Kramer Baretta 1983 Guitar UNMASKED part 2

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.

{ PART 1 - KRAMER 1983 BARETTA - UNMASKED BLOG POST ]

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Kramer Baretta 1983 Guitar UNMASKED part 1

Hello friends Johnny here from AXN Guitars. The Kramer 1983 Baretta will be the highlight of my next two blog posts. Specifically today I will highlight this Kramer Holy Grail Baretta 1983 neck. In a later post we will dissect the body from this authentic 1983 Kramer Baretta specimen i have here.

Hello friends this is Johnny form AXN Guitars. Today I discuss one of the most difficult guitars to acquire the 1983 Kramer Baretta. The guitar in the photos will more than likely be the last Kramer Baretta holy grail 1983 guitar that i will have in my possession and soon its off to its proud owner. This guitar is quite used and its been modified by a previous owner. It has quite an impressive history and as pictured you can see its years.

I’ve slowed my vintage guitar buying habit. I’ve invested all my time, thoughts and passion into making AXN Guitars. We are manufacturing guitars that exactly replicate, celebrate and re-incarnate the quintessential electric guitars of 1980s. As The Sensei of Vintage 1980s Guitars i’ve put together this 1983 Kramer Baretta information and photos for you.

As I’ve mentioned in other blog posts I’ve always been very interested in the technical specifications of vintage artist model guitars; these hold the answers to the magic unique to each guitar. Because of this obsession I have recorded thousands of pages of technical entries with data about guitars.

Older information i wrote down in ink and paper way back in the 1980s before any of us used computers. Having aged sometimes 30+ years each technical entry accurately breaks down every minute detail of these guitars in a scientific manner. I even photographed some guitars back in the day with black and white film and a Nikon camera.

In the below photos we can see that we have a 1983 kramer Baretta non-tilt “hockey stick” neck as it was called in the 1980s. In recent years the shape of the headstock has been called the “banana” headstock by fanciers. Also referred to as a “non-tilt” or “non-angled” banana headstock.

Its 25.5” scale, it has jumbo frets and the back of the neck has an 1980s style oil finish. Its truss rod adjust is at the heel and the truss rod as you can see is the ESP type. Electric Sound products in Japan manufactured every Kramer 1983 Baretta Holy Grail neck while a subcontractor to Kramer Neptune NJ.

I’ve said before the specifications of the 1983 Kramer Baretta neck is like no other. With its R5 wide nut size, its super flat radius, and unique neck shape its nothing like any other neck you will play. Funny enough, no other luthiers have ever gotten the specifications right on any of the copies or recreations. Neither Fender or Gibson has gotten anywhere close to the real neck specifications in their “Baretta clones”. Our AXN ‘83 is the only guitar available with the exact neck specifications.

Its my belief that no guitar maker has ever cared about those specifications because the true specifications are too hard to accurately acquire and re-create. Even more importantly for most guitar makers its to costly to manufacture an exact clone neck due to various factors which include, the length of the maple wood required from banana headstock tip-end to heel/butt. Also the type of fretboard, the flatness of the fretboard ( the radius ), the uniqueness of fretboard width at certain frets and the subtle contours of the back of the 1983 non-tilt neck are exclusive to this Holy Grail Kramer.

In addition the size of the neck pocket on the body and the heel/butt size of the neck at the 22nd fret are a unique size that we create virtually exactly. All this causes the 1983 Kramer Baretta a challenge for any other luthier to accurately form. The original 1983 holy grail neck was a true hand made boutique guitar neck. ESP japan had the skills and they were asked to manufacture these awesome necks for Kramer. We are the only luthiers that do it 100% accurately!

I’m considered the foremost collector of vintage ESP and i can verify this 1983 era of ESP manufacturing. ESP retained an extremely talented group of luthiers who where unmatched in their time. I am familiar with the work from the different ESP craftsman at the various Japan ESP shops from the 1980s. I can accurately identify virtually every time exactly where in Japan and when ESP products were manufactured.

Within these 1983 Kramer Baretta blog posts will be a complete visual break down of the 1983 Kramer Baretta Signature guitar i have here… Enjoy!

Johnny - Sensei of vintage 1980s guitars.

Photo Note : i shot the neck and the body separately and in separate photo shoots. I placed some of our AXN guitar raw bodies and necks as decoration in the background such as the AXN ‘83 maple body that is an exact duplicate of a Kramer 1983 Baretta body. If you look close you can see the visual age of this Kramer Holy Grail 1983 Baretta guitar neck in all its splendor. I may add more to this post as time allows.

[ NEXT ENTRY IN THIS BLOG POST - THE 1983 KRAMER BARETTA UNMASKED PT.2 ]

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[ PART TWO - THE 1983 KRAMER BARETTA UNMASKED ]

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HERE IS A QUICK VIDEO WITH SOME INFORMATION ON THE 1983 KRAMER BARETTAS WE CLONED

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Kramer Mick Mars Telecaster - Observations

Hello this Johnny from AXN Guitars. In this post we are observing the details of this authentic Kramer 1990 Mick Mars Telecaster. A Mick Mars Tele manufactured by Kramer and in pristine condition showing its Neptune NJ neckplate. Very interesting vintage guitar with unique features that have Mick's playing preferences from the 1980s. I made the decision to pull this guitar from stock and make it ready for sale. I’ve also taken these photos with my iPhone and shared them with you. Thats why I’m called The SENSEI OF VINTAGE 1980'S GUITARS 先生.

During the time i have owned this one i have intricately examined it with great detail and recorded every specification of this guitar accurately on paper notes. Every question a guitar luthier would ask about this Mick Mars Kramer I have answered and documented with white glove reverence. Notes that I may use in the future and details i will share with you now.

This 1990 Kramer Mick Mars guitar is from the run of guitars manufactured by Kramer during the late 1980s and during the period that print advertisements featuring Mick Mars and his Kramer Guitars were circulated to major publications by Kramer Neptune New Jersey.

Kramer Neptune NewJersey had no log and no records exist indicating how many of these collectible Kramers were manufactured. Yet Mick did play these. You can see Mick Mars using his Kramer with Motley Crue if you check for The Moscow Peace festival footage on YouTube.

I might update this thread periodically with more info so everyone please check back.

Please support reputable luthiers in the USA and abroad like AXN™ Made in the USA Guitars

Best Wishes Johnny The SENSEI OF VINTAGE 1980'S GUITARS 先生.