New Guitar: 1985 Robin Wedge Custom

This is a guitar I have long lusted after, and it’s been on the “wanted” list of my about page for years. They didn’t make many of these, and I’ve missed a few and regretted it. I finally spotted one online and pulled the trigger.

Robin guitars, based in Houston TX, was originally run out of a more regular guitar shop called “Rockin’ Robin Guitars,” which opened in 1972. By 1982, Robin had built their first guitars through Tokai in Japan (I still want one of these). By the mid 80s, they were having models made by ESP, also in Japan, and shipped to Texas for final touches or upgrades, and that’s where this model comes in.

In 1985, along with a handful of other more well known models such as the Medley and Ranger, came the Wedge. The Wedge had two different types - the Standard, which was a bolt- on neck, and the Custom, as pictured here. The Custom was a set-neck guitar, made from mahogany with custom triangular inlays and a fully bound ebony fretboard and headstock. The Custom could come as mine, with a fixed tune-o-matic style bridge, or could have a Kahler installed at Rockin’ Robin upon arrival to Texas. This model is where the pointy “blade” style reverse headstock first originated - early prototpes had the more rounded style reverse headstock similar to the Tokai models. This headstock of course made it onto future models and became the standard Robin headstock shape on models like the Medley all the way until they were discontinued. According to founder David Wintz, less than 200 Wedges were ever made between both models.

Robin transitioned to USA manufacturing in 1988, and by then the Wedge was long discontinued.

It’s surprisingly comfortable to play sitting down in the “classical” position, but it won’t sit straight across unless you squeeze your legs together. Standing up is much more natural, although on mine there is some neck dive as it’s a bit heavier than the body. Playability is excellent as expected of an ESP-made guitar from this era, and it’s quite similar to my Kramers (also ESP made) from the same time frame - that’s a good thing in my eyes.

This particular Wedge is in very good shape with minimal dings or scratches, but sadly it must’ve been dropped or fell down on the lowest point if the guitar is held vertically because a small piece of wood is missing. Someone sanded this down flat and repainted it, and they did a very good job of it because it’s hardly noticeable, but it is clear on a close inspection.

Still, I’m thrilled to finally have my hands on this rare beast, and especially with its original form-fitting case. I can’t imagine how difficult it would be to find a case otherwise! It makes a great pair with my Ibanez XV500 as well - two radically shaped guitars, made in extremely limited quantities, from 1985. I suppose now I need a Kramer Triaxe. I particularly love the detail and beveled edges of the body shape, looking at it closer it has a lot more going on besides the sideways V-shape.

More pictures available here

I think this one definitely qualifies as a “totally rad guitar.”

New Guitar: Kramer Baretta I Claw Neck

I spotted this online and figured I’d roll the dice on it. It arrived in a case with no packing/bubble/paper inside or in the box either - by some insane stroke of luck, nothing was damaged (thanks GC). It’s a very early Baretta I, F39xx with the first run of Claw inlay necks.

Some quick history: The Baretta evolved from the Pacer Special as a single humbucker guitar built for straight forward rock and metal players - obviously heavily influenced by Eddie Van Halen. The first models actually called “Barettas” came out sometime in 1984, although there are some guitars that are very similar (the so called non-tilt “grails” from late ‘83, but there was never any official document calling them Barettas at the time). Pickups were originally Schallers but quickly became Seymour Duncan JB’s - always in reverse Zebra color. These Barettas initially had the tilt-back banana headstock shape, then the pointy with block logo in the early E1xxx plate range, then gained the Pyramid or “descending” logo somewhere around E9xxx. At the same time, a new body shape was designed for the Pacer custom - this is usually called the “sololist” or “sharp radiused” body - and by E7xxx this spawned a submodel called the Baretta II. These also started with the block logo pointy necks, then pyramid logos shortly after introduction. Neither the Baretta or Baretta II got recessed floyd routes until roughly E13xxx. Around this time, the Baretta was renamed “Baretta I” to follow the same naming convention with the Baretta II. Serial plates from around F1xxx until F3xxx were lost - never used on factory production Kramers, though these plates still pop up quite often as they were sold at the firesale or to various collectors. By the time the serial plates turned black (instead of chrome as before), the Baretta I and Baretta II both had recessed floyd rose bridges and additionally, a body contour carved out of the lower horn to improve upper fret access. The Baretta I retained this body shape from this time all the way up until Kramer went out of business in April 1990. Baretta II’s got one last upgrade, moving from the large soloist body shape down to the “7/8” sized dinky body shape by F5xxx, which had the same features (lower horn cut and recessed floyd rose bridge). Very late 7/8 bodies have the lower horn carved on both sides of the body - but that’s a topic for another day.

