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Fuzz lovers-

Anyone have any experience with, or strong opinions about, late 70s Kramer guitars?
I'm looking at a '79 which has Di Marzio humbuckers, plus the whole early Kramer aluminum-neck-with-wood-inserts thing. Looks very much like a Travis Bean.

I'm especially curious about performance in terms of tuning, intonation, relief, and action.....I'm looking for a guitar to play, not to collect, and I want something that can be maintained and set up without too much hassle. I assume these things don't have a truss rod.

Any love or hate for these instruments?

-tbu

A friend has one of the one-pickup models, it seems to be no better or worse than an average Fender in upkeep. The frets are a pretty good size for a vintage guitar.

Weighing a tone would be the only big knock on it.

I had one, back around 2000-2001. Personally, I felt it didn't do anything different enough from an all wood guitar to warrant putting up with the weight.

I had the same feeling when I had an EGC a couple of years ago. The EGC was definitely different than an all wood guitar, but not really "better" to my ear, and was also too heavy and didn't stay in tune for shit.

These guitars just make me sad bacause they were cheap and you could find them on the reg back when i had no money. Now they are just go for doom dad collectors prices

doom dads

Phosphene Audio wrote:I had one, back around 2000-2001. Personally, I felt it didn't do anything different enough from an all wood guitar to warrant putting up with the weight.

I had the same feeling when I had an EGC a couple of years ago. The EGC was definitely different than an all wood guitar, but not really "better" to my ear, and was also too heavy and didn't stay in tune for shit.

Phosphene, did you like the plastic fingerboard?

qersty wrote:These guitars just make me sad bacause they were cheap and you could find them on the reg back when i had no money. Now they are just go for doom dad collectors prices

qersty, actually it's a starter guitar for my 3yo
:^D
i think he's gonna be all good with a 10lb instrument.

DOOM DADS!!!!

It would be an excellent starter. like hes not gonna fuck it up as badly as a wooden guitar i mean

Those kramers seem like wildly overpriced also-rans for people who want-but-can't-afford travis beans with all of the disadvantages of an aluminum guitar with absolutely none of the benefits.

The Vaccaro X-Rays seem like much nicer guitars and are still pretty cheap.

That said, I am zero fun.

I had one with the single coils that I got back when they were... fewer hundreds of dollars than they go for now. They aren't bad guitars, but they are really weird. I didn't hate the ebonol fingerboard at all, and the pickups sounded pretty great. very bright/ open is my recollection, but then I was running them through a bandmaster at the time as well. I definitely picked it up because I wanted in on the aluminum neck thing and wasn't willing to spend over a grand on a guitar. It was a fine player for the time I had it. maybe slightly worse than an EGC about warming up into tune, but I also wasn't doing the trick where I kept the guitar 15 cents flat and then literally warming up while I warmed up.

if you can snag yours for a price you are happy with, then I'd say go for it. I'd agree with the caution that a lot of these go for a lot more than they are probably worth though. just something to be aware of.

mcatano wrote:Those kramers seem like wildly overpriced also-rans for people who want-but-can't-afford travis beans

I mean... yeah.

i had one that i bought for $250 in the mid-nineties. i ended up getting a Travis Bean & it was better in every way. the Kramer wasn't *bad*, it was just not great. i wasn't a fan of the strips of wood in the neck, either.
i think this is the only photo i have of it:

the_bright_undead wrote:

Phosphene Audio wrote:I had one, back around 2000-2001. Personally, I felt it didn't do anything different enough from an all wood guitar to warrant putting up with the weight.

I had the same feeling when I had an EGC a couple of years ago. The EGC was definitely different than an all wood guitar, but not really "better" to my ear, and was also too heavy and didn't stay in tune for shit.

Phosphene, did you like the plastic fingerboard?

It didn't bother me.