one never made it to production.

After 1985 there were hardly any Specials of any kind.

Plain again

The name kept coming back, a little plainer each time. From 1992 the Modern Vintage Special was all mahogany with two soapbar P-90s and a tune-o-matic. A flame-top FM version followed, with a much thicker cap, about a centimetre. Kaman had bought Hamer back in 1988, and in 1997 the shop moved to Connecticut. After that the Special drifted out of the catalogue, then returned as a one-pickup Junior, often korina. In 2017 an imported Special Junior came back with a single P-90, one volume, and one tone.

That's not the 1980 guitar. The 1980 guitar is the thin flame cap and the two DiMarzios.

And five of them are in an orange guitar with five necks, cut apart and glued back together because Rick Nielsen wanted a 12-string, a fretless, a Strat, and a Junior all at once. They didn't use the fancy one.

The cast

The people, and the specific guitars, that made the legend.

1981
Rick Nielsen
The orange five-neck, built from five Special bodies
Never a catalog guitar. He wanted a 12-string, a fretless, a Strat sound, and a Junior sound on one instrument. No Cheap Trick track is tied to a stock Special.
1981
Frank Untermeyer
Five-neck builder
Tells how five Special bodies were sawn apart and laminated, then sanded between the necks.
1984–85
Gary Moore
All-mahogany Floyd Rose Special
Owned at least two, and the model took his name as a nickname. It was never a signature, and no record is credited to it.
1973
Paul Hamer and Jol Dantzig
Founders
Built Gibson-shaped guitars in the Chicago suburbs, then took the trim off one.

Liner notes

Specs, construction, rarity, value, and every source we used.

A thin flametop, no binding, and two DiMarzios out of phase — Hamer’s double-cut, the Sunburst without the trim.

Body: Mahogany, double-cut, flat top, no binding. Thin flame-maple cap on most; opaque colors were offered. Andrew Large: the maple is a few millimetres thick.
Neck: Glued-in mahogany, three-a-side. Large also calls the neck three-piece.
Fingerboard: Unbound rosewood, pearl dots, 22 frets
Scale: 24.75 inches (Andrew Large). He gives no millimetre figure.
Pickups: Two Hamer-spec DiMarzio PAF humbuckers. Large: cream bridge, zebra neck, wired out of phase.
Hardware: Sustain Block bridge; Schaller tuners. Large: a few early ones have Grovers.
Electronics: Three-way, two volumes, master tone
Finish: Wright, 1981: sunburst, transparent cherry, natural, yellow, green, opaque red, blue, green, orange, black. Black-and-white graphics by 1981.
Nut: Hamer never published a width for the 1980 guitar.

Open the full research fileConstruction details, the complete player record, production numbers, dated value estimates, and sources

The specs above are a 1980–84 USA Special, the first version. The Special Jr. on Hamer’s site now is a different guitar.

Construction

The job was a Sunburst with the jewelry left off. Paul Hamer and Jol Dantzig had already been building Gibson-shaped guitars in the Chicago suburbs: the Explorer-outline Standard, then the double-cut Sunburst. Andrew Large: the Special is loosely the shape of a 1950s double-cut Gibson Les Paul Special, and simply a Sunburst without body binding. Michael Wright calls it a slightly downscale Sunburst. It is not a new outline. Wright dates the Prototype, Hamer’s first guitar that was not a Gibson shape, to 1981.

Sources differ on the first year. Large’s history of the Special says it appeared in early 1980, the third model. Wright says Hamer introduced it in 1980, and a March 1980 list already has it at $699.90, case $119.90. The same Andrew Large, writing the Sunburst, says the Special was introduced at the end of 1979 and numbered on the Sunburst system. Blue Book prints manufacture 1979–1998 under GSPS, and the text under that span describes the later soapbar guitar, not the maple-cap original. Hamer’s own page, checked 30 October 2026, says this downscale Sunburst “was originally released in 1980” and “lacked binding and an arched top.” Before the name, Large says, at least one unbound guitar still wore the Sunburst logo.

Wikipedia groups the Special with the models launched as the shop moved to Arlington Heights in 1980. Large dates that address from 1980 through 1997.