The first claw inlay necks with the 12th fret Kramer logo appeared in this F39xx range, and that’s what this guitar has. In fact, out of the hundreds of vintage Kramer’s I’ve cataloged over the years, this is the earliest factory serial number example I’ve seen of a claw neck. These necks were available all the way until the end of the Baretta in 1990.

For anyone interested, as an avid Kramer collector I do keep a catalog of Kramer serial numbers and guitars for sale, and reference the VK registry (which hasn’t been updated in a while - good thing too) along with archived forum posts and other resources. It’s fairly common for people to buy vintage Kramers and swap necks or sell other parts, so nothing is a sure thing anymore - it’s been 34+ years since any Kramer left the factory so who knows what could happen in that amount of time. I’ve done this myself, for example I swapped the maple neck from E8377 to my Deluxe E8192 - a relatively harmless change that is still completely period correct. However, there are people who don’t know or don’t care about period correct history so you have to watch out for things that are wildly off - and with Kramer, documentation was poor, catalogs didn’t reflect many changes or even whole models, warranty neck replacements and lots of other oddities and small batches mean that it’s a convoluted mess to collect these - plus the confusion attracts some bad actors who want to take advantage of the situation. There are some signs, patterns, and trends that can be tracked though - I can spot a modified guitar with great accuracy, unless the whole thing is exactly period correct in which case I don’t really care if a neck was swapped for another because there’s no difference - Larry Luthier could’ve grabbed either one in the factory on that day in 1987 depending on how many beers he’d had so why do I care now 40 years later exactly which neck it came out of the factory with. What does bother me is parts that are used way outside of serial range, for example a claw neck on a C-plate body or some other mismatch of parts that was never possible (ex. Pacer Deluxes were never available with claw necks or reverse headstocks from the factory).

Here’s the timeline for referencing these Baretta models. Remember that serial numbers are only a guideline, some were used out of order, one box pulled off the shelf first and so on, but it’s still a useful way to track feature changes.

  • C32xx first year non-tilt “Barettas” released, very few made and quickly changed (apparently EVH didn’t like these being sold). Based on a Pacer Special with Ibanez Destroyer-style headstock (modified from a beak headstock neck).

  • C45xx non-oversized non-tilt banana headstocks show up, not just on Barettas but rarely other models too

  • C55xx angled banana headstock shape appears along with “Baretta” model name in catalogs and flyers. Beak headstock still in use for most models at this time, but eventually all models used the Baretta-style banana headstock shape.

  • E0xxx Banana necks phased out for Pointy. Block logo, some missing “American” script on logo, some have one-piece or skunk-stripe construction before 3-piece necks introduced. Switch to Seymour Duncan pickups.

  • E2xxx to E6xxx recessed back plates

  • E68xx Baretta II introduced, uses large soloist body of the Pacer Custom

  • E9xxx Pyramid logo replaces block logo

  • E13xxx Recessed floyd routes appear

  • F4xxx Claw necks and Baretta I lower horn scoop introduced (the Baretta featured in this post falls into this area)

  • F45xx Soloist body guitars (Baretta II, Pacer Customs) get lower horn scoop

  • F54xx Soloist body downsized to 7/8 “dinky” body, collared floyd arms show up on production guitars

  • F94xx 7/8 body contours added to rear of both horns, similar to Proaxe

  • G0xxx Proaxe introduced, mahogany 7/8 contoured body plus angled neck plate, and change to 24 3/4 scale

Hopefully that helps clear some things up for other collectors. Thanks for reading.

More photos available here

New Guitar: Kramer Pacer Special Rainbow Graphic

I have an huge soft spot for early 80s Kramers, and especially for those early graphic designs - geometric shapes, stripes, and patterns - as opposed to later graphics which are a little less abstract (waterfalls, planets, statue of liberty etc).

