1984 Kramer Pacer Deluxe (Mutt)

Details

Picked this up from Guitar Center online for a great price. It’s clearly a mutt, ‘85-86 era neck bolted to an ‘81-82 body, with an ‘84 neckplate. It’s in pretty rough shape, the body has lots of scratches and nicks. The neck however is in great shape, with some slight wear around the headstock edges, but that’s a characteristic of the type of paint used on the banana Kramers (and on these transition pointies).

Hardware is chrome, with West German Schaller tuners and a Floyd Rose, top mounted and flush for easy tuning. The low E saddle was replaced with a black unit, although it’s hard to tell because the A and D saddles have 30 years of corrosion and look almost as bad. The previous owner installed a set of Suhr pickups, which I have wanted to try out. I’m impressed with the V60’s, they have a great tone and are just a little sweeter sounding than the standard Ducnan SSL-1’s I’m used to in Kramers. The humbucker is an “SSV,” which is fairly low output and while that is not my preferred style, it has a nice thick sound and is great for low-medium gain rock without being ear piercing like a Pearly Gates might be. The pickguard is aftermarket, and is a modern 11-hole piece. It’s had a few additional holes added and it looks like scissors were used to cut enough clearance space for the Floyd Rose base. It also means some additional holes were added to the body, and while I had the guard off I was able to peak and see that there is a pretty rough routing job done underneath towards the neck.

This would be a great one to split into parts to be used on my other projects, and I wouldn’t feel bad for tampering with an original vintage piece. For the time being though, I’m having a great time playing it. The body being already rough I can ignore the occasional bump, and it’s extremely lightweight, making it fun to play standing up for a while.

Update: I’ve parted this one out and sold off the Suhr-equipped pickguard.