Wright’s Sunburst is British Honduras mahogany. He describes the Special as that guitar without the binding, most of them still capped in flamed maple, the cap thin enough that Large measures it in a few millimetres. Large’s overview says the rest matched the Sunburst, including a three-piece neck. His first-version description, and Wright, give two volumes and a master tone; Wright’s Sunburst is one volume and two tones, the switch behind the bridge. Large wires the Special’s DiMarzios out of phase. Wright puts that trick on the Sunburst, and only in the middle position. The control accounts differ.

A checkerboard logo arrived toward the end of 1980. The earliest heads carry only the Hamer script. During 1981 the Sustain Block’s string spacing narrowed, the side dots moved with it, and Large says the lower cutaway grew by a few millimetres, on the Sunburst and the Special, for the top frets. Beside Wright’s 1981 color list, Large adds opaque white, a dark sunburst that is often quite light, and early pearl and metallic.

1983 pulled it toward a vibrato. Large: many took Hamer’s Sustain Block tremolo; a few around 1984 have a Kahler flat-mount. Pearl and graphics replaced a lot of the transparent finishes, the checkerboard often disappeared, and the pickups went to black Slammers. Wright: vibratos sometime after ’83, a few Kahlers in ’84, first version gone by the end of ’84.

The Floyd Rose guitar is the short run people nickname for Gary Moore. Wright: introduced in ’84, all mahogany, no flamed maple, a slightly smaller headstock, Slammer humbuckers, rosewood dots, ebony with crowns as an option, offered only until ’85. Large adds a rounder peghead, a bigger logo, a maple neck from 1985 to take the tremolo, and pearl side dots from 1985 (plastic again around 1994). He calls it an association, not a signature: Moore owned at least two. A separate Gary Moore model, drawn on the Phantom in 1984, never reached production; Large says Moore owned two of those as well. After 1985, very few Specials of any type until the name came back.

That comeback is the Modern Vintage Special, 1992–1998 (Large). All mahogany, no maple cap, tune-o-matic and stop in place of the Sustain Block, two Seymour Duncan soapbar P-90s, humbuckers to order, Schallers often the smaller size. A “Special” wordmark under the logo, no checkerboard, and later not even the wordmark. Blue Book’s GSPS line is this guitar: 22-fret rosewood dots, tune-o-matic and stop, one volume and two tones, two Duncan soapbars, finishes including 2-tone sunburst, black, cherry transparent, TV blonde, and vintage white. Vintage white left in 1995; 2-tone sunburst and black left in 1998. Blue Book’s 1979 is the disputed start, not Large’s 1992.

The Special FM followed. Large: 1993–1998, tune-o-matic and stop, maple about 1 cm thick, a black Duncan JB at the bridge and a zebra ’59 at the neck. Quilt as well as flame. Renamed Special Custom from 1997. Blue Book’s GSPS-FM is 1994–98, the same pickup pair, colors from ’59 Burst and Aztec Gold through blue and cherry transparent, emerald green, natural, salmon blush, and vintage orange. Sources differ on the first FM year, and Blue Book does not use the Custom name.

After the 1997 move to New Hartford, Large says the Special soon left the catalogue. Custom orders led to one dog-ear P-90, a scratchplate, often korina, a wraparound, and usually Schaller tulip buttons. He dates a production model to 2004, first the Junior, later the Special Korina Jr. Blue Book’s GSPKJR is 2005–09: korina body on the Les Paul Junior outline, set korina neck, 22-fret rosewood dots, wraparound, tortoiseshell guard, one dog-ear Duncan P-90, three knobs, Vintage Korina. The start year differs.

Kaman bought Hamer in 1988. What returned at Winter NAMM 2017 was an import. Premier Guitar, 25 January 2017: Special Junior SPJ-NT, “a slightly downsized version of the Sunburst guitar originally introduced by Hamer in 1980,” mahogany, rosewood, one dog-ear P-90, one volume and one tone, MAP $599.99. hamerguitars.com on 30 October 2026 still lists a Special Jr. and does not list a Special. The living sheet: no top, mahogany body and neck, ebony board, dots, graphite nut 1 5/8", chrome die-cast tuners, 24 3/4", tune-o-matic, one dog-ear, one volume and one tone, a full-depth dovetail. The 2017 press says rosewood; the 2026 page says ebony. A Reverb listing for a 2017 example still says rosewood, and Indonesia. Blue Book’s Slammer Special (SPH, 1994–95, two humbuckers) is a cheaper line, not this guitar.

