New Guitar: 83 Kramer Pacer Imperial with bare/oil neck

Finally caved and picked this up on Reverb after seeing the price drop a few times. I definitely splurged on this one a bit, but based on the color and neck, it was just something I had to have.

And I don’t regret it one bit, this is an exceptional instrument. The neck is a bare/oiled finish and in truly incredible shape - not a nick on the back or anything (that always bugs me). The body is a gorgeous color greenish blue, and it kind of changes color a bit in the light which looks really awesome - hard to see in pictures. Overall it’s in great shape and has all of the original parts, bridge, pickups - nothing missing. It’s very rare that I get a guitar and it doesn’t need some kind of setup or restoration but other than a quick adjustment to the neck (due to a bump it took in shipping, not anything with the guitar itself), I was up and playing this guitar as soon as I got it - nothing extra needed.

And wow is that color a looker - and the original case and warranty card too! This is definitely one of my top guitars now, and it more than deserves to be in the top few of anyone’s collection.

This is also the same kind of neck replicated for the 2008 Pacer Imperial reissues made by Gibson in Nashville TN. Originally, they based the neck on those guitars on a sample ‘83 imperial sent to them with a rosewood neck and oil finished back - just like this one. I generally prefer the glossier necks but I have to say, this neck feels very special and it is easy to see why so many guitar players from this era fell in love with this style of neck (whether from Kramer, Charvel, Jackson, or others).

New Guitar: 1987 Ibanez 540P with rare Maple Neck

I saw this pop up for sale on Christmas Eve and even though I’m trying to reduce my spending, I couldn’t help but get myself a little gift. I have really grown to love these early Ibanez 540 series guitars, but I was missing two things - a 540P, or “Power” model, and one with the exceedingly rare maple fretboard. Well, I checked two things off of my list with one purchase with this guitar!

It arrived just before New Year’s and I was thrilled - it’s a great player, sounds good, and in overall pretty good condition. The body shape is very interesting, and it looks much more rounded on the back. It suffers from the same problem as a Tele when playing it seated, it does dig into your chest just a little bit but it does have a cutout so it’s perfectly comfortable when standing. The contouring around the body is truly inspired and unique - this is a model I wish they had continued making.

The maple fretboard is of course, everything I dreamed it would be. The back of the neck is extremely smooth, there is some very pretty quartersawn grain, and the board itself is nice and smooth without being too glossy.

As with any guitar this great though, now I want another one! That will be a tall order though, there can’t be many 540P’s with maple fretboards around!

New Guitar: 1988 Kramer Pacer Custom 2 Holoflash

I know I already have a Holo-Crackle Pacer, but I saw this one and found it particularly enticing. It is an aftermarket holoflash job, as the serial number is slightly too early for this finish, and you can ever so slightly feel the texture of the holoflash film on the top (factory holoflash jobs were under enough clear coat that it feels perfectly smooth). That said, it looks great and is a pro job, so I’m pleased.

Another stand out from this one is the neck - I’ve had 12th fret inlay necks many times, but this one is in really tip top condition and as such the guitar plays beautifully. The factory pickup combination of JB + SSL-5’s also sound great, as expected, which makes this a great guitar to just pick up and rock out while looking really awesome.

New Guitar: 1982 Kramer Pacer Deluxe

Found this one for a really reasonable price, which is getting harder and harder these days as the value of Kramers seems to be finally realized in the market. I expected a good, quality instrument - as I do any Kramer - but upon arrival, I have to say this one really blew my socks off.

The condition is superb, clearly the previous owner really cared about this guitar. It came in the original case, also in great condition, and with the original electronics, pots, and switches inside. The guitar itself has had the pickups swapped out and the coil tap switch removed, I would’ve left it but I have no complaints as I can restore it any time I like.

A few more signs that this was so well taken care of too - the entire control cavity under the pickups is completely shielded with copper tape, and the lower floyd stud (a notorious break point on these Deluxe models) is in perfect condition, the paint isn’t even cracked. Even the fretboard is nicely oiled and one of the healthier looking Rosewood boards I’ve gotten from any used guitar.

