Pictured is a 1983 Kramer Baretta body. As you can see the body has been repainted by what looks like a rattlecan creme color. Also, If you look closer you can see that someone at one time routed out 2 single coil pickups to make the body HSS. Like many 1980s guitars this Kramer Baretta has seen lots of miles and lots of modifications. I suspect this guitar was painted with red and white stripes at some point by a previous owner. None-the-less the guitar is an authentic 1983 Baretta with a serial number neck plate C36XX.

Body

As mentioned previously, the Kramer 1983 Baretta neck was manufactured by one subcontractor for Kramer NJ ( ESP Japan ) and The Holy Grail Kramer Baretta bodies were manufactured by a different subcontractor to Kramer. In Neptune NJ Kramer corporate assembled the 1983 Kramer Barettas and readied them for delivery to Kramer’s dealer network.

The bodies for every authentic 1983 Baretta were manufactured by Sports in Connecticut USA. This was a carry over of the relationship between Kramer NJ and Sports. Sports Inc. had done many of the early Kramer guitar bodies in the first part of 1980s.

Notice the familiar KRAMER NJ neck pocket markings. Meant-to-be a truss rod adjust access point, the funny little notch cut out in the neck pocket wood is a common 1980s Kramer NJ guitar thing. It can be seen that this example is a maple wood body and weighs in at 6+ lbs ( heavy ). There you have the little tremolo cavity route for the extra travel of the springs on a 42mm Floyd Rose sustain block. That little tremolo cavity route was a signature tell-tail marking that equals up to authenticity. This is a real deal Holy Grail Kramer Guitar. Of course also visible is the second generation Kramer electronics control cavity route/shape on the back of the guitar.

All Kramer 1983 Barettas have the very model specific contours and routing, overall body shape, and the various signs that all add up to the 1983 Baretta bodies having been manufactured in Connecticut at Sports. All of these things are what people can use to verify this bodys authenticity or the authenticity of any 1983 Kramer Baretta.

Neck Plate

Kramer NJ had lots of different neckplates on many different Kramers guitars yet the 1983 Baretta neck plate was a Fender standard size plate. Made of steel and they used black neck plates and black screws. Every 1983 Baretta had a serial# starting with a C with 4 numbers after the letter.

Though all over the board with serial numbers that sometimes where out of sequence with other Kramer guitar models, with the 1983 KRAMER BARETTA the first guitars in the run had a lower serial number and the last guitars in the run of 1983 Kramer Barettas had a larger serial number. The serial number range from the ones I’ve seen C3200-C4500.

Schaller Made Zebra Pickup

Schaller Reverse Zebra Golden 50 Humbucker ( non trem spaced ). The factory pickup was this Schaller humbucker. Said to uses alnico II magnets and said to be the same wind, wire gauge, and specifications as the Gibson 57 classic pickup. Its a two wire type and the one from this Kramer 1983 Baretta is putting out 8.85 ohms on my meter.

Floyd Rose Tremolo

I have much knowledge on Floyd Rose history and the Floyd on this body is original. Many have said its a flat black finish. I think its just a fist generation made in Germany black tremolo.

The first of the various Floyds that were manufactured in Germany in 1983. Also, the first black version from Schaller. The Germany company Schaller handled manufacturing for Mr. Floyd Rose in 1983 after Fernandes Japan..

This tremolo has also seen the miles. That said its original to this particular 1983 Kramer Baretta. This Floyd has one of the thickest baseplates of any Floyd Rose tremolo I have on record. The baseplate thickness is .137”.

This 1983 Kramer Baretta Floyd Rose vibrato utilized a 42mm sustain block on its black Floyd Rose baseplate. I photographed the original tremolo as is, yet i think its been tinkered with a bit. The saddles are in disrepair and it needs at the least new blocks if not new saddles altogether. The tremolo is showing a brass tremolo bar mount which is unique. Texturing on bottom of the baseplate signify type manufacture and time frame of manufacture.

i would not skip over the R5 Floyd Rose nut. Its made in Germany and marked with Made in Germany the way it was on the early Floyd Rose nuts ( first generation marking/branding which was later changed ). An R5 nut size equals a wide 1-3/4” nut.

The R5 locking nut has a radius of 10 inch. Also the Floyd Rose tremolo bridge has a saddle radius of 12 inch. These two specifications funny enough do not match the actual Kramer 1983 Holy Grail necks they were mounted on when the guitars were assembled at the Kramer Neptune NJ USA factory. This original 1983 holy grail neck has a unique fretboard radius which is much flatter than either the radius of the nut or the radius of the bridge saddles.

Tuners and Misc

The tuners on a 1983 Kramer Baretta were 1983 unbranded Gotoh 90Degree tuners. Black in color. The tremolo posts were German made first run Floyd Rose posts made by Schaller.