Members Metalhead Mike Posted January 26, 2009 Members Share Posted January 26, 2009 Well, I've actually had the Kramer for a week now. BUT! I might as well put both together. Cool amp and guitar week, and a special custom pedal coming soon as well After that arrives I'm in the playing woodshed for the next decade. Anyway, here they are. My phone is being an asscrack so I can't show them sitting together . A 1979 Kramer DMZ 2000. Aluminum neck, DiMarzio Super Distortions neck and bridge, two vol., two tone, three way and two coil taps, original Leo Quan Badass bridge, ebonol fretboard. WILD! Great sustain, gigantic neck (still getting used to it), bridge saddles need replaced, because whoever cut the slots for the high E and B strings was smoking crack. Just got this today after a bunch of mailbox bull{censored}. 1952 Gibson GA-75. 1x15" with original Jensen, ~25 watts, two original (?) RCA EL34's. Four instrument inputs (clean, more quiet) and one microphone (loud, great dimed overdrive). The whole band can play through one amp! Instrument and microphone volumes, bass and treble. A little bass-y, but not too loud. Just about right. Cleans up wonderfully with volume knob, which is really neat. I'm having dreams about driving home and picking up my old Zapp Z-70, a 1x15" solid state from the 70's and running them in stereo We'll see. Ok, back to playing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LowWoods Posted January 26, 2009 Members Share Posted January 26, 2009 Hell yeah! That guitar looks lovely Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Metalhead Mike Posted January 27, 2009 Author Members Share Posted January 27, 2009 Hell yeah! That guitar looks lovely Thanks I thought HCFX would be all into a vintage amp, guess not Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members omor Posted January 27, 2009 Members Share Posted January 27, 2009 WELCOME TO THE CLUB! i love my kramer. yours is a little more attractive than mine, and mine needs a little bit of setup work done to it, but i was loving the sounds out of it today. congrats! is that bridge stock? I'm thinking of converting mine, this bridge is crap and pretty unstable. I also need to look at setting up the neck relief better (hard to do with no truss rod!...might have to 'bend' the neck). also, do the strings still 'pinch' into the aluminum nut? they mostly slide through mine, not too big of an issue because of the zero fret, but i'm thinking its lending to the tuning instability of the guitar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members cobalt-60 Posted January 27, 2009 Members Share Posted January 27, 2009 Actually, I'm really interested in Gibson amps, but don't bring them up in here due to fear of driving up GAS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members turnitto11 Posted January 27, 2009 Members Share Posted January 27, 2009 Nice scores! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members echodeluxe Posted January 27, 2009 Members Share Posted January 27, 2009 wow those kramers look cool. sweet gibson amp. the wattson shop has a 55 ga30 that rules! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Metalhead Mike Posted January 27, 2009 Author Members Share Posted January 27, 2009 wow those kramers look cool. sweet gibson amp. the wattson shop has a 55 ga30 that rules! Aluminum Kramers are definitely cool. I've always wanted one since I found out about them a few years ago, and this one popped up on eBay with a nice BIN, and in good/original condition, so I jumped on it. GA-30? I used this site: http://www.informatik.uni-bremen.de/~dace/gg/amps1.html I was thinking about holding out for a Magnatone or something like that...with a 1x12" and 1x8" in the same combo. So cool. Some of them even use the 1x8" for reverb or vibrato Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members omor Posted January 27, 2009 Members Share Posted January 27, 2009 Yeah, it is original. As seen here http://www.leoquan.com/ I emailed the guy twice, no response, about getting a new one. I can't find them in stock ANYWHERE, but the bass ones are all over the place and you can buy them new. I did see two on eBay last week, one NOS and still in the packaging, one a nice condition one. I overslept one (ended at 5 AM) and had to work overtime and forgot about the other By pinch do you mean hold tight as a nut should? Mine do. There are no rattles/buzzes/tuning problems from that end. Tuning does shift while playing as the neck warms up, usually goes sharp. Most of my problems are from the bridge, really. The high E's saddle is completely screwed up, so for now the string just wraps over an unslotted, sharp end of the saddle...I put on a set of strings last week (.10s) and blew up the high E because I wasn't paying attention, so now it has an .11 for a high E. It also has a neck shim of some sort...looks like leather I'm not sure. If your neck truly is warped, though...good luck. I would think sorting out the bridge would help, though...that one looks rather odd and flaky :poke: The action is a little higher than I like, the neck a tad too fat, and the frets way too low and shallow, but what can you do. It certainly has a unique and very pleasing sound, with great sustain. It has my favorite pickup pattern and switching arrangement, two humbuckers with a three way