I have a real soft spot for these early Kramers, especially lately. I’ve been trying to get my hands on a few more models with Rockingers, Brass/Fulcrum trems, or even an ESP Flicker. This popped up used at GC and I figured I’d roll the dice and see how it turned out.
When it arrived, it came in its original tan leather case, missing the handle. This was common on these cases as the handle is plastic and a little loose at the joint - if it is in the wrong position when you pick it up, it’ll snap the handle off. It also had an old double creme Dimarzio in the bridge position… sadly with a dead coil. Luckily, I had the period correct spare Schaller humbucker, so I fixed it right up. Cavity covers are all missing, but it came with a strap with a nice smoky flavor. The body has a lot of bumps and bruises, along with several cracks in the clearcoat, but the neck is in much better shape on the back where I really care about it. The caked on dirt and grime is evidence this guitar was definitely played and was probably someone’s main gigging guitar for a long time.
In hindsight, I probably should’ve complained a little, but there’s some appeal to this one. It is a very low B serial number, with a rosewood fretboard which is pretty uncommon for the time period (most necks had Maple fretboards). I’m not a heavy whammy bar user, so I actually like the Rockinger “Edward Van Halen Tremolo,” and I also like the dulled brass appearance along with the gold Gotoh tuners. This bridge along with the twin humbucker pickups is what denotes this as an “Imperial” model, as opposed to the “Custom” which at this time was a 2-humbucker brass trem model.
I also love the sound of these old Schaller pickups, in this case a pair of hex-pole 2-in-1’s, which are a bit higher output than the Golden 50’s that were also common on Kramers of this period. Each pickup has its own volume control, which I really like, and a master tone. I actually prefer this setup to later Pacer Imperials which switched to a master volume + two tone controls by 1983.
Playability is excellent, although this is no modern shred guitar. Vintage sized frets and a fairly curved radius mean it has a very classic feel, with low action and a light touch and very spanky for a guitar with two humbuckers. It’s easy to think of the modern super strat as an HH or HSS guitar like this, with a pointy headstock and jumbo frets, but this is where it all started and for the time was probably one of the best playing instruments you could buy.
Minor cosmetic issues aside, another great one to add to the collection (and a serviceable replacement for my old pointy trans blue Pacer Imperial, which I sold back in 2021 and sorely miss).