This is a fairly rare guitar, and one that I remember a lot of buzz about within Kramer collector circles but basically forgotten anywhere else. When Gary Kramer returned to the guitar making scene, a number of models were made, many in the more traditional stratocaster style, but quite a few very uniquely shaped guitars like the Turbulence.
Sales seemed pretty good at the time, and with Gibson/Musicyo Kramer starting a line of USA made guitars around 2004, and arguably reaching peak form with the 2008 Pacer Imperial Reissue, Gary Kramer Guitars launched a factory direct, USA made guitar, called the “Russian Roulette.” This was a limited run model, introduced in 2009 and shown at the 2010 NAMM show (check out the Kasha Rockmod half stack in the background haha!) and made in the USA, treated like a custom shop model including a packet with specifications and the name of the person it was built for - see here. These came with Seymour Duncan pickups (Alternative 8 and ‘59) and were available in four colors (black, white, red, blue). Sadly with the old KramerForum going offline, a lot of good information about these guitars was lost.
Skipping forward a year or two, GKG released the “RR-2,” or essentially “Russian Roulette 2.” This time, the guitar is Korean made like many of the other GKG guitars, more of a regular production line model and priced very aggressively at $899 brand new, factory direct. A few differences between the RR-2 and the previous USA Russian Roulette:
RR2 has an ebony fretboard, original RR was rosewood
RR2 has Korean OEM pickups, original RR had Seymour Duncans
RR2 has a plain black neck plate, original RR had a unique revolver cylinder plate
RR2 has 24 frets with the last few scalloped, original RR had 22 frets
RR2 has white GKG headstock logo with matte finish, original RR had a gold logo and gloss black, like an 80s era Kramer
RR2 has an R2 nut, original RR had R3
RR2 has 3-ply binding, original RR has standard binding
RR2 has “GKG” 12th fret inlay, original RR has a large “saber tooth” 12th fret inlay
RR2 body shape is slighty different, lacking the rear lower horn cutaway that the original RR’s had. This is very similar to very late model Kramer Pacers and Proaxes, which had a rear horn cutout while the Japanese/Korean models never got this feature.
RR2 came in two colors, original RR had four
Personally, I think the original Russian Roulette is the better looking guitar - I’m partial to the gold headstock logo and I find the 3-ply neck and headstock binding on the RR2 to be a bit cheap looking. It’s all academic anyway though, as now almost 15 years later, you’ll probably never see one of these for sale, let alone two at the same time.
One other thing, the RR2 colors are pretty great looking. This example is called “Violex,” which is a bright purple with a very interesting texture, almost like the holoflash of 80s Kramers, but without the reflectivity or prism light effect. There is also another color called “Meltdown” which is yellow, with the same textured effect.
