NGD! The Kramer has arrived!

Rollin Hand · Mon Oct 16, 2023 3:29 pm

So, I saw that Long and Mcquade, duuring ROCKTOBER had reuced the price of the Kramer Baretta Special to $259 plus HST. I had a $100 gift card. Seems obvious, no?

Came with lots of nice little things (I bought the strings and the nut).

The mission statement is clear:

And it was sent with love (or a perfunctory inspection).

Now to the good stuff:

Yep, that colour is something else. And it was almost in tune out of the box, even if the action was a smidge high.

As for tone, I found it a titch muffled, so pickup adjustment may be in order. The famed "on-off switch" (aka, volume pot with treble bleed that does nothing until it is almost completely rolled off) is in the house, although it never totally turns off. At zero volume, I get what I would normally expect at 2. I will snip the cap, and may even go so far as to put in a new pot if this one is bad. As well, a set of stainless or brass saddles could wake it up a lot. I am even considering upgrading the bridge -- some interesting stuff out there if you know where to look. Or....rhymes with Lloyd Nose.

The neck....I can see why these are so popular. This is a very swift neck. Think Fender medium C, but a little thinner, and with a flatter radius. And the frets are bigger than anticipated too. The one I played previously felt like it had smaller frets (medium jumbos) but these look and feel bigger (that's what she said). At any rate, I can play quickly on this guitar even with the high action.

The body is nice and light -- almost toy-like. I will have to investigate whether the body is "mahogany" or maple. It was made in Indonesia, but I am not sure what that means in terms of woods. It sustains decently and plays well on the stock strings. A set of my usual upgrades (stainless steel or hardened steel fasteners wherever possible) may help with this.

Tuning stability is not the best. Cheap tuners, a plastic nut, with heavily angled strings will do that to you. Hopefully it will improve with the Tusq XL nut, though I gather that even then, it won't allow for heavy trem work. And if I am getting into the tuners, might as well do more like change the hardware colour, etc. That's not why I bought it though really.

In short, this thing is basically a no-brainer if you catch one on sale. Pick the colour you like, roll with it, and have some fun. It's a hoot.

toomanycats · Mon Oct 16, 2023 4:19 pm

I never even considered that color until seeing how it looks in your pics. Looks so great with the zebra humbucker too. I say definitely slap a Floyd on there. It's what that guitar was made for.

Rollin Hand · Mon Oct 16, 2023 4:28 pm

toomanycats wrote: ↑Mon Oct 16, 2023 4:19 pm I never even considered that color until seeing how it looks in your pics. Looks so great with the zebra humbucker too. I say definitely slap a Floyd on there. It's what that guitar was made for.

I wish they had a second-level Baretta with a Floyd Special for a medium price. The Baretta Vintage is too much for what you get, in my view. If they put one out with all of the parts from this, but with a Special, and with a mid-point price, they'd sell a pile of them. Including to me.

tonebender · Mon Oct 16, 2023 5:56 pm

Congrats on the new guitar. I saw a duo yesterday with backing tracks and the guitarist was playing a Kramer. She was shredding that thing. I see them from time to time as they play some of the same places we do and she usual plays a Tele but yesterday she brought out the Kramer.

glasshand · Tue Oct 17, 2023 10:57 am

HNGD! I was seriously considering one of those when I was looking at putting together my single-humbucker guitar, and I hear nothing but good things about them.

Rollin Hand · Tue Oct 17, 2023 11:59 am

A bit of research indicates that this one has a maple body. That has a plus: if I do put a locking trem on this thing, the posts should stay in place well.

I might run this thing into L&M to get them to deal.with the funky pot. After all, it is under warranty, so it should be a free fix. Maybe get them.to install a Fender pot while I am at it.

Rollin Hand · Wed Oct 18, 2023 1:59 pm

Well, a bit more playing confirms this is maple. WAY brighter than any of my guitars. No stainless saddles for this beast!

And it's going in this weekend for the warranty repair. I assume that will be a new pot.

RiverDog · Thu Oct 19, 2023 9:30 pm

Yesss! I'm so here for the Kramer content. HNKD and welcome to the club! I see you got a MII version, too. I hear they're now being made in China and that the neck profile is slightly different as a result. I don't know for sure if that's true but... Regardless, these things are great for the money.

I'm thinking about getting a Floyd installed on mine, too.

tlarson58 · Thu Oct 19, 2023 10:58 pm

Happy new guitar day! I can feel your excitement over the 'net!

