Unpolished Diamond

I lusted after one of these USA-made Kramer reissues all through my teens and managed to score a NOS one on eBay a few years ago.

It came to be basically straight out of the box after sitting unplayed for close to 10 years. Needless to say it needed a bit of a setup, and honestly a novice player or even a moderately experienced repairperson would've had trouble dialing it in. A tapered shim was needed on the bass side of the neck pocket to stop it from shifting, as well as a very thin shim at the heel to slightly correct the neck angle. If I had been able to afford this guitar as a 16 year old guitar noob, I wouldn't even have know what was causing the playability issues let alone how to rectify it.

Now for the positive points. The difference since tightening up the neck pocket, and a proper setup is totally night and day. It went from being kind of a disappointment and not performing at its full potential to one of my best sounding and playing guitars. The neck on this guitar is truly wonderful, and feels very similar in shape and contour to an EBMM Axis (no shit sherlock). Frets are nice 6105ish size, VERY nicely dressed and leveled. I've got the action lower than all of my other guitars and it has the least fret buzz...go figure! Hardware and electronics are all top quality, choice components. I wish the Gibson 84T pickup was still widely available...this is the best pickup for classic "brown sound" that I've ever tried. Fat, clear, tons of harmonics and just the right amount of high-end shimmer and midrange grunt. Seymour Duncan makes about a half dozen "EVH" type pickups, but none of them sound this accurate to my ears. It just NAILS the "Fair Warning" era tone and beyond.

I absolutely love this guitar, and for what they went for brand new they were a total steal. I still got a good price on mine, and even though I had to do some work on it the value was incredible. I've tried the current Korean-made versions and they're nowhere near as good, and also a little more expensive thanks to inflation. If you find one of these old USA-made ones, don't let it slip through your fingers!!