At this time the primary woodworking was being subcontracted to the Tom Holmes Company in Nashville, Tennessee, with the painting and setup (stringing) being done in the Palatine shop.

Prior to that point production had been one-off custom variations on the original "Standard" and "Flying V" guitars built by either John Montgomery or Jim Beach.

The new arrangement with Holmes allowed Hamer to broaden its offering by building a more mainstream instrument called the "Sunburst."

Before this expansion Hamer's customers were limited to big-name touring groups such as Kiss, Bad Company, Wishbone Ash, Jethro Tull and Savoy Brown.

During that time, the company gained more popularity due to the high-profile patronage of Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen and that group's use of Hamer eight- and 12-string basses.

The staff had grown to 12 and Hamer Guitars continued to launch new models, such as the "Special", "Cruisebass", "Prototype", "Blitz" and "Phantom".

The Phantom GT followed the more traditional design of a superstrat double cutaway guitar, equipped with EMG pickups.

[4] After five years with Kaman, Dantzig left the company in 1993, moving to California to begin a design and consulting business.

In 1997, Kaman Music relocated Hamer to a smaller shop in New Hartford, Connecticut, home of Ovation Guitars.