Rollin Hand · Fri Oct 20, 2023 11:33 am

RiverDog wrote: ↑Thu Oct 19, 2023 9:30 pm Yesss! I'm so here for the Kramer content. HNKD and welcome to the club! I see you got a MII version, too. I hear they're now being made in China and that the neck profile is slightly different as a result. I don't know for sure if that's true but... Regardless, these things are great for the money.

I'm thinking about getting a Floyd installed on mine, too.

Mine's a fairly new build from what I can tell, so I dunno. I gather the shift to maple happened in 2019 or thereabouts (don't quote me on that). Looks like a 4-piece body.

And I am willing to bet they are using the same bodies for the Baretta Vintage.

If I do the Floyd, I might try to do it (gulp) myself. My history with these things is not great, so...yeah, I have to think about that.

Rollin Hand · Sat Oct 28, 2023 8:54 pm

Got the guitar back and the issue is solved. Now we can start looking at modifications.

I tried my first one tonight, but it didn't work out. For bolt ons, normally my first mod is stainless steel neck screws, especially on cheap guitars. You can really tell the difference, and sometimes the difference is substantial.

The problem is that the screw size is odd. It's thicker than a #10, but thinner than a #11. I'll check a few things, but I might have to leave them, which would be a bummer.

So, next m9d will be the Tusq XL nut. The stock nut binds a fair bit, and from what I understand, this one is a drop-in fit. Fingers crossed.

toomanycats · Sun Oct 29, 2023 8:37 am

Rollin Hand wrote: ↑Sat Oct 28, 2023 8:54 pm For bolt ons, normally my first mod is stainless steel neck screws, especially on cheap guitars. You can really tell the difference, and sometimes the difference is substantial.

Oh yeah,I think I saw that in last month's issue of Cork Sniffer.

Just joking. But seriously, it makes that big of a difference? I'm not doubting you if you say so. Some people make a big deal about a Les Paul neck affixed with carpenters wood glue vs hide glue. Truth be told, I really do hate cheap hardware on a guitar. It annoys me how cheap neck screws so easily strip, but I never considered that they could have a substantial impact on the tone.

Not sure if you remember, but I'm the guy who once posted a thread about using brass cabinet pull knobs as a trem block . . . so I am willing to to consider how things like this can make a difference.

Rollin Hand · Sun Oct 29, 2023 10:01 am

toomanycats wrote: ↑Sun Oct 29, 2023 8:37 am
Rollin Hand wrote: ↑Sat Oct 28, 2023 8:54 pm For bolt ons, normally my first mod is stainless steel neck screws, especially on cheap guitars. You can really tell the difference, and sometimes the difference is substantial.

Oh yeah,I think I saw that in last month's issue of Cork Sniffer.

Just joking. But seriously, it makes that big of a difference? I'm not doubting you if you say so. Some people make a big deal about a Les Paul neck affixed with carpenters wood glue vs hide glue. Truth be told, I really do hate cheap hardware on a guitar. It annoys me how cheap neck screws so easily strip, but I never considered that they could have a substantial impact on the tone.

Not sure if you remember, but I'm the guy who once posted a thread about using brass cabinet pull knobs as a trem block . . . so I am willing to to consider how things like this can make a difference.

OIP.ndJp5ApZfTFTtTyQm-4OhwHaKH.jpeg

I find it makes a difference to sustain, and a lesser extent to tone, especially on cheaper guitars with wire-grade steel fasteners. This all started when one of the guys over on the old Halen.com forums mentioned said that he added Fender neck screws to his OLP MM1. I tried it, and it was noticeable -- the guitar even felt more stable.

Then I saw Callaham sold stainless neck screws, so I made the jump -- they're even cheaper than the Fender screws when bought in bulk, so win-win.

As a result, ALL of my bolt ons have stainless screws. The only one I haven't changed is my EVH Striped series, but I am 99 percent sure the factory screws are stainless.

It's part of my "whole is greater than the sum of its parts" belief. The more vibration loss that one can stop, the better. I have even changed screws on bridges over to stainless/hardened steel/titanium where I can -- it all adds up, even though it can change the guitar's character a bit.

But it's cheap, I find it works, so why not?

The biggest change I ever made to a guitar was on my MM1, and that was going from zinc to stainless saddles. The brass block did nothing with the bridge decked, but the saddles were a literal night-and-day difference. I have a brass set that will fit on my Kramer, so why not give it a whirl?

As for types of glue...I think that is more a case of vintage correctness than actual impact.