Kramer 450G

My dad bought it used at a music store in 1981/82 for $450.fair.it has 2 humbucker's with the kramer logo cap.the body has two strips possibly of maple "yellow ish". serial#11416. the koa main body and neck inserts. shcaller tuners.ebonal fret board. kramer speed knobs.i started playing in 2006,so i don't have a whole lot of room to say anything. i have had a couple friends play it,they have been playing for years so, well,yahh.they have said it to be an awesome guitar.great action,fit,

i like the sound of this guitar. gutsy,tons of sustain.i like power chords if that tells you what i like in music. led zeplin, JIMMIE, zztop, deep purple,boston.classic rock. i mainly use it with the usual overdrive,reverb,delay. no dislikes.

what factory? HAND FU#$%&* made. great action.properly bookmatched.

this guitar is probobly within the top ten guitars in the world in durability,including all the other aluminium necked kramers,and of course it is ready for the stage"EVERY SINGLE KRAMER IS 1,000,000,000,000 TIMES MORE READY FOR THE STAGE THAN ANY gibson OR fender

if this guitar was ever stolen,it would be my life's work to get another in the condition mine is in.i went on Ebey and did a search and they had worn down hunk for a grand,and i came to the conclusion that i could get another "gooooooood" one for $1500

Kramer 450g bought off Ebay for ??250, what a bargain!. The 450 g has the humbuckers, the 350g has singles. It is the Koa model with maple strips through centre, don't normally go for bolt on's but alu neck makes it an exception. Standard 2 tone 2 volume 3 way selector.

Now here is the good bit, it sounds like no other guitar I have heard. Very metal and distinctive. Really nails Red Hot Chilli peppers sound, more like a tele than a paul, or perhaps a fat tele!.
I play this when I want a totally different sound.

This is a professional quality instrument. All the hardware is top notch and just feels great. These are seriously underpriced, snap one up now if you get the chance, one day these are going to be very expensive. Just think for a moment how much it would cost to make one now. Even the backplates are aluminium. How much would it cost to get an aluminium neck and ebonol fingerboard made now. Thats why Kramer stopped making them, they were too expensive.

Really well made an solid as a rock. Only problem is that with the alu neck, they do not hold their tune as well as some guitars. Think the temperature can effect them a little.

Well there still in business, although I think they were taken over. Could'nt make an money selling these, at the price they did.

Been playing 25 years. Wish I had been able to get one of these earlier. Would definately buy another, in fact I'm bidding on another alu neck kramer at the moment. The best thing is the build quality and unique tone. Nothing else can replace it.

I bought my guitar on Ebay for $455 plus $25 shipping. It is the 450G with the ultra glossy Koa body with the two maple strips, the 22-fret forked aluminum neck with the wood inserts (koa?) and indestructible Ebonol fretboard, and Schaller tuners. It has two original chrome covered Kramer logo pickups and separate volume and tone controls with a 3-position selector. It came in an Anvil (nonorigininal?) style case that feels like it could survive an explosion. I have not been able to determine the precise year of manufacture but believe it is late 70s or early 80s. It's condition is a 9.5. It is heavy and unbalanced with the neck seeking Earth. If anyone knows where to get strap button extenders for the neck side, let me know. Otherwise, I'll rig a strap from button to button and attach a shoulder strap to a point on it that is closer to the neck for better balance. The bridge is hardtail, screws flat to the body, and has separate intonation adjustments for each string. String length and height are adjusted using allen wrenches. Some of the height adjusting allen screws in mine are stripped and/or hard to turn but the action is good and low as is. The method of string ball-end anchor is nonoptimal, however, as the ball is inserted through a slotted hole and can pop out easily.

I've only been playing for 16 months and like blues and classic rock. I play through a Fender Blues Junior and also have a Peavey Classic 4x10. I prefer the Fender. I've tried several effects but really line to be plugged straight in. The 450G is really quiet unless it's being played and then the tone is rich and full. It seems to have good range from shrill and piercing tones to tones that reverberate like an army marching on the roof. Notes sustain until dampened. I cannot find fault with the sound. It really sounds rich.

