Kramer Guitars
Subsidiary
Industry	Musical instruments
Founded	1976; 44 years ago in Neptune Township, New Jersey
Founder	Dennis Berardi, Gary Kramer, Peter LaPlaca, Phil Petillo
Headquarters	Nashville, Tennessee, United States
Area served	Worldwide
Products	Electric guitars and basses
Parent	Gibson Guitar Corporation
Website	kramerguitars.com

Kramer 1996 Ls400
Kramer Guitar Necks For Sale

Kramer Guitars is an American manufacturer of electric guitars and basses. Kramer produced aluminum-necked electric guitars and basses in the 1970s and wooden-necked guitars catering to hard rock and heavy metal musicians in the 1980s; Kramer is currently a division of Gibson Guitar Corporation.

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Formation[edit]

Gene Simmons axe bass guitar.

Ferrington acoustic.

Korean Kramer.

There is some dispute over the company's early history but it begins with Travis Bean, a California luthier who was building guitars with aluminum necks. Bean and Gary Kramer started the Travis Bean guitar company in 1974, in Sun Valley, and while their guitars did well, Bean lost interest and left most of the business aspects to Kramer and so the two parted ways.^[1]

Kramer then founded the company that still bears his name, improving on the Bean design—Bean's necks were heavy and the material felt cold to the touch. Kramer's improvement consisted of two wooden inserts in the back of the neck. By 1975 he had hooked up with a friend from New York, Dennis Berardi and the two founded BK International, which engaged luthier Phil Petillo to make prototypes for them. Other involved parties were Henry Vaccaro, a real estate businessman who invested money in the venture and Peter LaPlaca, who had experience with Norlin, the company that owned Gibson Guitar Corporation from 1969 to 1986. The rest of the account is murky: Kramer says he was supposed to increase production but was too inexperienced in that area so he wanted to move back to the West Coast. He was to sell back his interests and receive royalties then represent the company out west but none of this seems to have happened. ^[1]

1970s: aluminum necks[edit]

Introduced in 1976, early models featured the trademark 'tuning fork head' aluminum-reinforced necks with a fretboard made of Ebonol—material similar to one used in bowling ball production. Other features of the necks included aluminum dots, and a zero fret. Gary Kramer's inserts, set in epoxy, were usually walnut or maple. The bodies were usually made of high grade Walnut or Maple, with the earliest instruments made of exotic tonewoods including Koa, Afromosia, Swietenia, Shedua, and Bubinga. The hardware was also from a known quality brand: Schallertuning keys and bridges; Schaller and DiMarziopickups; custom-made strap pins; aluminum cavity covers. Kramer's 'alumi-neck' line lasted roughly until 1982.

Generally, the ratio of basses to guitars produced was about 4:1,^{[citation needed]} primarily because bass players were more willing to experiment. By 1981, Kramer had the tools, and the experience, to take guitar mass production to a new level. Switching to wooden-necked instruments both held the promise of keeping production costs low as well as being able to appeal to traditionally-minded guitar players.^[2]

Wooden neck period[edit]

Kramer first released wooden-necked guitars in late 1981, following Charvel's lead on producing instruments that essentially copied the stratocasterheadstock shape from Fender, in violation of Fender's US trademark and design patent. After only a thousand or so instruments were built, in May 1981, Kramer received a cease and desist order from Fender to halt the production of strathead guitars.^{[citation needed]} Instead, Kramer opted for a 'beak' headstock reminiscent of 1960s Kent guitar headstocks. The earliest beak guitars were in fact stratheads with a lopped off headstock; these can be identified by prominent sanding marks on the curve of the headstock.^{[citation needed]} Later, and most common beak guitars, were manufactured with a beak headstock from the factory.^{[citation needed]}

Wooden-necked instruments represented Kramer's first foray into offshoring the production of guitar components to Eastern Asia. Tuning keys and vintage fulcrum tremolos were made by Gotoh in Japan, while the necks were made by Japan's ESP Guitars and shipped to New Jersey for fretting and finishing.^{[citation needed]}

Kramer executives saw that the guitar techniques of the early 1980s demanded a high-performance tremolo system. Kramer partnered with a German inventor named Helmut Rockinger, and installed his bulky tremolos, precursors to Floyd Rose systems, on its instruments.^{[citation needed]}

Early to mid-1980s[edit]

A chance encounter between Dennis Berardi and Eddie Van Halen's managers on an airplane flight set the foundation for Kramer's meteoric rise in the 1980s. Eddie was interested in a tremolo that stayed in tune, which the Rockinger system offered. A meeting between Eddie Van Halen and Kramer execs took place, and Eddie was sold. At the meeting, he reportedly quipped that he would help make Kramer the '#1 guitar company in the world.'^{[citation needed]}

By 1983 the Rockinger tremolo (sometimes dubbed 'The Eddie Van Halen tremolo') had been widely replaced by the Floyd Rose system. In addition, Kramer once again offered Schaller tuners on their guitars, tapping Schaller to produce Floyd Rose tremolos as well. Kramer was the only guitar company offering Original Floyd Rose tremolos stock on their production guitars, a competitive advantage of Kramer over other guitar manufacturers of the period.

In late 1983 Kramer switched from the 'beak' headstock design to the Gibson Explorer-like 'banana' headstock design. This distinctive look also helped rank Kramer highly with guitar enthusiasts. One notable Kramer guitar was the Baretta model, which was a single-humbucker instrument similar to guitars Eddie Van Halen used on stage. The Kramer Baretta was the flagship of the Kramer line and helped popularize the single-pickup 1980s superstrat guitar design.

By late 1985 Kramer began installing Seymour Duncan pickups in its guitars, in preference to the more vintage-sounding Schaller pickups. When the sales figures came in, Kramer was the best-selling guitar brand of 1985.

In 1986 Kramer switched to the radically drooped 'pointy headstock' design, no doubt^{[citation needed]} influenced by the pointy designs of Jackson/Charvel and other manufacturers such as Hamer and Washburn. Schaller tuners, Floyd Rose tremolos, Seymour Duncan pickups and exciting graphics by talented factory artists such as Dennis Kline helped propel Kramer to become the best-selling guitar brand of 1986.

Kramer 1996 Ls400

Late 1980s[edit]

Kramer continued its success into the late 1980s, promoting hard rock and glam metal artists from Mötley Crüe's Mick Mars to Whitesnake's Vivian Campbell as major endorsees.

By 1987

Kramer Ks 400