I’ll spare you all the usual “I should not be buying more guitars” talk here, even if it is true. I am at a point though where I’m starting to focus on only buying and keeping the really good ones - and any Stagemaster to me is one of those good ones. I spotted this one online at GC and missed it… it popped up again and I didn’t wait and bought it immediately. It was well priced but didn’t include the case, so I was very worried it would show up damaged or otherwise mistreated.
While awaiting delivery, a fellow Kramer collector posted about it on the kramerforumz, and he had returned it due to some shipping damage on the lower side of the body. I gave up hope at that point and figured I’d be taking it straight to return, but I was pleasantly surprised when it arrived - yes it has a sizable spot of damage through to the wood which is really regrettable, but this is still in excellent shape and at the price I decided I’d keep it.
The bridge humbucker has been replaced by a Dimarzio, I haven’t pulled it but there are only 3 possible options with this pole + bar arrangement: the D-Sonic, Crunch Lab, and now discontinued MegaDrive. I feel fairly certainly looking at the age and appearance that this is a MegaDrive, which I’ve actually had several of in the past and it is a great pickup. It has lower output but more mids than those more recent pickups… although I may end up swapping it and putting another Seymour Duncan in here just to make it all match up. We’ll see, I’m not in a rush.
It plays great, and has a very flat back of neck feel similar to my champagne colored Stagemaster (interestingly, my other 3 have much more rounded off necks). If the serial number decoder is correct, this guitar was very late, November of 1988, and the champagne one was July. All of the others are earlier in the year (April-June) so perhaps the neck shape was modified at a certain point, or maybe it’s just classic Kramer where the neck shape varied week to week depending on how they felt that day.
The finish is absolutely glorious of course - I love these transparent colors and the wood grain is especially cool on a neck-through instrument like this. All of my Stagemasters are firmly in my “keepers” list so I’m glad to have another.