I got it used and the action was a bit high (maybe it was used for slide?). I adjusted it down and now, even with 0.0115 - 0.052" strings, my beginner hands and fingertips handle it easily. The fretboard shows no wear even though it has likley been played quite a lot over its 20+ years. The bridge has slight corrosion and the method of anchoring the strings could be improved. The clear body lacquer is beatiful and has held up flawlessly. The Koa is very pretty. The neck is heavy but, when played sitting down, feels good and the weight is a nonissue. When I correct the balance problem, it should be fine to play standing up.

When all of the prized wood guitars from the 20th century are preserved in sealed nitrogen cases 100 years from now, this guitar will still be someone's favorite guitar to play. Everything about it is solid and engineered for excess. The bridge, though functional and perfectly adequate, could and should have been designed better. The height adjusting allen screws should have been somewhat larger and the strings should anchor in a more workable way. Other than that, I think it is especially well designed and well built. It's sturdy and sound.

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I started playing 16 months ago just after turning 40. My wife bought me a 2001 Mexican Strat Deluxe for xmas (I added Texas Special pickups and love this guitar!). I also own a 1990 American Standard Strat with Lace pickups, a 1978 Gibson Marauder, a 1991 Gibson Les Paul Special, a 2002 Traveler Speedster, and a 2001 Ovation Celebrity CC0057. I got interested in aluminum neck guitars after reading about and lusting for a $9,000 Veleno I saw on Ebay. If it were stolen, I'd want to replace it. It's rich tone, awesome sustain, smooth feel, solid design, are all salient features. It feels and sounds like a very expensive guitar. I'm not sure why it has not become expensive. Does anyone know?

I might start off by saying that I am not 100% sure that this guitar is the 450G, it could possibly be the 350G, so anyone who knows how to tell the difference please e-mail me, I would like to know.
That having been said, This is one of the coolest guitars I have ever seen, hands-down. Apparently it's from 78-79--it doesn't have the symmetric body-style of the oldest ones. The body is dark Koa with two lighter Maple stripes running from where the neck meets the cut-aways to the back strap peg, and looks somewhat like a PRS (double cut-aways, etc) but with less contour on top. The finish is thick, glassy, and beautiful (somewhat like the 14 coats on laquer you would find on a Rickenbacher--you can see yourself in it), and the wood under it has a quilt-top-like texture to it. The neck is aluminum with koa inserts from the body to the headstock, which is fully aluminum and is split like a tuning fork. The guitar has a metal head-nut, and a front-mounted standard bridge (the strings go on from the top, not through the body). The neck itself is of normal scale, 22 frets, about 1/8-1/4 inch thicker than most of the kramers of the 80's, but not quite as thick as the neck on your average Gibson SG, and of about average width. Very playable if you haven't been spoiled by the tooth-pick solo-freak necks of late. It also has a fretboard of Ebanol (surprisingly playable, smoother than wood), which is a patented bowling ball material guaranteed not to chip or wear, and it has stood the test of time flawlessly. The frets are perfect as well.
The pick-ups are two humbuckers with the silver kramer logo covers on them, each has a master volume and tone, and there's also a three-way switch. I believe the electronics are active. Most of the adjustments, including the saddle length & height and pick-up height, have to be made by allen wrench. And one more thing, this guitar is DAMN heavy, it definitely weighs more than a lot of basses I've played. The body itself has a comfortable contoured back, so it's not really an issue unless you are a whiny-baby. Just don't jump into a lake with this thing around your neck or you will never be seen again.

This guitar is for great for anyone playing any form of aggressive music (or otherwise), I could even see it being used in a death-metal or jazz setting. The pick-ups are very high-gain, hot and loud, but maintain clarity and have a great,thick tone. This thing packs more meat than Dirk Diggler. The sounds you can get with distortion range from the raunchy beefy shred of the kramers of the 80's to a warm, fat les paul rock sound, depending on what pick-up settings and distortions you use. Very versatile range compared to most guitars. I use a Kustom 200 bass head (for more low-end) with a Marshall 1960 angled cab and an old straight Sunn cab with vintage series Carvin speakers, with a Sans-amp GT2 tube emulator pre-amp pedal for distortion. I can't imagine getting better tone and resonance out of a solid-state amp with anything else but maybe a vintage hand-made PRS. If you liked the heavy sounds of the 80's Kramers, but where scared away by their pinky-boy hair-band image and style, this guitar is definitely worth a try.

