Karmer Pacer - Satchel from Steel Panther

[devastone]

Re: Karmer Pacer - Satchel from Steel Panther

The 5150's were actually Basswood. How do I know this? A former employee who worked at Kramer back in the day and painted them, along with many others. This discussion went on for a while on the Kramer Guitars FB page and he confirmed they were all Basswood, and the only ones that were.

Interesting, not disagreeing. I could have sworn that Paul Unkert said in an interview that it was poplar. But, I could be wrong, I have trouble remembering what I had for supper last night these days.

FWIW, I really like basswood.

 

[ErikH]

Re: Karmer Pacer - Satchel from Steel Panther

From what I recall, Kramer had import companies building a lot of their bodies and necks and the guitars were assembled in New Jersey. During their early years, a Canadian company was making everything, and the bodies were either maple, poplar or alder.

Then in the later years ESP was building for them, which resulted in the Pro Axe, Liberty, and other models which started to use Mahogany.

As for Satchel, Gibson, which owns Kramer these days, had his signature guitars made in the USA in the small factory that builds a few more brands for Gibson, so they aren’t mystery wood like the import models.

Satchel has recently switched over to Charvel

Yup. Sports was a supplier of bodies and necks and there was another one at that time as well, pre-ESP, but the necks began at ESP before the bodies did. There were some scarf joint issues that were happening and since ESP had been making the Focus models and some Japanese market specific models, it made perfect business sense to have them begin the American series necks.

What most don't get is that they (Sports and ESP) were a supplier for the Kramer American line. ESP didn't build anything completely until way later, like the Liberty and Pro-Axe, because at that point, not much was going on in NJ and they were in trouble (and gone the next year). Before then, raw necks and bodies were supplied to the NJ facility. Everything else was done in NJ to make the final product, including final sanding, finish, frets on the necks, and for some even the routing.

I hope Gibson sells the Kramer name to somebody or a group that actually gives a crap about it. Their efforts have been nothing short of disappointing with the brand. Satchel was smart. At least the Charvels still feel and play like Charvels.

Interesting, not disagreeing. I could have sworn that Paul Unkert said in an interview that it was poplar. But, I could be wrong, I have trouble remembering what I had for supper last night these days.

FWIW, I really like basswood.

He may have and IIRC, that was brought up on the FB page. The dude posted pics of him BITD with his paint gun, a 5150 body on stick in one hand, painting outfit, and a rack of about 10 more 5150 bodies at some stage of paint. There were 15 of them made. Poplar was used on models like the 5150, just not that one.

I like basswood too. Had a Contemporary Tele that was basswood and very very full sounding.