toggle with two very close coil splitters. I'm sorta planning a refinish of mine. i'll likely be lynched for it, but i'm thinking of pulling off the old bridge, filling it with wood putty/bondo, and painting the whole thing gloss black, then installing some kind of hardtail, gibson style bridge...or even something like my rickenbacker with horizontal saddle placement (the bridge seems a bit wider than most) I need to crack the gold pickup cover off the neck pickup and install the nickel cover i got to replace it. then, it sounds like i'm in the market for a new nut. the previous owner used d'addario 12-52 strings, i like 11-54 but the bigger strings still move quite freely in the slots, who knows what he did to it. as far as neck relief and frets, i recently talked to a tech that has set up shop in the same building as guitar center of seattle, he said he's had a kramer before and i'm gonna see if he has any ideas for setting up the relief, and i may consider getting some taller frets installed to counteract the action situation. i really like the guitar, i might just be throwing too much money at it to deem it a 'worthy' full time axe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Metalhead Mike Posted January 27, 2009 Author Members Share Posted January 27, 2009 I'm sorta planning a refinish of mine. i'll likely be lynched for it, but i'm thinking of pulling off the old bridge, filling it with wood putty/bondo, and painting the whole thing gloss black, then installing some kind of hardtail, gibson style bridge...or even something like my rickenbacker with horizontal saddle placement (the bridge seems a bit wider than most) I need to crack the gold pickup cover off the neck pickup and install the nickel cover i got to replace it. then, it sounds like i'm in the market for a new nut. the previous owner used d'addario 12-52 strings, i like 11-54 but the bigger strings still move quite freely in the slots, who knows what he did to it. as far as neck relief and frets, i recently talked to a tech that has set up shop in the same building as guitar center of seattle, he said he's had a kramer before and i'm gonna see if he has any ideas for setting up the relief, and i may consider getting some taller frets installed to counteract the action situation. i really like the guitar, i might just be throwing too much money at it to deem it a 'worthy' full time axe. Well, they did come in black, so no harm there. I was also thinking of getting a refret, but I've heard the ebonol boards aren't the easiest to work with. I'm wary about someone screwing it up. Did yours come with the aluminum dot inlays shiny and nice? Mine are all dirty (grey colored), but I can't figure out how to shine them. I tried some very fine 000 or 0000 steel wool, but nothing happened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members seifukusha Posted January 27, 2009 Members Share Posted January 27, 2009 is that kramer MIA, or MIJ? ive seen something like that in Japan, i believe... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Metalhead Mike Posted January 27, 2009 Author Members Share Posted January 27, 2009 is that kramer MIA, or MIJ? ive seen something like that in Japan, i believe... Definitely MIA. These were the first Kramers made when Gary Kramer broke off from Travis Bean (continuing the aluminum neck theme) and started his own company (with another guy who's since broken off and owns his own company, Vaccaro). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members omor Posted January 27, 2009 Members Share Posted January 27, 2009 Well, they did come in black, so no harm there.I was also thinking of getting a refret, but I've heard the ebonol boards aren't the easiest to work with. I'm wary about someone screwing it up.Did yours come with the aluminum dot inlays shiny and nice? Mine are all dirty (grey colored), but I can't figure out how to shine them. I tried some very fine 000 or 0000 steel wool, but nothing happened. yeah my inlays are shiny and aluminum or whatever that is. yours is a different era than mine it appears, my serial number places it in an early 450G make, despite the fancy 5 piece wood layered construction. i havent figured out the year yet though. ....fast forward a few hours.... this thread got me interested in making the guitar a little more playable and a little more aesthetically pleasing, upon closer inspection i realized the neck was a bit loose, you could 'twist' it side to side in the neck pocket a bit, so i tightened up the allens on the back side, seems to be a bit better off now, and i swapped the gold pickup cover for nickel. woot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ponda Boba Posted January 27, 2009 Members Share Posted January 27, 2009 aluminum neckd kramers are great, as are most 'vintage' kramers if you can get around the smell of the aquanet that still permeates the finish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Destructobot Posted January 27, 2009 Members Share Posted January 27, 2009 Wow, I really dig that amp. I've been wanting to get a 40's/50's amp in that sort of style, but it's looking like that's at least a $500 proposition unless you get lucky. A few years ago, amps like that were $200-300 all the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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