This particular guitar is one I put out a feeler for when I saw a very old picture of it - it was in the possession of a UK Kramer collector who I’d previously bought a snakeskin Baretta I from via eBay. Eventually it found its way to another UK collector who quite frankly, I hounded for a while hoping to buy it. He eventually listed it for sale but the price was a bit too high for me, and money was a little tight and I just never quite could pull the trigger on it. That sounds funny looking back through my previous gear acquisition posts but you have to understand - nearly everything I have bought on this site I bought because it was severely underpriced or I got a huge deal on it. I can count the number of things I paid full market price for on one hand… it’s just a lot easier for me to justify spending if I feel like I can flip something and at the very least break even (even if I don’t do much flipping!).

Anyway, I remember talking to my girlfriend around my birthday in April 2023 about this guitar, then again in Christmas 2023, and then lots of hemming and hawing before I finally was able to secure a reasonable deal, and better yet, one that she was going to buy for me as a birthday gift (now in April 2024). Yep - she’s a keeper, and same for the guitar!

I really love this graphic look, and the edges of the body also have an outline that follows the color gradient all the way around.

Since it’s a Pacer Special (single pickup), it also gets the show off the finish a bit since there’s more surface area on the face of the body. It has all of the other features I like about a Pacer Special from this era too - Schaller 2-in-1 pickup with coil tap, volume, and tone controls, plus a Floyd Rose bridge (although I’d kind of preferred to have a brass fulcrum trem, but that’s got to be hard to find). The neck is a very nice glossy C shape, with more traditional sized frets and is just a joy to play.

I’ve seen a few interesting variations of this graphic as well. Mine is the more common arrangement, with a red-yellow top half and blue-green bottom. However it also came in different orders - see the below picture of one that is yellow-green on top and red-blue on the bottom. I’ve also seen a Voyager with much, much wider striping and a very bold bordering line that ran around the entire body on the outside edge - I’ll see if I can find a picture of that an update this post when I do.

More photos here

Update 6/15/24 - Found it. See gallery below:

New Guitar: '83 Kramer Pacer Deluxe, Rosewood on Black

Picked this very nice mid-C plate Pacer recently. The lower Floyd stud is in great shape which is always a good sign on these, and it arrived with a pair of Dimarzio Area 58 single coils and an 80s-era (but not original) Seymour Duncan JBL humbucker. This came from Guitar Center of course, and I guess no one played it before they shipped it out because the bridge pickup was ungrounded and it made all sorts of noise - unplayable plugged in. That’s ok though, because I wanted to put this old Dimarzio Tone Zone in something, and since the singles are Dimarzios it made sense - it’s back to sounding great again with new wiring.

Overall it is in extremely good condition, with barely any fret wear and no major damage to the body or neck. There is some slight scratching on the edges of the headstock and some swirls on the body from being wiped off but nothing I wouldn’t expect to see on a guitar that is now over 40 years old.

The case is also pretty cool, covered in stickers from the western USA. I find it hard to believe this was someone’s gigging guitar considering the shape it is in, but perhaps it was a backup… even then, the case is in top shape too besides the stickers.

This era of Pacer has the smaller upper horn side body shape, which is very unique feeling to play. The story goes that bodies in this era were made by ESP, but hand shaped - either at ESP or possibly re-shaped a little in the Neptune NJ factory once they came stateside. The easiest way to see this is to look at the rear pictures of a couple around this serial number and compare it to an earlier one. Look at the upper (low E string side) horn where the body contour meets, and you’ll some of them the contour comes right up to the horn with almost no gap. Earlier bodies with the larger upper horn have more space there, and other bodies have varying amounts. It’s a bit of a useless detail, but interesting either way - see the comparison image below:

New Guitar and Amp: Kramer Pacer Melaga Purple and Fender Prosonic

In a rare but exciting double whammy day, I picked up a new amp and a new guitar today.

First, the guitar - it’s a 1982 Kramer Pacer Imperial. Exciting, but I already have quite a few, but this one is unique. This is a very cool color, “melaga purple.” These aren’t too common and it’s a color I’ve had my eye out for a long time, so when a friend posted this for sale on facebook, I immediately sent a message saying I’d take it. I had it paid and he shipped within a few hours, and I got it before the end of the week - awesome.

Pictured in its original hard shell case.

This paint is very interesting. There is a tiny crack in the finish by the floyd post that reveals a red undercoat, but the top is a very soft, pastel purple. However, this purple fades away with time - I’ve seen quite a few faded nearly all the way. Luckily this one is still mainly purple, but you can see a handful of spots where it has worn, either from sunlight or handling, to a sky blue color. This is certainly one that will get the “white glove treatment” here - no hanging on the wall, no leaving it out on the stand by the window, no putting it away wet or dirty. I want to preserve that finish as long as reasonably possible, because it’s not exactly a color you could get in a refinish.

