Wish I had one of the ones on the right. My understanding was that there are only about a dozen. Someone on TB owns a pair of them, as I recall.
The Hamers in this pic you posted are also a couple of mine....for my next group shot of "strange hamers."
And yes, the Violin Basses are longscale. They are solid body too. But, interestingly, I bought a Hoefner/Klira hollow-body body only from a former Hamer employee who got it AT the Hamer factory. I'm guessing the had it for reference when they designed their Violin Bass? I don't remember if it is a Hofner or a Klira...it's in a box in my parts stash. I recall it was an unfinished one that may still have had bindling glue residue from the German factory. Made me wonder if Hamer made a hollow-body prototype of its Violin Bass that is stashed somewhere?
Hamer made a Violin Bass for Paul MacCartney but he apparently didn't care for the boomerang inlays. I've seen Jack Blades with a couple and I know Michael Anthony has one and a collector I know has at least two....so that does not leave many others floating around.
Love mine! Plays/sounds great and looks killer with the white annodized hardware and tea cup knobs on a really dark metallic blue with oversized creme binding. One of those basses that get "whoaaaa" whenever I take it out.
That korina Standard 5 (not a Blitz) with 2TEK bridge, ebony 'board w/o inlays and the early '70s style headstock, I believe, is the only Standard 5-string ever made. A lucky "Buy It Now" EBAY score from around 10 years ago.