It is also equipped with some tasteful mods, like a Trem-Setter and a very interesting pickup arrangement, with a Duncan TB-15 “Alternative 8” and two Fender American single coils. The Alternative 8 is very unique sounding, bright and scooped - a bit different from my usual preference, but I’ve grown to really like this pickup especially with more “congested” sounding amps.

New Guitar: Kramer Stagemaster Mach II - Flat Top

Another awesome neck-through Kramer added to the collection, and in the same exact color as my arch top Mach II Stagemaster! This color in the catalogs was called “Rose,” it’s essentially a transparent coral/salmon color. It’s a beauty - and really cool to have both flat top and arch top variations of the same guitar. I’m a big fan of EMG’s and this one is equipped with the common 81/SA/SA combination, a modification I probably wouldn’t have done myself but I’m pleased with anyway. The previous owner also added an extra, non-matching knob in place of the coil tap switch. That won’t do, so I’ll be fixing that up shortly, perhaps a vintage EMG 89 would be a great addition here, and I could keep the stock looking coil tap switch, assuming there’s no major damage under the finish where the new knob was added.

Here are some pictures comparing the flat top to the arch top.

New Guitar: Ibanez 540S Carribean Blue

Picked up this guitar from Guitar Center - again - labeled as a “540S.” This is certainly an interesting combination and one I’m still trying to figure out - it’s a 1989 Carribean Blue 540S body, complete with the Bensalem PA neck plate (blank serial number), but the neck has a serial number dating it to 1996. Even more interesting, the neck has the “S series” badging, and abalone inlays - but they are dots instead of ovals. Also, it is not an all-access neck joint… from my digging, any S series guitar with a Fujigen made neck after about 1993 should have this neck joint type. I can’t find any stock 1996 S series guitar - even in Japan or European catalogs - that has abalone ovals and a traditional neck joint.

I also took some measurements, it is Wizard dimensions as well - and a very high quality build with the flat 17” fretboard just like my others. I’m not sure what to make of this neck, but strange features and history aside, it is an amazing player like any of my other Ibanez guitars. It’s not hard to imagine why Ibanez was able to weather the storm during the 90s while many of their competitors struggled, got bought out, or went overseas during the same period.

New Guitar: 1990 ESP Horizon Deluxe

Here’s a pretty unique one - a Bolt-on neck Horizon. Picked this up browsing Guitar Center’s listings for a fair price, and it has a really sweet arched top body shape with a great neck.

This also has a later iteration of the Sinclair bridge, ESP’s take on the Floyd Rose. These are great bridges, just as good as any OFR but with one major flaw - the saddles have offset screw holes and no one I can find makes replacement saddles. So don’t break one!

To make matters worse, the angular shape of the base plate on the Sinclair means a Floyd, Gotoh, or Edge trem will not just drop in - the body needs to be routed to fit a more squared-off base plate. I’ve seen too many hack-jobs over the years where someone tried to make a different bridge fit. I’m lucky and have a spare Sinclair bridge with 5 good saddles on it, so if I ever break one I have a few - but I understand most people who own these vintage ESP’s wouldn’t have access to that. If anyone happens to know a shop that can build a replica saddle based on a sample, please let me know and I’d be happy to supply some saddles from my spare to get it made… I’d love to keep this bridges alive into the future.

New Guitar: 1982 Kramer "The Pacer"

I have wanted a Kramer with the Rockinger bridge for a while. I know it’s an objectively inferior tremolo to a Floyd Rose, but since it was the original “Edward Van Halen Tremolo,” it has a certain value from a historical/collector’s standpoint - and that’s me.

I watched this one sit unsold for over a month, wondering when and if it would sell and at what price. Eventually it came down and I had to consider it - so I made a deal on it.

Not only is this my first guitar with a Rockinger, but it’s also the first guitar I’ve owned with the traditional strat configuration of three single coil pickups. Most of the music I play calls for a humbucker in the bridge position, so this guitar won’t be the most versatile, but after playing it I have sorely been missing the positions 2 and 4 “quack” - and a split humbucker does not have the same snap that a true single coil has in this position for sure. Coupled with a clean amp, and occasionally switching on a light overdrive, there are so many great tones in this guitar.