The fade to blue is very visible here, with a few marks on the face of the body as well as on the forearm contour.

Next is the amp, a 1997, Bruce Zinky designed Fender Prosonic. This amp came about around the same time as the Tone-Master head (released 1994), predating the current Super-Sonic which seems to follow a similar lineage (released 2010). Like those amps, the Prosonic has a two-channel layout unique for most Fenders, pairing a clean channel with an overdrive channel. To be specific, the Prosonic first came out in 1996.

I find the clean channel to be excellent, although it is extremely loud - louder than I expected from a 60w amp. It’s not that it gets louder than other amps of the same power, but the volume is all there from basically “1” up on the knob, so it’s a bit difficult to tame for lower volumes - although a volume box in the effects loop solves that easily. The clean channel only uses the volume, treble, bass, and middle controls, so it’s very simple and classic Fender, just with the addition of the mids control in the EQ.

The overdrive channel is really hard to understate, and I am absolutely blown away after my first sitting with this amp. I expected something much more tame, lower gain, less aggressive. I’d argue this amp’s gain channel is better for metal or heavier rock than even the modern Super-Sonic amp, it’s voiced to be much more open, and the EQ just works wonderfully. While on the overdrive channel, the master volume helps control the output although it’s still a loud amp, and in addition to the 3-band EQ, there are two gain controls.

Somewhat uniquely, you can set the Gain 2 control to zero and the amp still sounds fantastic - most amps with two gain controls, if you set the second one to zero the amp makes no sound (such as the Marshall SLX, or Ceriatone Yeti/Chupa/KingKong). Dialing up the Gain 2 control adds more compression and thickness in the low notes, making the amp feel looser and squishier, but not adding a lot more in terms of gain or attack. Gain 1 is downright aggressive by only “3” on the knob, and into metal territory by 7 or 8 - even without a boost. I think this amp would catch a lot of people off guard. Dial up the amount of looseness or sag you want with the Gain 2 for solos and you have an extremely versatile amp. If I had a complaint at all, it’s that I’d like a little more taper on the Gain 1 control, so I could dial in a more tame crunch tone instead of trying to find that sweet spot between 1-3 where it hits that more classic soft crunch tone - but those tones are definitely in there, just have to make tiny adjustments to that control.

Speaking of feel, this amp also has a switchable tube rectifier, a GZ34 type that actually is attached to a 3-way rotary switch on the rear panel. It can select a solid state rectifier with the power amp in push-pull class AB, the tube rectifier in AB, or even the tube rectifier in “class A” mode, which is simply a cathode bias configuration (like a Vox AC30 or Orange Rocker 30). Class A mode makes the amp a hair louder, at least at middle volume settings, and a little punchier to my ear - I really like it. The trade off is that the noise floor is a bit higher on that setting, but still very usable.

In terms of other features, it has a 1/4 jack for a 1-button footswitch, which allows you to switch between the clean and drive channels on the fly. The combo version of the amp has a built in spring reverb tank, so a 2-button footswitch can be used on that model to turn on/off the reverb. I do wish the head version had the reverb tank, I’m a big fan of built-in spring reverbs. It also has a simple series effects loop that does its job perfectly well. There is no presence or depth control, but the EQ seems to perfectly balanced it doesn’t feel like a big loss. Even setting a nice scooped clean tone still sounds great on the drive channel without getting too anemic.

I expected to like this amp, but I’m really shocked at how much I like it. At some point I’d like to pick up a Tone-Master head and do a comparison between all three of these similar Fender amps, and see which one really speaks to me.

More photos here: 1997 Fender Prosonic

New Guitar: Another Bent Pipes Pacer

Saw this one online for a fair price, and as I’m a big fan of this graphic I went for it. It’s very similar to my other “Bent Pipes” graphic pacer, except this one is an early Pacer Special model - single humbucker, and the input jack on the face of the body. This one is also equipped with a Rockinger tremolo, which was an early locking bridge design originally marketed as the “EVH Tremolo,” which he used for a while. Apparently it didn’t stay in tune that well, which led to the creation of the double locking Floyd Rose which is still common equipment even on modern guitars. Personally, I don’t mind the Rockinger but I’m not a heavy whammy bar user, and I’m glad this one wasn’t too heavily modified.

