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USA or Overseas?

There is a lot of information about Kramers out on the web. I first posted this information back in 1995/96 and it still holds true today. The following is only a guideline to be used to determine if your Kramer is a USA model or an American Series.

If the serial number of your Kramer is in the following format, it is NOT a USA Made or "American" series Kramer:

1) Two letters followed by a serial number (e.g. AA1234, AC1234, FA1234, FC1234, SA1234)

2) One letter followed by five letters (e.g. B12345) The only exception to this would be some of the "E" series neck plates did have one letter followed by five letters (e.g. E12345)

3) Five numbers, no letters (e.g. 12345)

4) Model numbers preceding serial number (e.g. XL-1234)

5) A chrome or black neck plate with nothing on it but a Kramer headstock and a serial number stamped on it. These neck plates are smooth flat neck plates with no "Neptune, N.J." stamped on them.

6) ALL of the USA and Most of the American Series guitars do not have jack plates for the input jacks but rather have a flushmount output jack. The NightSwan is the only USA/American Series model that did not have a flushmount output jack.

Also, please keep in mind that just because the neck plate is imprinted with "Kramer, Neptune, NJ" does NOT mean that the guitar was Made in the USA or an "American" series. Kramer was very careful to not stamp "Made In USA" anywhere on its neck plates starting in about 1985/1986.

Starting in late 1985, virtually all Kramer guitars were being made by ESP Guitars in Japan. Although the "American" Series guitars were made by ESP in Japan, they were assembled in the US. In general, the following is a good way to determine if your Kramer is USA made or an "American" series:

If your Kramer has a Strat or Classic headstock and has a Kramer logo with a capital "K" followed by a lower caser "ramer", the guitar is an early 1981-1984 USA made Kramer guitar.
If your guitar has a banana headstock and a block style Kramer logo in all caps "KRAMER", it is a 1984-1986 USA Made/American Series Kramer Guitar.
If your guitar has a pointy headstock and a block style Kramer logo in the same sized lettering in all caps, it is a 1986/1987 American Series Kramer Guitar.
If your guitar has a pointy headstock and a diminishing sized Kramer logo with the letters diminishing in size from the K to the R and, there is a script "American" decal after the "KRAMER" logo, it is a 1987-1994 American Series Kramer Guitar.
If your guitar has a pointy headstock and a diminishing sized Kramer logo but does not have "American" in script after the logo, it is NOT an American series guitar.

The following wood neck guitar models were the ONLY Made in USA or "American" Series guitars:

Baretta, Pacer, Stagemaster, Vanguard, Voyager, Classic, ProAx, NightSwan, Ripley, Spector, Paul Dean, Richie Sambora, TriAx, Enterprise, Elliot Easton, Sustainer, Liberty, and Condor.

The following wood neck guitar models were NOT Made in USA or "American" Series guitars. These guitars were made either in Korea, Indonesia, or Japan.

Striker, Focus, Hundred Series (e.g. 410, 610), Thousand Series, XL Series, Aerostar, Showster, and Ferrington. Furthermore, the Gorky Park special edition model is also an overseas made guitar.

Another good way to tell if your Kramer is an overseas made model is if it is made out of plywood or composite wood. Also, if your Kramer has "non-name" pickups or "Designed by Seymour Duncan" pickups, it is an overseas model. Finally, if your Kramer came with a Floyd Rose II, Floyd Rose with no fine tuners, or a Floyd Rose unit that does not require the ball ends of the strings to be cut off, it is an overseas model.

Parts Guitars

During the early to mid-90's, as Kramer Guitars was going through its bankruptcy and restructuring, it had a huge inventory liquidation of its plant. Many large music stores purchased the inventory of parts from Kramer. The parts included bodies, necks, pickups, tuners, Floyd Rose units, etc. Some of the music stores assembled the guitars and sold them as complete Kramer guitars. In other instances, individuals bought the parts and pieced them together themselves and made complete guitars. The question has always been whether these assembled guitars are truly Kramers. In my opinion, the assembled guitars are Kramers however, they are not factory Kramers.

The problem is that these assembled guitars still show up from time to time on auctions and music store websites but the sellers do not disclose this fact. The best way to ensure that you are not purchasing a post-factory assembled guitar is to ask a lot of questions from the seller and use the available Kramer resources on the web such as the Kramer Forum and have other collectors assist you.

One other issue is, as the popularity of Kramer guitars has risen, so have individuals/stores that are recreating Kramer guitars and logoing the guitars as original Kramers. Once again, I recommend the buyer to ask a lot of questions and use the web to research the item prior to purchasing it. There are a lot of kit form guitars out there that are not Kramers and are great quality parts. Again, just be careful as to what you are buying.