Kramer Baretta Special Guitar - Candy Blue

Product Information

The simple style of the guitar correlates to the sound, but that’s not to say it’s not good. It’s simply raw, straightforward, exactly what you’d expect out of an EVH-inspired guitar. USED products: 4% of the current new selling price to increase the warranty from 3 months to 1 year. 4% for each additional year. The Jersey Star is the most expensive offering in this line-up. Is it worth the extra money? In this case, very much so.

As any seasoned Pro will tell you: the easier a guitar is to play, the more you'll want to play it, especially when you're in the early days of your guitar-playing journey. It certainly is – and even comes in a finish called Maximum Steel. The tremolo is recessed which means you can pull more in pitch – you can get close by tilting the bridge on a non-recessed guitar, but having less physical space to play with will always result in less range. And while we’re on the subject of range, you might have noticed 24 frets instead of 22. While the other instruments in this round-up have a flat 14” fingerboard radius, this particular model is even flatter still at 16”– which makes it incredibly playable. The addition of gold hardware also works especially well against this Alpine White finish. This latest collection is certainly worthy of the brand’s heritage, with wild finishes and no options for fixed bridges. It is, after all, what Kramer were famous for – and they still are, looking how much the American-made originals go for secondhand.After a few month of owning this, and you know, learning about the instrument I own, I have come to realize that a binding nut was the issue. I took a pencil and applied graphite to each nut slot and I no longer have massive tuning issues. The Baretta Looks like a barebones Stratocaster guitar. It’s a minimalist style, nothing shiny or eye-catching.

If you are interested in receiving this coverage for longer than one year, you have the option of purchasing additional years of the Performance Warranty. The pricing is as follows:With the Kramer Baretta Special, that's exactly what you get: a guitar that's incredibly comfortable to play, whether you're seated or standing. However, the hardware is not very solid, and so the guitar’s performance doesn’t stay on point. Hardware

That said, it’s still capable of pulling nice clean tones, with natural warmth and resonance thanks to the mahogany. Through a good tubular amplifier, for example, you can crank up the clean channel and see the guitar shine as it gains power.

String height and intonation out of the box, in retrospect, were not great, but the action was pretty solid. The quality of the bridge is sub par. one of the length screws has filled threads on the upper 1/8th on an inch of the screw, so I'm not super sure how the convinced the screw into the saddle in the first place, but the saddles threads are now nearly stripped because of this. The chrome comes off the bridge very easily and there is something copper coloured underneath, probably copper or some alloy thereof, probably not red gold unfortunately. It is most obvious under the string height screws. This could be a function of me setting string height while tuned, but it is a little disappointing. It seems like the chrome should stand up to that. The single volume control is a bit of an on/off affair, but there is a thoughtful treble bleed circuit built-in as the volume is diminished. I will keep the circuit when I upgrade to a push pot to split the coil as they have on the more expensive Kramers. Sadly, the Kramer Baretta Special is not the iconic model Eddie Van Halen used to play. We’re instead looking at a budget and IndonesianMostmade reissue of the New Jersey custom-shop model. Also, it doesn’t help that the brand shares its name with an iconic and eccentric ‘90s sitcom character.

If you let down the snobery, its a great guitar. Not a great guitar for this price, a great guitar whatever the price. Being the Kramer Baretta Special such an affordable guitar, there had to be some cheapened features. And, unfortunately, Karmer saved the money by using sub-par hardware. The fretboard has no binding around it, which doesn't actually bother me. Aesthetically, it fits the guitar. But the slots they cut in it to put the frets in are filled kind of poorly. This is very minor and not a playablitiy issue at all, and given some of the QC topics I've seen here on some really expensive Gibson's, I really have nothing to complain about. The fretwork itself seems quite good. Nothing sharp or paper cutty. Fretwork is awesome on my blue one, very very good on the Purple one. The fretwork, is way better than my Brand new EVH 5150, Improving the hardware is up to you, though. You could take its awesome metal sound to the stage with better hardware, thus saving you the money a mid-level or professional guitar would cost.

This Kramer guitar has a vintage-style tremolo bridge plus a whammy bar, which is similar to what Eddie Van Halen used to have. Some would say a whammy is essential for ‘80s metal playing. In addition to this, the Mahoganybody is shaped to fit comfortably against your torso, and gives you easy-access to every note on the fingerboard. No-Nonsense Voice Solid Mahogany body, with a stylish Purple finish, and a dual-cutaway shape for easy access to the guitars upper frets