The condition is excellent with only a couple of small dings - sadly the largest of which came from a loose screw inside the case during shipping. It also included the original warranty card, case keys, and inspection tag - very cool. Despite collecting tons of Kramers over the years, I’ve yet to get a set of these so that’s really cool to have.

New Guitar: Charvel Model 4 Rainbow Crackle!

Wow! I spotted this one online at GC, and it had no picture - but it was described as a Model 3DR “Rainbow Crackle.” I figured for the price, I’d risk the purchase and find out what kind of condition it was since I can always return it if I don’t like it.

Luckily, there’s no danger of that, this is a fantastic guitar. It’s not a 3DR, it’s a Model 4, but that is fine with me. In fact, I might prefer that because I’m a big fan of the shark tooth inlay necks and the HSS pickup config is so useful across a variety of styles. This came with the factory J50BC and J200 pickups, the JE-1200 mid boost circuit, and JT-6 trem - just like my other two Model 4’s - but in the interest of a change of pace, I’ve already swapped out the J50BC with a zebra Dimarzio Super Distortion. This pickup previously lived in my Charvel Fusion, but has been unused for a while since I sold that guitar months ago.

I think this pickup might have too strong of a midrange to really cooperate with the JE-1200 mid boost, but that’s ok. Since the mid boost is not that clearly different sounding in the bridge position, it means I can set it however I like for the neck and middle single coils and not worry about how the sound will change when I need to use the bridge position.

The real highlight here is the finish of course, otherwise it’s just a standard and great sounding Model 4. The finish is a transition from blue to red to yellow crackle, and there is a little bit of a fade in between them. There are some purple and orange hues visible in thinner stripes between the colors, but it’s not as clear as the primary colors.

This is my first crackle job Charvel, and I’m also surprised to see it has a very slight texture visible through the top finish when looking at it under the light or at a shallow angle. Overall this is one of the coolest finishes on any guitar I own, and I think the very tight pattern looks great. Looking around the web, I’ve seen other crackle jobs that are a bit more spread out with more black in between the colors, I think those look really cool too and I’d love to have both variations someday.

New Guitar: BC Rich ST-III Ice Blue

After enjoying some time with the natural color ST-III I acquired barely 2 months ago, I really wanted to have another in another color. This one popped up on ebay with the original case, paperwork, and in excellent condition and I had to pick it up.

It arrived in extremely good condition, other than a few small nicks on the top of the body it’s in superb shape for the age. This is another 1987 model, but this time fitted with the factory pickups - two single coils and a humbucker all made by Dimarzio. These pickups do not have model numbers, as Dimarzio provided a lot of OEM specific models that don’t necessarily have a direct comparison to a pickup in their catalog (Dimarzio did this for Ibanez and others). The single coils are very low output, proper vintage sounding, and the humbucker surprised me - medium to low output with a really flat response. I was expecting a higher output, mid-heavy pickup as was the style in this era and especially on a guitar like the ST3 which I assume was aimed more at the shred and rock/metal players.

Of course I have plenty good to say about the Ibanez Edge bridge and the neck, which has a lovely bare feel and a super thick rosewood fretboard. I know it’s tough to do a fair comparison between two guitars that are over 30 years old now, but this one feels very consistent with the other ST-III I have. Both play very similarly, with similar body weights and identical necks. Any tonal differences seem to be just from the different pickups and body finish than anything with the construction of the guitars, which is always a good sign - as a big Kramer collector, I’m not used to very consistent quality control!

I’ve also done some digging and found some details on these guitars from the catalog. It appears these two are both relatively mundane models, but they could be ordered with maple or ebony fingerboards, binding, graphic paint jobs, or even neck-through configurations. I’d love to see an ST-III with a bound maple board, what a cool guitar that would be - and based on some of the other custom configurations I’ve seen around the web I’m sure there’s probably one out there.