“Shred-ready guitars begging to be played fast and mean”: Kramer revives a cult classic “vault find” from the 1980s – and issues a “modern and sleeker” LP-style design – as part of extensive range overhaul
Five new speed-shredding six-strings balance ’80s revivalism with modern touches via the Kramer 84, Pacer Carrera, Jersey Star, Assault Figured, and Nite-V models
(Image credit: Kramer)
Kramer has dropped five new electric guitars, including a revised modern take on the traditional Les Paul-style design and a reimagined version of a long-lost cult classic.
The New Jersey-based luthier was a trailblazer in the ’80s – hence why many of its current builds hark back to hairspray and spandex shred era aesthetics – but, now part of the Gibson family of brands, it has been on a fair hot streak since 2018.
When it isn’t releasing ridiculous hot dog and pixel heart finishes for its builds, Kramer has sought to become a key player in the contemporary guitar game, with its latest drop split between retro revivals and modern-minded creations.
The Kramer Assault is the most forward-thinking of the bunch. The guitar started life as the Kramer Custom in 2000, and was devised as a “modern, lighter, and sleeker single cutaway” take on the Gibson Les Paul. Here, some choice updates have been made.
A three-piece, thermally aged maple neck with a satin finish, carved into a K-Speed SlimTaper profile, is a new touch, promising improved playing speed. Its ebony fretboard offers 24 jumbo frets, while a mahogany body is capped, for some colorways, with an AAA flame maple veneer.
Kramer Assault (Image credit: Kramer)
Kramer Eruption humbuckers, developed by master luthier Jim DeCola with Alnico 4 and 5 magnets, deliver the kind of hot rod tones you'd expect from Kramer, while a Floyd Rose 1000 series tremolo pulls the guitar further away from its Les Paul template and into full-blown Kramer territory.
It’s available in Caribbean Blue Perimeter and Magenta Perimeter figured maple colorways, with additional Jet Black Metallic, Bumblebee Yellow, and Vice City Pink finishes available exclusively on the Kramer website.
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Elsewhere, the Kramer Pacer Carrera is a “vault find” that was a “highly coveted cult favorite” in the ’80s but has since slipped into obscurity. Three decades later, it’s back.
(Image credit: Kramer)
Seymour Duncan SH-2N neck and JB bridge humbuckers provide “plenty of horsepower” with a “shred-ready ebony fretboard” and satin-finished maple neck serving as other standout features.
Available in supercar-inspired Ebony and Defender Red colorways, it’s the only guitar in the drop not to feature the signature Kramer headstock – here serving a more Fender-esque design instead. In Kramer's own words, it's “an axe that's just begging to be played fast and mean”.
(Image credit: Kramer)
On the guitar's 40th anniversary, Kramer says its 84 model is “a no-nonsense staple of rock”, with the latest iteration having “more in common with the ’80s-era originals than ever”.
The finish of its banana headstock now matches its lightweight alder body – choose from Intruder Black Satin, Eruption Red Satin, and Angel White Satin – with its minimalist hardware headlined by an Eruption bridge humbucker, Floyd Rose 1000 bridge, and a retro-style knurled volume knob.
If minimalism isn’t your thing, the Jersey Star draws from the “more is more” school of thought. A trio of Kramer USA Neptune humbuckers are bordered with gold mountings that match its Floyd Rose 1000 tremolo, with coil tap features and a five-way switch giving more tonal options for its bridge and middle pickups.
(Image credit: Kramer)
Those humbuckers were designed by Gibson's Senior Engineer and Product Development Richard Akers, who has decades of experience. We aren't quite sure who is responsible for the star inlays, though. Those will likely divide opinion.
The Jersey Star is available in White Pearl and Black Pearl finishes.
Last but certainly not least is the return of its Nite-V guitar, the preferred axe of Nervosa's Prika Amaral. Tweaks center around its mahogany body with string-through-body construction, and locking tuners. Another thermally-aged K-Speed maple neck with a 24-fret ebony fingerboard is once again on offer.
(Image credit: Kramer)
Tonally, the Eruption 'buckers return, with Royal Blue Metallic and Crimson Metallic finishes on offer.
A freelance writer with a penchant for music that gets weird, Phil is a regular contributor to Prog, Guitar World, and Total Guitar magazines and is especially keen on shining a light on unknown artists. Outside of the journalism realm, you can find him writing angular riffs in progressive metal band, Prognosis, in which he slings an 8-string Strandberg Boden Original, churning that low string through a variety of tunings. He's also a published author and is currently penning his debut novel which chucks fantasy, mythology and humanity into a great big melting pot.
