I watched this on Reverb for a little while and finally decided to make an offer. Lately, I’ve really been gathering up the earlier Kramers and I have a soft spot for these non-Floyd models. They have a certain appeal, not too different from some of the recent Charvels like the DK24 or the just released Kramer Pacer Deluxe GT. Of course, I still love a Floyd Rose (feels like home to me), but it’s nice to have something I can pick up easily and change tunings on the fly when I’m just messing around.
The white finish is original and looks quite clean from a distance, but up close you can tell this is a 43+ year old guitar with some small dings and scratches. Still, it’s impressive how bright it is, with not much yellowing of the clear coat. Even the brass traditional tremolo is still relatively bright and not too tarnished like some of my more played examples get.
It arrived with the original Schaller pickups installed, but sadly the bridge humbucker had a short between the coils. I’m fairly technical but I’ve never attempted a pickup repair, and my understanding is that many times they need to be rewound on a machine to properly repair shorts like this. I see some services online that offer this, now that I have two vintage Schallers with shorts, it may be worth getting them repaired. In the past, I’ve just bought replacements, as 80s Schaller pickups used to be 40 bucks each but a quick skim of other Reverb listings and it’s hard to find one under $100 now.
For the time being, I looked through my spare parts drawer and decided to install a Seymour Duncan SH-12 Screamin’ Demon. I originally got this pickup in a black Pacer Imperial and hardly got to enjoy it, so it’s nice to hear it again. It’s probably a hair higher output than the stock Schaller would be but not as intense as a JB (and I have so many other Kramers with JB’s in them). I also like the wiring on these earlier ones, with two volume controls and a master tone control, which lets me set my neck pickup to a quieter volume (or off) for some unique mixing or easy crunch-to-clean at the flick of a switch.
The maple neck is glossy and clean, with vintage sized frets and a fairly curved fretboard radius that makes it very comfortable to play. I just love these necks, made by ESP (yes, even this early). The original case rounds out the package, with the original manual and warranty form, although the serial number written on the tag is not the same as this guitar (seller mistake maybe?). Either way, a great addition.
I also finally got around to completing an old project. When I realized the bridge pickup was shorted on this guitar, I started looking through my stuff to see if I had any spare Schaller humbuckers, or Schallers installed in a guitar that doesn’t normally have them. I got out a handful of guitars including this well worn Red Pacer Deluxe. The Schaller I had in it was wrong for the white Pacer Custom (it was a 2-in-1 and dated ‘84, too new for ~‘82), but realized I never finished this project.
Originally, I had gotten it with a mirrored red pickguard, with a pair of 80s era Seymour Duncan Customs installed, a single volume, and tone "switches.” The previous owner had routed the body under the pickguard to fit the humbucker at the neck, and the entire cavity is completely coated in copper film - a very nice job. Here is that configuration below:
It was definitely a unique look, and I did keep this pickguard intact exactly as it was installed if I ever want to restore this. However, I really like the stock black pickguard look so I bought two pickguards from Warmoth, both single ply matte black, without any controls routed. One of these was HSS and the other HH. I can’t remember exactly why, but somehow I ended up installing a Schaller 2-in-1 in the bridge position and a 90s PATB-3 in the neck, with a 5-way blade switch with two dead spots, and no pots. It was technically “playable” but not ideal, although I do like the super clean look - it’d be even cooler with black covered pickups (like EMG’s or similar). I will say the PATB-3 made a fantastic neck pickup though, it sounds great in that position. This is what that looked like:
Ultimately though, I wanted to add a traditional volume knob and replace the unnecessary 5-way blade switch with a 3-way switch. I could’ve gone with an enhanced 5-way to add coil splitting options but I really just wanted something more simple… and I didn’t want to buy more parts, just use what I already have on hand. A while back I also picked up a set of Dimarzio D-Activator X’s, which I tested out briefly but didn’t really get to enjoy. I’d prefer this Schaller 2-in-1 be saved for later (or installed in the HSS pickguard, as it would’ve been stock in a Pacer Deluxe), and I also have a spare PATB-1 so I wanted the PATB-3 to be freed up for some other guitar later. So I drilled a hole for a volume pot and wired up the D-Activator X’s and sent the others to the parts bin for later use. Here’s what that looks like:
Still pretty clean, a little flair with the cream coils, and I had a nice orphaned chrome volume knob to complete the look. I’m really impressed with these pickups too, obviously super high output but the neck position is still bright and cutting. I’ve had an X2N before, which on paper should be similar to the DA-X, but I didn’t quite get along with it. The slightly mismatched coils on the DA-X (“Dual Resonance”) make a noticeable difference in the high end and there’s a lot more air in the highs while still being super high output.
Both the X2N and the DA-X have a bit of a “boosted” feel, compared to a lower output pickup (like the SH-12 on the white Pacer above, which I played through the same amp on the same day). The difference is that the X2N’s boost is broader, therefore lower frequencies a little muddier, but in its defense maybe a bit more “natural” sounding. The DA-X is still very saturated but it feels like the focus is shifted higher up into the mids. It's sort of like the difference between boosting an amp with a Klon/Klone or a Tubescreamer. The Tubescreamer has a hump in the mid frequencies that adds a lot of bite and makes palm mutes really stand out, while the Klone style circuit is flatter and just feels like the amp itself with the gain turned up a bit more. Same thing here with these pickups. In short, I no longer own an X2N (and while I have a Klone, I rarely use it).
The cooper shielding in the cavity also means that this guitar is incredibly quiet, even plugged into a high-gain amp. In fact, it’s opened my eyes to this a little bit, I don’t think I live somewhere with particularly difficult electrical or radio interference but I have to wonder if copper tape could help some of my other guitars that are a little less protected. I don’t plan on doing any drastic mods, and as a collector I do intentionally appreciate things “as they were” including flaws/noise, but still something I’ll be keeping in mind for future projects.
I’ll get to work on wiring up the HSS version of the pickguard for this guitar, but I’m quite pleased with how this turned out. This guitar is tuned to Drop C by default so now it has the pickups to match for the heavier stuff. I’m getting out of building “projects” in general, slowly selling off my spare necks/bodies/parts, so it especially feels good to have this complete instead of in limbo.