Jol Dantzig

Jol Dantzig met Paul Hamer in college and played together in various bands before the two formed their own retail and teaching studio. They soon found themselves designing and building their own style of electric guitars and basses. With the help of two other friends, the Hamer Guitar Company was created in the 1970s. They made a splash in the industry with a series of innovative instruments and with a bass model helped popularize the Flying V, which had not been a success when Ted McCarty at Gibson had introduced it two decades before. After the company was sold to Kaman, the owners of Ovation Guitars, Jol moved to New Hartford, Connecticut to oversee the operations and to continue to design new products.