New Guitar: 1986 Kramer Pacer Deluxe

Lucked out and was the only bidder on this beautiful guitar - in pristine condition. The seller even had towels underneath of it when taking pictures - that’s usually a sign it was well cared for!

Interestingly, this has a transition era neck - a one piece instead of the usual 3-piece ESP made pointy neck. The story goes that these were originally banana headstock necks, but when ‘86 came, they were fitted with the new pointy shape. Compared directly with my 3-piece neck pointies, this one is a very slightly different shape as well - and is also somewhat unique that it has the “American” script as many transition necks only had the Kramer block logo. There are also transition necks with the rosewood “skunk stripe” down the middle in the back - I haven’t had one of those yet but I’ve heard they are excellent.

This neck is a thin C shape, a bit more rounded than most of my other pointies which tend towards a more “D” shape, although Kramer was notorious for wild variations through the run so I’ve had 3-piece necks with all sorts of varied back shapes.

New Guitar: ESP Maverick Deluxe

Spotted this one on eBay and won it - my first auction win. Over time, I uncovered more information about it - it’s a “production custom.” At the time, licensed ESP dealers could request a shipment of guitars from ESP with some custom options that differed from the catalog models. It’s not exactly custom shop, since several guitars would have to be ordered - which probably means there are a couple of similar ones to this out there.

Still, a Maverick Deluxe, with no pickguard, and a figured maple top is a heck of a guitar and in hindsight, I got an incredible deal on this beast. I replaced the factory humbucker with a Dimarzio D-Sonic which sounds great in that position, though I still have the original humbucker as well.

New Guitar: Kramer XL1

A friend of mine who knew I liked Kramers spotted this one in a local pawnshop in my college town, Statesboro GA. I went to check it out, and was able to get a nice SKB hardshell case thrown in - the grand total around $100.

This one had a very unique gloss lacquered neck with a beak headstock, H/S pickup config, and a 6-screw traditional trem. Since my other guitars all had floating Floyd bridges at the time, I put 5 strings in this one and used it to experiment with different pickups, string gauges, and tunings. It was a great “fun” guitar to learn on without messing up my much nicer Kramer Pacer or later my ESP Maverick.

I eventually traded this one in on a Charvel, which was a great guitar on its own, but I wish I had kept this one. For a “cheap” guitar it was very nice and a bit on the unique side as far as budget Kramers go with that fantastic neck.

New Guitar: 1986 Kramer Pacer Custom II Red

Purchased this guitar on eBay, my first ever internet guitar purchase. I remember being nervous about buying a guitar based on pictures alone (hilarious now that I purchase almost all of my guitars this way now), and the seller never provided a tracking number and I was really thinking I got scammed. Anyway, guitar arrived in great shape in the original case. I’d been wanting a Kramer since I started playing and was thrilled to finally have one.

New Guitar: Rickenbacker 360/6 Jetglo

This was my first guitar - an incredible gift from my parents after graduating high school. I had been looking for a Rickenbacker 350 Liverpool because Susanna Hoffs of the Bangles played on, but that guitar proved very difficult to find. Eventually we found this one in a local shop - at the time Ric’s were very scarce - so we jumped on it.

While not exactly what I had in mind for my musical style, as I was getting more into 80s hair metal and rock, this is an incredibly high end instrument with a very unique tone. I’m glad to say I haven’t sold it all these years despite thinking about it very seriously a few times.