Once Paul got involved with Hamer towards the end of the Return of KISS Tour he didn't look back. Didn't matter that the PS10 was his signature model, he felt that Ibanez wasn't building them to his specifications so he moved to someone that would build the kind of instruments he wanted. During the European tour in support of Unmasked Paul would travel with the two Hamer Standard he had gotten the previous year, his shattered mirror PS10—which was rarely used but can be seen in backstage photos—and this Hamer Vector, the company's take on the Flying V design.
The Vector shape had been available from Hamer as a custom order in the late 70s but was kind of a "secret" that wasn't part of the price list. It only became part of the official catalog/price list in 1981 when it became a production instrument. Like most Hamers, the Vector had the type of specs that Paul appreciated at the time: mahogany body and neck with an optional maple top, and a rosewood fretboard. The custom aspects were a 3-a-side headstock that matched his Standards, split abalone inlays, active EMG pickups, and body and neck binding. (The production Vector had a much shorter headstock.) This guitar first showed up for the pre-show photo shoot at the Palladium in July 1980 but as far as I can tell it wasn't used for the actual show that night.
One possible explanation for why the Vector wasn't part of the Palldium show might have been that there was at least one thing that Paul didn't approve of. The version of the Vector seen at the Palladium pre-show photo shoot had a three-way toggle switch down by the control knobs. Once we see the guitar on stage the toggle switch had been moved to an unorthodox place up by the neck joint above the neck pickup, and the original position had been covered with a star decal. As seen in the photos below the Vector was used with a capo at the 2nd fret which was for "I Was Made For Lovin' You".
This reddish (maroon?) Vector also traveled to Australia with the band and performed the same duties, but as soon as the tour was over it seems to have been discarded. Based on how the next Vector looked I think there were two things that Paul felt needed to be addressed.
For the awesome seriousness of (Music From) The Elder Paul got himself a new, white Hamer Vector. For the most part it was a copy/paste of the previous Vector, only three things had changed. First, the headstock was pointy; second, the toggle switch had been moved almost as far away as it could get; and third, the output jack had been moved. The reddish/maroon Vector had the output jack in the original Flying V position at the very end of the lower horn which required a relatively long cable to reach the wireless transmitter on his strap. (Check the 1980 photo above again and it will jump out at you.) This white Vector had the output jack on the inner edge of the lower horn. It first appeared when the band performed "Charisma" playback for Aplausos on Mexican TV, and then it was featured in both videos shot over Halloween weekend 1981.
A few things to note about the white Vector before moving on. It was popular for playback appearances but for the lone actual performance on Fridays Paul reached for one of his trusted Hamer Standards instead. It had active pickups and I assume that they were EMG but they have no visible logo, neither relief or the small white logo that would become synonymous with EMG. Lastly, Paul had the strap button removed and had a screw-in loop added right at the "crotch" of the two wings. In high-resoluton photos you can see where the strap button used to be.
With a new album in the bag and hoping to distance themselves from the relative failure of (Music From) The Elder, the band tried to "re-invent" their look a little. The costumes were more 70's KISS than Super-KISS or the "new wave" KISS of The Elder, and Paul also decided to let the album title dictate the look of his guitars: solid colors were out, animal print was in. The promotional appearances and the photo shoots during the fall/winter of 1982 were dominated by the newly acquired B.C. Rich Eagle, but when it came time to hit the stage for the 10th Anniversary Tour the Hamer Vector was the new darling.
When Paul stepped on stage the Vector had gotten a snazzy new zebra-stripe paint job which extended to the headstock that had been painted black. There was also a new pickguard that was partially translucent plastic that allowed the zebra stripes to "shine through", and the previously unidentified active pickups had been replaced by EMG 81. Slightly less obvious, the placement of the strap button had been relocated to its original position on the inside of the upper wing. So instead of the hole left from the original strap button, during this tour high-resolution photos from the right angle shows the hole left from the screw-in loop used in 1981.
The change in position of the strap button was actually a pretty big step. This was the tour when Paul moved from the DIY solution of a screw-in loop and carabiner to a new, instrument specific solution. He started using the Dunlop Straplok. Go check out the other guitars used during this tour and you will spot it there as well.
After the unmasking things stayed pretty much the same on the guitar front for Paul. The only thing that really happened was that the Hamer Doubleneck was retired and he got himself a seldom used B.C. Rich Warlock with the same zebra pattern paint job that the Hamer Vector had. But the Vector saw its use slowly decrease over the course of the tour and towards the end of the tour, more often than not, Paul reached for one of his B.C. Riches instead.
The retirement of the Vector was probably due to a simple factor, Paul had started endorsing B.C. Rich, an endorsement he more or less honored for the next few tours. In the Butterfields auction the Zebra Vector was lot 1132 and presented as having serial no. 13777. This denotes that the guitar was built in 1981—the first digit is the year—and that it was the 3777th guitar numbered according to this system. This, along with the holes left over from moving the strap button, is the best evidence that the white custom Vector Paul had in 1981 was indeed refinished and became the Zebra Vector.
