Alucard817

For me the fretboard isn't ridiculously thin, and the actual neck is a little wider. I've always hated the ultra thin necks and ultra skinny fret boards.

As with any guitar neck it always comes down to preference.

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LP1951

Yes. The perfect neck for me. I like them better than my 60s Tele necks or my Les Paul neck.

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“You’re always learning about this thing every time you pick it up.” Keith Richards

RiseTheFallen

Gibson hasn't failed in any way, and to label a brand to a genre is stupid. There are tons of bands from pop to death metal that uses them.
The fail is that no dealers stock Kramers...
Kramer Guitars = Love.

LP1951

Hasn't Gibson failed to get their Kramers stocked at music stores? It is Gibson's responsibility to get their guitars stocked not the dealers.

I agree, "to label a brand to a genre is stupid." The Kramer FR 422 is the most versatile guitar that I own. I use it for all styles of music except country and slide. However, if I blocked the trem, I think it would even work for slide.

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“You’re always learning about this thing every time you pick it up.” Keith Richards

kangaxxter

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Guitar

Whenever I hear someone say that they play exclusively a single genre, I always assume that they're just a terrible guitarist.

LP1951

If someone plays only one style of music, they may be great in that particular style. That's cool. However, if they only play one style, they are limiting their potential as a guitarist and their enjoyment IMHO.

I'm from Mississippi and grew up playing with blues musicians, so I naturally gravitate toward playing the blues, but I have learned other styles some that I enjoy (country chickin pickin), jazz, bluegrass and blues oriented rock; and some that I don't enjoy playing bubble gum rock and metal shredding.

Eddie Van Halen is the most famous Kramer player, I can appreciate his skill even though I do not like Van Halens music and I don't label Kramer guitars as exclusively metal shredders simply because most of the shredders used Kramers.

The fact is that most all of the most popular guitarists of the 80s played Kramers. In 1985 & 1986, Kramer was the best selling guitar brand in the World, more sales than Fender or Gibson. Heck, even Johnny Cash's guitarist played a Kramer and Cash was about as far from Hair Metal as you can get.

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“You’re always learning about this thing every time you pick it up.” Keith Richards

Boonnoo666

The new Kramers are pretty good, and one of my friends has the 211 and raves about it. But my problem with them is that they are a bit too modern for me, and as to the decline, it's because of the decline of ****-rockers, and somehow the name got buried with CockRock.

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Schecter Damien FR
Kramer Imperial
Peavey Valveking Head
Marshall 1936 JCM900 lead cab

LP1951

It's good to hear Gibson has kept up quality since going retail with the Kramer line.

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“You’re always learning about this thing every time you pick it up.” Keith Richards

Alucard817

Yes and no.

Yes, because Gibson could do so much more to advertise the brand. As stated a million times in this thread Kramers are incredibly versatile and they have a pretty damn good lineage. Gibson should use that to promote the brand.

No, because of the hype and fanboyism surrounding other "better known" brands.
Look at this site for instance. How many people suggest Ibanez or Jackson guitars over everything else? This hype is everywhere and that is hard to overcome.

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LP1951

At first, Gibson had a good marketing plan, selling top quality quitars wholesale through Gibson owned Musicyo.com. In the early 2000s, their FR422 & 424 models which were basically the ProAxe design got great reviews. They must have been selling a lot of them because they were constantly out of stock. By 2005, these guitars were back ordered for months. Then in 2009, Gibson shut Musicyo down without having dealers lined up So now they are still selling their Kramers through online dealers at 40% higher prices. They would have been much better off if they had kept Musicyo open until they got firm committments from dealers to stock Kramers.

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“You’re always learning about this thing every time you pick it up.” Keith Richards

dannyalcatraz

You know, Gary Kramer has his own company...

http://garykramerguitar.com/index.html

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Sturgeon's 2nd Law, a.k.a. Sturgeon's Revelation: “Ninety percent of everything is crap.”

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LP1951

Yes I've seen those, but I like the Gibson/Kramers much better. I like having a tone control and a push/pull coil tap.

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“You’re always learning about this thing every time you pick it up.” Keith Richards

dannyalcatraz

I haven't looked at the standard models, but I have seen the customs- I bet you could get a GKG with those features.

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Sturgeon's 2nd Law, a.k.a. Sturgeon's Revelation: “Ninety percent of everything is crap.”

Why, yes, I am a lawyer- thanks for asking!

LP1951

Thanks but I already have 3 Kramers and I probably won't buy anymore unless I can find a good deal on a ProAxe, Showster or maybe a SM1.

http://www.vintagekramer.com/company12.htm

http://www.kramerguitars.com/Produc...our-Duncan.aspx

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“You’re always learning about this thing every time you pick it up.” Keith Richards

jeffo46

Ross Music in R.I. carries them as far as I know. But Gibson does need to push them more since they now own the brand. I'm surprised that Guitar Center doesn't carry them.

JustRooster

The chief reason no one carries Kramer is that no one buys them. Not that no one can buy them because they're not in stores, no stores carry them because no one bought them. It's simple business. Why stock things nobody wants?

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LP1951

Not true.

From 2000 to 2009, Gibson was selling so many Kramers that certain models were constantly sold out and buyers were waiting months to get Kramers.

After Gibson went retail with Kramers, all the online dealers quickly sold all the Kramer FR422s & 424s that they had.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/guit...electric-guitar

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“You’re always learning about this thing every time you pick it up.” Keith Richards

MrFlibble

The main thing to remember when judging what shops keep 'in stock' is that what is out on the store floor is not their entire stock. Most shops—especially large chains and those with a big online presence—keep most of their stock in warehouses, and only the most profitable stuff gets put on display in the actual shops. Additionally, many shops will be dealers of a particular brand and be able to order them in, but may not bother to keep models in stock. Most Mayones dealers, for instance, don't actually have any Mayones guitars at all, as they're made to order. As more and more people buy guitars online and physical store sales drop, the less stock shops will get in. Give it a few years and you'll see most stores only buying in to order, outside of the guaranteed sellers like Fender Standard Stratocasters and Epiphone Les Paul Standards.

The second thing to remember is that this topic is stupid, founded on complete guesswork by people with no clue or sense of perspective and is, entirely, nonsense.

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LP1951

The old early 80s Kramers were limited because they lacked coil taps and models like 5150 were limited because of the one pup, one volume and no tone control design, but the late 80s Kramers like the Stagemaster, ProAxe and Showster IIIs are very versatile. Those then revolutionary designs were copied by the other manufacturers of FR equipped quitars.

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“You’re always learning about this thing every time you pick it up.” Keith Richards