Calling ALL Jackson board members, Come On Down!

[SARJ]

I had an old Baretta that came in pieces and was sanded down. After I got it together it played and sounded good. Pretty solid. I also bought a 1 hum Striker when MusicYo first started selling em. It wasn't a bad guitar, but it didn't feel as solid as my Jacksons. The body was like an Ibanez Sabre and not near heavy enough. The Quad Rail pickup kicked ass though. It oozed metal. I have been scoping the new Baretta's on MusicYo for a while, but for the price I'm sure I want to commit. If they were to re-issue the white 2 hum Baretta that Jeff Le Barr from Cinderella played back in the day I would be on that like stink on a hog. Doubt that would happen though. Over the years I have played everything from Strat head Kramers, plywood Kramers, pointy ones and bad ass USA Barettas. I even got to play the Monsters of Rock Baretta Guitar Center had back in the day. Some good, some bad. I would have loved to see how far Kramer would have gotten if George Lynch would have stayed with them instead of going to ESP. I read a story where it said the Kramer rep was supposed to meet George Lynch at the airport to discuss an endorsement. GL made it there first and looked around and didn't see anybody and decided to leave. The Kramer rep was running late. Dokken were in the studio at the time recording Dream Warriors sound track and went to Japan. While there George got hit up by ESP and was able to try out like 40 models. He liked the Kamakazi and let Kramer go for an ESP deal. Towards the end of the 80's it seemed like anybody and everybody were playing Kramer guitars. By 91-92 grunge came to town and shred went into exile along with alot of killer metal axes.

[atomic charvel guy]

i just remember that add in all the guitar mags with the two dorks playing for the two 13 year old girls in their pajamas with eddie looking through the window. Right there i became skeptical, then I picked one up, i thought I was on acid or the strat body melted in a weird direction. Didn't dig them in the least.

[RacerX]

i just remember that add in all the guitar mags with the two dorks playing for the two 13 year old girls in their pajamas with eddie looking through the window.

:ROTF: I remember that! Anybody got a pic of it, for old time's sake?

[toejam]

My second guitar ever was bought buy my parents for Christmas in '86... a cobalt blue Striker 600ST. It's a plywood body with a single-locking Floyd Rose II, but I put a real Floyd on it and a DiMarzio X2N in the bridge and was very happy with it for many years. It's now retired.

I also had a white Kramer (maybe a Baretta or Pacer?) with a non fine-tuning Floyd... I wish I never sold that one.

I've now got a MusicYo Imperial (Explorer) in metallic black that's pretty cool. It's a great playing and souding guitar. The Quad Rail pups are pretty decent, but they're getting swapped out for a Duncan PATB-2 Distortion Parallell Axis and a DiMarzio Super 2. The licensed Floyd is a great copy, looks like a Schaller. The body is actually with Mike Learn at the moment to get a cool graphic on the front.

[Snoogans]

As posted in another thread somewhere, my main squeeze is an '87 maple board Baretta. Yes, it's an ESP, and it's beat to shit, but it plays sooo nicely. Also, I'm not a very big guy, so I like the smaller body. The one downside is that it doesn't sound as ballsy as it should, regardless of pickup fitted (I've tried loads - currently a Tone Zone), but that's what Tube Screamers are for, right?

[zeegler]

I never actually liked the 80s Kramers. None of them looked appealing to me.

The new stuff looks great, although I've never actually played one. I think the low prices are great, but more of them need to be set-neck, or neck thru.

[mattsmusiccenter]

I had a Kramer Baretta in 86 for about a month and then traded it for my first Jackson (thanks Chucksplatter!). I've seen alot of Kramers come through my shop over the years, the imports have been crappy.

[Rupe]

The US ones seemed to be hit or miss to me. I played some good ones but came across my fair share of dogs as well.

I remember the Focus guitars being a decent bang for the buck and the Striker series being garbage as well.

[Robert Burns]

Now i had a candy apple red "Focus 3000"...is this Korean? Because it
really played great...FR stayed in tune...and dammit! I paid like $410
for it in 86'! It better be USA made for that dough? Anyway...it really
did feel and play great. I honed my metal chops on that guitar until
i picked up my Jackson Dinky "Saturn" in 92'. Then it just sat.
Now the Saturn just sits! This Gas is killin me.

[Frigo89]

any Focus guitars were made by ESP in Japan.

I personally have 2 Kramers, a banana head condor (rare, explorer shape) and a Pacer Custom 1.

I'll be getting rid of the Pacer shortly, but simply because I hate the Soloist shape, prefer the Dinky.

and cant get along with the R5 nut.