A 1980–84 USA Special is the thin flame cap, the Sustain Block, and two DiMarzios. The guitar sold under a Special name in 2026 is an import Junior with one P-90.

Players

The Standard is the Explorer-shape guitar. The Sunburst is the bound double-cut this one was taken from. The Phantom is the 1982 offset. Steve Stevens’s model is a Prototype. The five-neck is a custom.

Rick Nielsen (Cheap Trick). The Special in his story is the orange five-neck of 1981, and it was never a catalog guitar. Frank Untermeyer, in Guitar Player (28 September 2026): “For this guitar, we cut apart five double-cutaway Hamer Special bodies and laminated them together, and then sanded in between the necks to get that sort of swoopy look.” Nielsen, same piece: “I wanted a 12-string and a fretless, and one that sounded like a Stratocaster and one that sounded like a Junior.” Two more five-necks followed. The 2004 korina one is not those laminated Special bodies. Guitar World, 26 October 2026: it sold for $313,600. Wright’s artist list from around 1979 has Nielsen on Standards and a Sunburst, before this model. No Cheap Trick track has been tied to a stock Special.

Gary Moore. Wright: the Floyd, all-mahogany Specials “are often called the Gary Moore Special because they were favored by” him, and they were gone after ’85. Large: he owned at least two, and it was not a formal signature. The 1984 Phantom drawn for him is a different guitar, and it was never produced. These sources publish no album credit for the Floyd Special.

Also known to play: the ca. 1979 purchase list names no Special.

Rarity

You cannot buy a new USA Special. hamerguitars.com, 30 October 2026, lists a Special Jr. and no Special. The Indonesian Junior, the korina Junior, and the Slammer Special are other guitars.

Hamer never published a Special total. A year-prefix serial dates one guitar. It does not count a year. Large: about 1,500 Sunbursts by the start of 1980, fewer of them in 1980 because Specials were increasing, and more than 2,000 guitars of every model at Arlington Heights in 1981. None of that is a Special census.

What is actually thinner: a 1980 head with only the Hamer script; a graphic from the 1981 catalog; an all-mahogany Floyd of 1984–85; a korina Junior. Nielsen’s five-neck used five Special bodies and is not one of them.

Value

Informal estimate, 30 October 2026. Not an appraisal.

Asks and sold prices are labeled below. Celebrity lots are not comparable sales. March 1980 list $699.90, case $119.90 (Wright), is 1980 money. The 2017 MAP of $599.99 is a 2017 cart. The $313,600 five-neck is not a Special.

New street. The maker’s page lists the Special Jr. and prints no price (30 October 2026). Named ask: Fanatic Guitars, a new Special Junior, $414.46 (was $460.52) on Reverb. Import Junior, not a 1980 USA guitar.

Used modern. Reverb’s guide for The Special Jr., 2010s natural gloss, Good to Mint, showed $221–$841 from 131 orders (30 October 2026). Named solds there: 18 October 2026, Excellent, $450; 21 September 2026, Very Good, $550; 23 June 2026, Very Good, $381.76; 20 January 2026, Very Good, $599; 17 January 2026, Excellent, $500. The same history also shows $1,400 (6 March 2026, Excellent) and $1,350 (17 December 2025, Excellent), with no note on why they sit above the guide. A used 2017 ask: $539.99 (was $599.99).

Vintage / collectible. Reverb showed no separate guide for the 1980 USA Special. Named sold, last price on a sold listing: Mike & Mike’s, 1980 flame sunburst, $2,999.99 (about two years old); Twisted Serpent, 1981 transparent red flame, $1,800 (about four years); a 1982 cherry burst with replaced pickups and knobs, $1,500 (about three years); Thunder Road, 1990s TV-yellow with P-90s, $1,250 (about four years). Named asks: Will’s Gear Depot, 1981 sunburst, checkerboard head, $1,999.99 (was $2,499.99); 1981 honey flame, $2,999 (was $3,599); 1982 cherry, $1,899; 1982 cherry sunburst, $2,299; 1992–94 TV yellow, $1,650; 1993 TV yellow, $2,100; 1990s cherry, $1,495; 1993 cherry with replacement humbuckers, $1,699; 1993 cherry with P-90s, $2,104.99. Doc’s Vintage, 1981 black-and-white graphic, $4,500 (was $6,500), is a one-off finish.

