I hope he makes it. More power to him. Not an easy road but he won't have the overhead and payroll that the New Hartford plant had.
Uwe should contact him about having his dream doubleneck made.
I'm surprised that Gibson didn't buy Hamer and farm out all it's CustomShop work to them. They did better work than Gibson and were the closest to Gibson style builds.
Hamer started out as repair guys handling Gibson repairs. Maybe that relationship is why they were the one brand that Gibson never sued when they put out Explorers, Thunderbirds and other Gibson shapes.
I doubt ex-Hamer guys will get the same courtesy from Gibson though, if they wander to close into Gibson trademark territory.
I also submitted a custom build quote to Mike Shiskov. So far just an acknowledgement and email,saying they are swamped with the startup but will get back to me as soon as they can.