1987 Kramer Pacer Custom I Mutt

Details

This guitar came to me in this configuration, which is a mutt with a few interesting parts, all 80s era Kramer, but none exactly right. This body, with the large Pacer Custom shape, recessed floyd, but lacking the lower horn cutaway, would normally be in the E6xxx-F1xxx range. However, I have seen a handful of these red crackle finishes on other Kramers - also bankruptcy-era parts - so what I suspect is that when the first few Jackson/Charvel crackle finishes came out in ‘88, Kramer started planning to offer their own crackle option. Since money was tight and sales were going downhill, I think they used leftover bodies, sometimes intentionally the large bodies like this one, to test new paint finishes and if it looked good, it has a lot of surface area to really show it off. That’s at least a very plausible explanation for how this guitar, other red crackles I’ve seen, as well as some very late Klein and Holoflash graphics, were made just before Kramer closed its doors in April of 1990.

In the case of this specific guitar, I think the body was never attached to a neck at the factory, and was instead sold at the firesale or to an employee or friend alone. The rest of the parts are “close” to correct, an 80s era Original Floyd Rose, an early 80s Schaller humbucker that would’ve been original on an 81-83 Pacer, and W.German marked Schaller tuners. The neck however is another oddity - a pretty standard looking pointy headstock, 22 frets and 25.5 scale that implies this is a Focus/1000 series neck, like you’d see on a Focus 1000/2000/3000/6000 in the 1988-90 time range. However, the volute and markings on the heel of this neck match American series necks in the 86-87 era. It’s not uncommon knowledge that these necks were made by ESP, and the story goes that the “American” script was added to the logo in Neptune NJ, after QC and possibly some fretwork. With that in mind, I suspect that this is another “leftover” neck, sold at the firesale in 1990, probably from the same era as the body was originally, and it just never got its “american” logo applied.

All of that said, I’ve since “completed” this guitar by putting an American series claw neck, and a later F9xxx serial number plate. I was going to swap the bridge humbucker for a period correct Seymour Duncan JB, but I actually really like the way this Schaller sounds so I’ve left it in place.

Here’s what this guitar looks like now: https://totallyradguitars.com/kramer-american#/1989-kramer-pacer-custom-1-f9722/