Sources

Hamer Fan Club, Andrew Large, The Hamer Special Through the Years — early 1980; third model; Sunburst without binding; thin flame cap, a few millimetres; 24.75"; DiMarzio cream/zebra, out of phase; Sustain Block, Schaller, a few Grovers; checkerboard late 1980; 1981 bridge; Floyd from 1984, maple neck 1985, Moore owned at least two; Modern Vintage 1992–98; FM about 1 cm, 1993–98, JB/’59, Special Custom from 1997; Junior / Korina Jr. from 2004
Hamer Fan Club, Andrew Large, The Hamer Sunburst — Special at the end of 1979; same serial system; fewer Sunbursts in 1980; about 1,500 Sunbursts by the start of 1980; Arlington Heights 1980–1997; over 2,000 guitars in 1981; cutaway and saddle changes
Vintage Guitar, Michael Wright, The History of Hamer, Part One — introduced 1980; unbound Sunburst; flame cap, opaque option; 1981 finishes and graphics; two volumes, one tone, Sustain Block; vibrato after 1983, Kahler 1984, first version to 1984; March 1980 list $699.90, case $119.90; Sunburst as British Honduras mahogany, one volume and two tones; Prototype 1981; ca. 1979 artist list
Vintage Guitar, The History of Hamer, Part Two — Floyd / “Gary Moore” Special 1984–85; all mahogany, smaller headstock, Slammers, ebony crowns optional; Steve Stevens model is a Prototype
Blue Book, HAMER SPECIAL (MODEL GSPS) — soapbar description, mfg. 1979–1998; vintage white dropped 1995; 2-tone sunburst and black dropped 1998
Blue Book, HAMER ELECTRIC: SPECIAL SERIES — Special FM 1994–98; Korina Jr. 2005–09, three knobs; Slammer Special 1994–95
Wikipedia, Hamer Guitars — founded 1973, Wilmette, Paul Hamer and Jol Dantzig; 1980 Arlington Heights; Special among the new models; caption of a 1980 Special
Wikipedia, Jol Dantzig — Kaman acquisition 1988; 1997 move to Connecticut
hamerguitars.com — “originally released in 1980”; living Special Jr., ebony, 1 5/8" graphite, 24 3/4", one dog-ear, tune-o-matic; no Special and no price (30 October 2026)
Premier Guitar, Hamer Guitars Announces 2017 Lineup — 25 January 2017; SPJ-NT; mahogany, rosewood, dog-ear P-90, one volume and one tone; MAP $599.99
Guitar Player, Christopher Scapelliti, Rick Nielsen’s five-neck — 28 September 2026; Untermeyer on five Special bodies; Nielsen’s brief; 2004 korina five-neck is a later guitar
Guitar World, Rick Nielsen’s five-neck at auction — 26 October 2026; 2004 korina five-neck sold for $313,600
Reverb price guide, Hamer The Special Jr. Natural Gloss — $221–$841, 131 orders; solds through 18 October 2026; used 2017 ask $539.99
Reverb, Fanatic Guitars, Hamer Special Junior natural — new ask $414.46, was $460.52
Reverb, Mike & Mike’s, 1980 Special flame sunburst — sold, last price shown $2,999.99
Reverb, Twisted Serpent, 1981 Special transparent red — sold, last price shown $1,800
Reverb, 1982 Special cherry burst — sold, last price shown $1,500; pickups and knobs replaced
Reverb, Thunder Road, 1990s Special TV yellow — sold, last price shown $1,250
Reverb, Will’s Gear Depot, 1981 Special sunburst — ask $1,999.99, was $2,499.99
Reverb, Doc’s Vintage, 1981 black/white graphic — ask $4,500, was $6,500