So I'll probably be looking for a BC Rich gunslinger, so I can then have an axe from each of the big 3 (Jackson DK2, Kramer Condor, BCR Gunslinger)

I have no brand preferance, but I must say, that never having played a Kramer until having the Condor shipped to me last year, they are badass axes

[C.C._Devill119]

OK, who here is brave enough to hear a Kramer Paul Dean shred through a metal song with ease? I'm a Jackson dude for life, no doubt about that. But since most of you say Kramers are worth crap, I'd love to prove you wrong. I don't know if you saw my other post, but I have a Mexican friend who owns a Jackson Dinky XL Proffesional also a Kramer Paul Dean which he made a rock -n- roll album with back in 1999. Anyone dare to hear that Kramer Paul Dean shred it's way through a metal song with nothing but ease? Tell me how do I post an MP3 song on here, and I'll prove you guys Kramers are bad ass axes! You'll see this guy blows Santana out of the water, like nothing. Tell me guys how do I post an MP3 song on here, and I'll prove you. Jackson baby! Now I warn you, most of you WILL be intimidaded by this Mexican guitarrist, but if doesnt...the Kramer will.

[goodwood]

I read a story where it said the Kramer rep was supposed to meet George Lynch at the airport to discuss an endorsement. GL made it there first and looked around and didn't see anybody and decided to leave. The Kramer rep was running late. Dokken were in the studio at the time recording Dream Warriors sound track and went to Japan. While there George got hit up by ESP and was able to try out like 40 models. He liked the Kamakazi and let Kramer go for an ESP deal.

This story...wherever you read it is completely fabrication. george was actually playing Kramers before he had a 'deal' with anyone. He even traded one of his Charvels for a Baretta. In George Lynch's own words:
"Kramer invited Matt Masciandaro, (my tech at the time, now president of ESP), to come to the factory on a day off while we were in NY playing a show. They were going to send a limo for us and take us out to lunch. We ended up partying a little to much and ended up falling asleep parked in the center of the turnpike and being woken up by the cops. We finally showed up at Kramer. They let us use their limo to fall asleep in,( it was parked in the woodshop), and fed us cold pizza when we woke up. They didn't offer me much of a deal so we ended up going with ESP eventually"
As for Kramers not staying in tune...yeah...ok...and for throwing the bodies and necks in the garbage...yeah...OK...
My god...brand loyalty can make people say some very ridiculous things.

I have both American Jackson and Kramer guitars and not judging just by what I own the Kramer guitars are not inferior to Jackson guitars. In fact dollar for dollar I would have to lean toward Kramer.

Anyway, as far as American Series or Focus guitars they are very high quality. Focus is Japanese ESP and American Series is Japanese ESP parts assembled in another location along with some mysterious parts (Larrivee, LaSiDo, Ibanez,etc) assembled at different locations.

As for actual comparisons to Jackson...ok let's take opinion out of it and examine some things. There were a few things Kramer did right (some of their business practices and the their cheaper guitars at the time in the 1980s definitely don't count):
-Kramer had the big deal with Floyd Rose/Jackson used mostly Kahler. Yeah the locking nut for the Kahler behind the nut on the neck...WTF!?
Point for Kramer
-Kramer used Seymour Duncan pickups and were instrumental in contributing to where Seymour Duncan is today-was a custom shop item and now dominant in the industry
Point for Kramer
-Kramer used Schaller hardware and did for Schaller what they did for Seymour Duncan
Point for Kramer
-The endorsement deals they had with many big name players.
Point for Kramer
-They pretty much made everything that people wanted from a Jackson available on the shelf of a music store for less money and no waiting for that Jackson Custom shop order.
Point for Kramer

Now with all of those things going for them, their business practices (one issue being the Gorky Park deal-f'n STUPID), and the outsourcing that 'made' them also broke them with the strike at the Korean neck operation and the backorder situation that developed from it. Also the rumours of execs spending money like crazy and drugs couldn't have added anything positive to the situation.
MINUS 100 Points from Kramer

...and that's how the biggest company becomes a bankrupt company in about 2-3 years.
ESP pretty much exists because of Kramer. Some of the Kramer design elements are still evident in the ESP/LTD guitars today and the quality that ESP achieves is likely twofold...one part being experience gained from building so many guitars and parts for Kramer over that time and the other part being their quality control.

[Firebird V]

I had a Baretta American and also some parts after they cloesed here in NJ. It was all ESP mae stuff and it was good quality. Also owned one of the plywood pieces of crap too. That one sucked. I also owned a ESP neckthru Baretta and that was cool. I had friends that owend focus models and old USA ones and they rocked pretty good too. Also had a Forum III bass that was made by ESP (neckthru) and it was nice. I have a newer one that is a sustainer infinity moel but I don't play it much. In fact, The sustainer in them sucks compared to a sustainiac and it will be on ebay soon. My brother owned an ESP made Baretta American that rocked back in the 80's. Heowns a White 5150/1984 USA model that was built recently and it plays really nice and the quality is up there.

[pott]

My favorite guitar is an 86 Kramer Stagemaster. Just as good if not better than both my model series Charvel and an absolutely outstanding guitar. The sound is stunning, it's very well built.

[diablomozart]

eh,...its all came down to the way the necks felt for me...have owned plenty of kramers...including a holy grail baretta...i just like the necks on charvels and jacksons better...kramers were good guitars for the money but it all came down to feel for me...d.m.