Kramer has unveiled the Striker Collection, a series of high-performance S-style electric guitars designed in the hotrodded tradition of the brand, offering HSS pickup configurations, a choice of Floyd Rose or Tune-O-Matic bridges, and sweet finish options that range from the muted Transparent Ebony to a pleasingly verdant Wild Ivy.
The Striker Collection offers models with a AAA figured maple veneer or plain mahogany body, with each model featuring a satin-smooth bolt-on maple neck, carved into a Kramer K-Speed SlimTaper C.
For anyone unfamiliar with the K-Speed profile, rest assured, it does its best to stay out of your way and sure does add some zip to your playing.
Players have a choice of maple or Indian laurel fingerboards, and whichever you choose you’ll find them with a 24 medium-jumbo frets, dot inlays, and a 12.6” radius.
The Kramer hockey stick headstocks are emblazoned with the Kramer logo in bold gold, equipped with black die-cast tuners, and sell the ‘80s vibe so convincingly that some players might find themselves trying to force a VHS recording of Hill Street Blues into their Blu-ray player’s loading tray.
But what really sells the Striker Collection is the HSS pickup configuration. Without a control circuit that accesses coil-split features, or with switches for alternate pickup voicings, there are few more versatile electric guitar pickup combinations.
A Kramer zebra-coil Alnico humbucker occupies the bridge position, with Alnico single-coils at the middle and neck positions. These are selected via a five-way pickup selector and controlled by volume and tone pots.
Now, with the Striker Collection, players have a bit call to make on the hardware choices. The fixed-bridge options comprises a high-quality and zero fuss Epiphone LockTone Tune-O-Matic bridge and tailpiece.
Alternatively, and for all your harmonic divebombing needs, a licensed Floyd Rose double-locking vibrato is on the menu.
The Floyd might speak to the traditional Kramer demographic – i.e. the players who got on board with the brand during Eddie Van Halen’s patronage of it – but then there is always something attractive about having a guitar you can throw into alternate tunings without giving it a second thought.
Other specs to note: the Striker Collection models all share a 25.5” scale length, dual-action truss rods and knurled metal control knobs, and hard-shell cases are available as an optional extra.
Your finish options include Wild Ivy and Transparent Red for the Striker Figured HSS, and these are right-handed only. The solid color Striker with plain mahogany body is available in Jumper Red, Majestic Purple and Ebony, and it comes as a right or left-handed model.
The Strikers with the tune-o-matic fixed bridges, meanwhile, are right-handed only, and are available in Transparent Ebony and Transparent Purple. All models in the series are priced $349 and are available now. See Kramer for more details.
