Kramer Canadian Prototype

My Canadian Protoype Kramer is a black neck through Stagemaster style guitar with a single slanted exposed dual black coil Seymour Duncan F spaced 59 Humbucker; black mini Schaller tuning pegs; black recessed Floyd Rose tremelo and a single volume control. It has pearl knifelike headstock inlays, small pointy scrimtar headstock with a bold Kramer 3D like decal and American decal; ivory colored bound headstock and neck and a nameless black trussrod cover.
The neck has a comfortable slight C shape and small frets that go over the binding.
The body is a slightly smaller Stagemaster type with an arched top.
I bought the Canadian Prototype directly from the Kramer factory before it closed. Kramer had an open to the public weekend sale of all guitars and parts. At this sale, I bought the Canadian Prototype, a Steve Ripley Model, a set neck single pickup arched top Stagemaster ( one of two made in a see through salmon stain- I could have bought the other but my wallet has a limit ), half a dozen finished strat style bodies ( $20 to $35.00 each!! ) with matching necks and a drawer full of Seymour Duncan pickups, Schaller zebra coil pickups, Schaller tuning pegs, strat style bridges and hardware. The strat style bodies that I bought ( and now long gone ) had been factory routed for 3 single coil pickups and an unusual route for a 4th hum cancelling dummy coil single pickup. I remember seeing factory made Swiss cheese holed Baretta bodies, leather fringed strat bodies and the ugliest neon colored non hardware Stagemasters. With all the prototype bodies and hundreds of non production parts at this sale, I'm sure there are many Frankenstein Kramers out there. Kramer also sold boxed serial numbered back plates.
So just be wary of that unusual serial numbered one of a kind bolt on neck Kramer that you find, it may be someones home made Kramer dream guitar.
Even though dealers had a previous day factory visit, I heard lots of dealer grumblings that the public was offered the same $ deals. Hey, screw those guys, sometimes the consumer deserves a break.
I had Jon H. ( who ran production at Kramer when on Neptune Blvd., Neptune, NJ ) change the single volume control to a push pull pot with a capacitor to knock out the tone altogether when the pot is pulled up. Jon also changed the non F spaced Duncan to my choice of a 59 Duncan F spaced humbucker. No non original drilling was done.
The back of the headstock has a made in Canada white and red label with a red leaf. There is no serial number. Jon told me that there are only a handfull of these Canadian prototypes and that Kramer was thinking of having a guitar line made in Canada. Also, many of those "American" Kramers were only hardware assembled here.
My Canadian Prototype has "American" on the headstock.

The Prototype is an excellent sounding guitar. With the push/pull pot change, I can get some very dark tones and unique dive bombs with the tone completely knocked off. To my liking, the Duncan 59 is a mid gain pickup that is very responsive to picking technique and dynamics.
It's not an overly loud metal machine.
The Floyd Rose on this guitar is the most tonally sensitive locking trem I've ever played. I've played some very bad tone sucking trems in my day but this one was done right. This Floyd can sustain notes without having to have volume at ear splitting feed back levels. It also has nice tone when playing acoustically which is very unusal for a solid body guitar.

The Prototype was set up well by Jon at Kramer.
The black finish still looks excellent.
Other than the pickup and pot change, I had Kramer put a trem cover on the back.

I have the Prototype for about 10 years.
Even when I take it out of the case after weeks of non use, the Prototype is still in tune.
All the hardware, finish gloss and neck stability are top notch.

The original Kramer company on Neptune Boulevard, Neptune, New Jersey is long gone.
Any adjustments are done by Jon H. or by Paul Unkert ( who was a manager at the last Kramer plant ).
Paul is one of the most talented luthiers around.

I've been playing for over 30 years and own many guitars.
This is one of the most unique Kramers you'll ever come across. It's definately NOT a "Frankenstein".
I've yet to see another Canadian Prototype.
The best feature of the Canadian Prototype is it's simplicity that yields surpisingly great tones.