Simply put, Marcus Miller is a living legend. His prowess as a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and composer has earned him two Grammy awards and the esteem of critics and musicians across genres. As a sideman, his credibility is well-attested—Marcus has played, and in many cases written and produced, for everyone from Miles Davis and Luther Vandross to Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey. His solo career has further cemented his status as the preeminent living bass player. With his groundbreaking style and carefully cultivated sound, Marcus has created a unique and massively influential musical voice. Marcus has honed that voice for decades, in part by embracing innovation and using the best tools available. And that’s what brought him to Dunlop Super Bright Bass Strings.

One of our guys recently found this Hamer guitar in a storage facility and brought it into the Dunlop shop for some TLC. It’s an early 2000s Hamer Newport Pro, a US made semi-hollow body beauty that was suffering, not so much from abuse, but just from lack of use. We decided to give it the Dunlop restorative treatment, utilizing Formula 65 products, Miracle Cloth, a little tape and steel wool, some elbow grease and attention to detail to bring this beautiful instrument back to top playing form. Here’s how it went down…

The first thing we noticed was how corroded and nasty the frets were. The corrosion had overtaken each fret, and the fingerboard was in desperate need of oil conditioning. The strings were in the same shape—they were rusted, and felt and sounded completely dead.