It has been modified though, mainly the Rockinger locking nut is gone, along with the original brass string trees. Instead, three roller string trees are installed, one using the screw hole from the rockinger’s locking nut. I may return this to stock at some point, but I will say these trees do keep it in tune very nicely and the strings feel very nice and slinky without the lock (as compared to my other Rockinger-equipped Pacer). It also has lost its original Schaller humbucker at some point, replaced with a Seymour Duncan JB.

New Guitar: 1984 Kramer Pacer Imperial

Picked up this ‘84ish Pacer Imperial sight unseen, but based on a description from a sales clerk at Guitar Center. I’ve had my ups and downs with GC, but this was an excellent experience - gave me the serial number, a good description of the condition and details, and made sure the case came with it too - the original for this era, with black piping.

Of course, when ordering any banana-headstocked Kramer, I was a bit worried about the condition of the scarf joint and I’m pleased to say it’s very good, with only the slightest feel of the joint and no signs of slippage. On top of that, the guitar is otherwise in really superb shape - hardly any rust or grime, frets have plenty of life, even the body seems barely used besides a few polishing swirls on the front and back. The original hardware is all present, from the floyd, tuners, and the schaller humbuckers - awesome. I usually don’t love R5 nuts, most of the other Kramers I have with these wide necks are not my preference, but something about this one feels much more natural. Action was a little high on arrival, but apparently it wasn’t played for years before being traded in - I can believe that, but a few tweaks to the floyd height and everything fell right into place.

It’s also extremely heavy, with a hard maple body, which has a subtle grain on the top and back but looking at the sides, you can see that tell-tale “squares” pattern of a quartersawn piece of maple - very unique, although the weight could be a bit fatiguing for some. Unplugged tone is bright and snappy, and for a heavy body it resonates really well, and the schallers sound great through my amps, no surprise there as I’ve always really liked these pickups.

New Guitar: 1987 Kramer Baretta CAR

Another no-pictures purchase from GC, but at the price it was listed, I didn’t have time to wait for the store to open to call and ask about it. Luckily, the risk paid off, and a super minty ‘87 Kramer Baretta arrived in beautiful candy apple red metallic finish.

Most of the original hardware is present, but the original zebra seymour duncan JB is missing - too bad. However, it has an old EMG 81 in the bridge, but no extra holes or modifications since the battery fits just fine, and I actually like EMG’s so I’m perfectly fine with this. It also lacked a case, which is always a bit scary when shipping a guitar with a pointy headstock like this, but it arrived just fine and I immediately put it into a nice hard shell case.

It’s a pretty simple guitar, and I do like this one a bit more than the other solid black ‘87 Baretta I had, both in sound and feel, so I plan to keep this one around for longer. It has a very interesting serial number as well - E09872 - and on these plates the leading zero is actually printed - not something that was done for the Fxxxx plates or earlier plates. I actually have two of these odd E0xxxx serial number guitars now, the other being a champagne Pacer Imperial.

New Guitar: Gary Kramer Guitars RR-2 Violex

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.

Major Site Updates - Photos, Circuits, Descriptions etc

I know I haven’t done a video in quite a while, but I have been hard at work on the website. I’ve been building shelving to house my amps, taking photographs of every single amp I own including their internals, as well as cleaning up the guitar sections and adding descriptions of each item in my collection.

In addition, I’ve also added the schematics for a few amps, as well as other technical documentation if I have it available. Much of this stuff I’ve gathered across the web, or it was sent to me by someone, so I appreciate everyone who had a part in making this happen.

So what’s new?

First, new amp shelving:

Next, the amp internal photos, of which I found quite a few oddities:

I have to say, the soldered in Radioshack AA batteries from 1985 is pretty wild, and even crazier that they still work!

I’m still working through the website and adding descriptions to some of the guitars and other bits and pieces that I missed the first time through. The Kramer guitars section is definitely the most daunting task, but I’m starting to chip away at that. Hopefully by the time anyone actually reads this, I’ll be done.

I’m also working on a few other projects for TRG in the background too. The next thing I’d like to do is make some tone comparison videos between some of the amps, but I need something that’s a little lower effort content than my usual 45 minute presentations of the technical and historical details.