KRAMER gas....

  • Thread starter Thread starter JackBootedThug
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Joey B. said:
I had an '83 Pacer Imperial with the "beak" headstock and an '86 Baretta with the satin finish "pointy" one. The '83 guitar played and sounded MUCH better. Traded off the wrong one for my '73 Les Paul goldtop.
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I would trade any one of my Pacers for a '73 LP.
 
back in the day you could not give me one of those things. If it didn't say Fender or Gibson then fuck off. And I hate floyd's....wtf is wrong with me? midlife crisis? dafuq?:unsure:
 
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I guess my screen name says it all ?
Lol
I am super fond of Kramers !
I personally think the Focus series were the best bang for the buck.
Of coarse normally you have to change the electronics. But I do that to 9/10 guitars anyways .
I have 9 Kramers total 4 are in the project stage.
I need to get off my culo and get em done !
I had quickgaurds make me some custom pickgaurds for 2 of the..
I have some custom wound dimarzios for one.
The pickgaurds I had made are humbucker bridge and single neck no middle pickup and only one know for volume.
 
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May have told this story before. I ordered a Focus 5000 from the local music store when I was 15. It got all screwed up, took forever, got the wrong color, dead pickup, etc. I wrote a letter to Dennis Berardi. He called me the following week, apologized profusely, told me to come down to the factory for a tour and to have them fix my guitar. I lived in NJ at the time, but wasn't driving yet, so my mom drove me and another guitar buddy with a Baretta. This was during the 5150 tour and we got to see three of Ed's spare 5150 guitars that had just been finished and were being shipped out to him, hung with Dennis in his office and he showed us lots of cool photos of a backyard BBQ at his house with all the Kramer endorsers of the day. It was very cool.
 
Rick Lee said:
May have told this story before. I ordered a Focus 5000 from the local music store when I was 15. It got all screwed up, took forever, got the wrong color, dead pickup, etc. I wrote a letter to Dennis Berardi. He called me the following week, apologized profusely, told me to come down to the factory for a tour and to have them fix my guitar. I lived in NJ at the time, but wasn't driving yet, so my mom drove me and another guitar buddy with a Baretta. This was during the 5150 tour and we got to see three of Ed's spare 5150 guitars that had just been finished and were being shipped out to him, hung with Dennis in his office and he showed us lots of cool photos of a backyard BBQ at his house with all the Kramer endorsers of the day. It was very cool.
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Fuck yeah; did he offer you guys cocaine? :love:
 
Devin said:
Fuck yeah; did he offer you guys cocaine? :love:
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Yeah, with my mom and grandma coming to pick us up in an hour. All the Kramer execs you ever saw in their ads, we met that day. Also, when the D-Tuna came out around 1997, but no retailers had them, I called the number in the magazine ad and Andy Papaccio picked up the phone. We chatted about Kramer's heyday a bit. He was one of the VPs at Kramer back then and I've seen him at NAMM a few times running the Floyd Rose exhibit. Sad story what happened to Kramer. There were a few runs of guitars there that were just unbeatable and are still great guitars. Some models were cheesy and dated and don't really have a vintage vibe at this age. My photo hosting site crashed a year ago, but I'll dig out the print sometime and scan it. My old guitar teacher got one of the very first holy grail Barettas (the one in the No Bozos ad) when the Kramer execs were personally driving around to all their dealers in NJ to pitch it before they were for sale. $500 was real money back then. I put hours on that guitar for years, but it was stolen in a home burglary.
 
Here are my 4 kramer project bodies.
3 were complete when I got them.
I wanted to make changes .
I do have a 86 focus 1000 neck if any body wants it ?
75 plus the ride.
Send me a msg if interested.
7
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What can i say? I was young and heavily influenced by Vai. This guitar has the original shim in the neck that reads ESP. Pretty sure these were built with ESP parts but I’m not sure. I bought it new and it still sounds amazing and rings loud af unplugged. It’s perfect for EVH/Holdsworth styled playing.
 

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So for me of coarse Van Halen and Kramers.
But also many others as well.
Growing up in the 80's kramers just screamed 80's !
I would look at them in the music stores and want one so bad !
I was too poor to afford one then.
So in the early 90's I started buying them.
I think part of it was the childhood dreamer in me !
I only have 2 American ones the Voyager and the pacer.
The others are all Japan focus models.
Truly though they have great necks and really are nice quality with real Floyd roses.
Some later models came stock with seymour duncan jb in the bridge.
Even the Japan ones.
Actually I believe they were all made in Japan at the ESP factory.
I just think the US ones were put together here.
They just had different electronics and slightly different bodies and necks.
The strikers were koren plywood bodies.
All the focus are Japan and wood.
 
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There is a killer white I believe Focus 3000 on Craigslist Los angeles
 
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