Message Particularly aimed at hairbndrckr, but also to anyone that has advice

[icecool]

I know that hairbndrckr is a bit of a Kramer man, so I wanted him or anyone to tell me whats good about Kramer, and if it's worth the buy. In particular I have seen the Baretta-II PRO, but I have no experience with Kramer, so I'm not sure what to make of it.

Any advice or guidance is much appreciated guys,
Peace

[PonyOne]

I have a Kramer Baretta 404SX (the hardtail model). There is absolutely no reason these guitars should sell for as little as they do; I got mine on sale for $199 (sweet!) and I had my doubts when I first paid. You should never buy a guitar blind, IMHO, and in this case... unless a friend has one or someone traded one in at alocal shop, it's kinda hard.

It feels more like a really upmarket Jackson than it does a $300 guitar. The construction is rock solid, and I only have to retune once when I put strings on. The Floyd model obviously will need more attention in this respect. Let's see, the neck feels superb and since it's neck-thru, the heel is way less obtrusive than most other instruments. It could be a little smaller but it's not really that big and issue. You can get to all 24 frets very easily (it's got a pretty damn deep cutaway), the pots and jack are nice and don't crackle or jiggle, which is a rarity in this price range.

The only complaint I have are the stock pickups, the Quad Rails. These are made by putting two humbuckers together to make 4 coils per pickup. Needless to say, the output is ungodly high... plus, since the main purpose of a humbucker, technically speaking, is to reduce the hum you get with single coils, this effect is doubled: no matter how much gain you're running these things will not hum. This is kinda cool. The tone on them however is a little too sterile for my tastes; they just don't have enough of a tone charactaristic. I like some degree of warmth with my drive, dammit! I swapped out the bridge p/u with a DiMarzio ToneZone: problem solved. This thing is one of nearest things you can get to the ultimate metal axe, IMHO, and I've played a lot of em... it's so damned cool.

So yeah... I'd say get one.

[icecool]

Thanks for a helpful reply man.

Heh, well, you've made me see the light! It does look to be very reliable, if I do go ahead with the buy I will probably switch to DiMarzios.

Anyone else have anything to add?

[PonyOne]

As far as DiMarzios go, the ToneZone is a damn fine pickup... what I like is that it responds to your picking dynamic way more than most other pickups do, even when you've got a load of effects running through them. If you play a chord with them and pick really lightly, you get this very sweet tone that works for nice little intros and interludes and such... and if you hit the same chord again but really hard, you get a very nice growl out of it. It's not a good pickup for jazz, nor is it a pickup for blues, surf or rockabilly... it's definitely a moderate to hard rock pickup. The SuperDistortion is basically the same thing, it's just got slightly different dynamics. The thing that sucks with the ToneZone though is that it's really sensitive and thus unforgiving when it comes to vibrating extra strings, accidentally muting one in a chord, etc... it's helped me get better at playing chords and such immensely.

If you want something with a more vintage tone, look at some of the Seymour Duncan offerings, and if you want a nice vintagey neck sound a TV Jones pickup is about as good as it gets... it just costs like $130.

[hairbndrckr]

I've been a Kramer Man for many, many, MANY years. My wife says I have way too many and I should sell. I told her she would go before my Kramers do! LOL

Anyways I had my doubts a few years ago when I heard Kramer was back under the Gibson umbrella, so I figured I would check one out, and worst case give it to my kid to beat around on. Knowing the Striker line USED to be Kramers low end line (you know the type Plywood body yadayadayada) I was surprised to find the moniker moving up in the food chain. The features seemed too good to be true, so I bought one in psycho splatter.

Came to my door and I haven't put it down since. They have very fast necks. I also agree with ponyone on the pickups, as they are built to do one thing... Play loud and rude. But being into 80's metal, clean sounds are for wimps anyways...no offense :)

Truthfully, you just cannot go wrong buying one. If you got a problem, they take care of you better then your local music store would. I had a volume pot giving me issues almost a year into having my striker, and I called and they sent me a new pot in two days. Talk about service!

So step up and become a REAL man like PonyOne and I and buy Kramer. Of couse if you want to step up into Elite Membership into the Man Club, pick up an original Nightswan with the holoflash paintjob, or check out Doug at http://www.vh-guitarstore.com He's a Kramer man from way back and he also builds some of the coolest guitars on the planet. Check out the pictures of the Trillian Bullseye Holoflash guitar he builds. Even though I am a Hardcore Krmaer man if I had to choose between the new Baretta PRO II and his guitar, I would choose his hands down. Not only that for the price you would pay for a very nice production guitar you can buy a truly custom instrument from him. Original Floyd Rose, Top quality pickups, and any type of neck style you could hope for. Want a wizard profile, he can do it, wolfy? No problem. I will post a picture of the Trillian guitar he builds. Hold on....

[hairbndrckr]

ok here it is:

http://hometown.aol.com/cboyd7539/images/holobullstrat.jpg

[PonyOne]

That looks pretty dope... maybe after the Rising Sun Charvel...

Maybe we should call ourselves the Kramer Evangelization Squad.

Oh yeah, in regards to pickups, forgot to mention, I have a Seymour Duncan Buckshot in my SG, and it really kicks some ass, it's very versatile. Obviously in its versatility, some of its power for metal and also some of its usefulness for super-clean tones is lost, but it's not bad. It's part of the Performer series that you can get from Guitar Center for like $30 each. I'd still pick the DiMarzio but if $60 sounds hefty...

[icecool]

I've never fit new pickups to an existing guitar before, is it particularly complicated? I guess I could get the guys at the store to do it for me...hmmm...