This thing is at best a year younger than me, and it looks like it came off the line a year or two ago. Everything looks like it was set up with care and expertise, even twenty years after-plus. This has to be the most solid-built guitar on earth. No dirty pots, hardly a surface scratch except a few on the pick-up covers. The Action isn't the absolute best I've seen, but then again I play with 13-56 strings and I have been too lazy to have it adjusted for them yet (by the way, this thing doesn't even have a truss rod because with the aluminum neck it doesn't ever bow or bend! All adjustment for string weight can be made with the saddles). The wood-matching is great . . . there are a few minute specks of something-or-other under the finish here and there, but what would you expect from a virtually hand-crafted instrument?

I would take this guitar into war. You put it on and you feel like you're weilding a Nordic battle axe. You plug it into a nice big amp and you feel like you could mow down entire hordes of people like an atomic rock god. This thing is built like Alcatraz, it's almost scary. I wouldn't be surprised to wake up in the middle of the night with my Kramer standing over me brandishing a big sharp knife, smiling. The strap buttons are bigger than modern ones and practically hold a death grip on your poor, wimpy nylon strap. If you had a back-up guitar, this one would eat it while you weren't looking.

N/A. Kramer is now owned by gibson and they make guitars out of balsa wood and sell them for $50 on the internet. Sad sad sad. I really think this thing is going to last the long-haul and not need much maintanance.

I have tried to include all of the great things about this guitar and answers to all of the questions I wanted to know and couldn't find prior to purchasing it. But for me there is no question. This guitar rocks. Nowhere on earth will you find a better instrument for the money.

Body: Koa and maple (very nice grain and finish)
Neck: polished aluminum, tuning-fork head, spetzel tuners, mahog inserts for warmer feal, action is tight, frets perfect
Fretboard: ebonole (bolling-ball composite, great material, after the years and use.
Pick-ups: dual Kramer HB's w/ chrome covers, high-output and low- noise similar to the hotter Gibson HBs of old, 2vol, 2tone, 3-way sel
Bridge: Simple tunable type ala-Bean, mounted on wood

Sounds like a Bean. All that talk of better sustain from the reciever system on the TB is just techie babble. This guitar sustains as long as your technique allows. Buy one of those e-bow pick ups if you want a note to last all day long. Sound is very les paul-esque, but with a resonance that wood cant achieve. The variety of tone ranges from brittle and jangly to deep and smooth. Perfect sound for the not single-coil realm of guitar. For the price these things go for, you will have the highest quality instrument trading for less than a grand or more. A very unique tone with more versitlity than any guitar in its class, and qulaity to match.

Perfect. I can't think of anything I would modify if any operation was within my means. This guitar is pushing 22 yrs, and is still flawless after many hours of use. The finish is as good as I ve ever seen. Materials are expensive and well chosen, as are all componets. The wood-work is masterfull, as the aluminum machining and assembly. A truely undervalued work of US craftmanship, thanks to the direction Kramer took following the 70's period. Obviously the weight is a concern for many, but the instrument is perfectly balanced and a thick strap allows for hours of playing without fatigue. 90 pound wusses excluded, it is a very comfortable guitar if you don't have back problems.

Nearly as old as me and in much better shape. This guitar has been played extensively and only the slightest fretwear shows due to the materials (and owner respect). The electronics are still perfect, as is the fretboard and neck, and I immagine that this guitar will be perfect still in 50 years of use (unless run over by a large vehicle). Stock case is of equal quality, as solid as any I've seen sold with a guitar.

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I don't think any could ever be needed for such a solid git

Of th many guitars I own, this is the least expensive and highest quality of the lot. It has its own voice and is beautifully crafted. If you want a quality guitar that can't be found on every stage in every town nightly, this is it. I truly love to play this instrument and value it above all of my instruments.