NGD: Kramer Baretta Special

[Jarick]

Randomly stumbled on this guitar yesterday as I've been wanting a single pickup, single knob guitar for drop tunings. Local GC had one in stock and I got a 15% off coupon, so decided to grab it. $210 out the door I think brand new.

It plays surprisingly well, nut looks decently cut, frets are fairly level, no dead spots, no sharp fret edges. Neck is comfortable, feels like a slightly thinner Strat but not flat like a Charvel. Hardware is cheap, but the stock humbucker sounded pretty decent so I picked it up.

Brought it home, took off the strings, polished the frets, and cleaned it up. Then decided to raid my parts bin to see if anything fit. Surprisingly, my Hipshot locking tuners dropped right in so that's a big upgrade. Then I measured up the bridge and found that shockingly my PRS SE tremolo is a perfect drop in replacement. So now I've actually got some really solid hardware on it.

Next move is going to be swapping out the stock pickup and volume pot. The pickup seems a bit microphonic and the volume pot is basically on/off. Should be an easy replacement. I have a lot of options because the guitar has a mounting ring. Might put the Suhr Woodshed in there that I got a few weeks back.

Only downside is the frets are smaller than I'd prefer, on the shorter side of medium jumbo. Maybe eventually I'll use this as my "learn to refret" guitar.

 

[CBHScott]

Randomly stumbled on this guitar yesterday as I've been wanting a single pickup, single knob guitar for drop tunings. Local GC had one in stock and I got a 15% off coupon, so decided to grab it. $210 out the door I think brand new.

It plays surprisingly well, nut looks decently cut, frets are fairly level, no dead spots, no sharp fret edges. Neck is comfortable, feels like a slightly thinner Strat but not flat like a Charvel. Hardware is cheap, but the stock humbucker sounded pretty decent so I picked it up.

Brought it home, took off the strings, polished the frets, and cleaned it up. Then decided to raid my parts bin to see if anything fit. Surprisingly, my Hipshot locking tuners dropped right in so that's a big upgrade. Then I measured up the bridge and found that shockingly my PRS SE tremolo is a perfect drop in replacement. So now I've actually got some really solid hardware on it.

Next move is going to be swapping out the stock pickup and volume pot. The pickup seems a bit microphonic and the volume pot is basically on/off. Should be an easy replacement. I have a lot of options because the guitar has a mounting ring. Might put the Suhr Woodshed in there that I got a few weeks back.

Only downside is the frets are smaller than I'd prefer, on the shorter side of medium jumbo. Maybe eventually I'll use this as my "learn to refret" guitar.

I grabbed one of those a couple/few years ago to satisfy my short bit of nostalgia for a one-pickup whammy guitar. Even then, pretty much everything you said about yours was spot-on, plus the trem claw was screwed almost all the way in .

I was planning to mod it, but it got traded in on something else not too long afterward.

 

[Jarick]

I grabbed one of those a couple/few years ago to satisfy my short bit of nostalgia for a one-pickup whammy guitar. Even then, pretty much everything you said about yours was spot-on, plus the trem claw was screwed almost all the way in .

I was planning to mod it, but it got traded in on something else not too long afterward.

On mine the trem claw was absolutely screwed down all the way! I may grab a $30 Wilkinson bridge if I decide to deck it and do that again.

Found a brand new 500k Dunlop super pot in my parts pile, so drilled the hole a tiny bit bigger and rewired with that. Big improvement in the volume control. The stock one was a linear pot not audio taper

Stock pickup measures 16k so guessing it's JB-ish. It doesn't clean up super great but that's to be expected. Even if I swap out the pickup for the Suhr, all my upgrades are $0 as the stuff is already on hand lol.

 

[Jarick]

Hell, why not go all in. Swapped out the humbucker for a 59/Custom Hybrid I had sitting around. That opened it up a bit and also helps it clean up. The stock humbucker looks like it's made in the same factory as the PRS SE ones maybe? It's got a brass baseplate which is interesting.

So final:

Kramer Baretta Special - $200
Hipshot locking tuners - $0
PRS SE bridge - $0
Dunlop super pot - $0
Seymour Duncan 59/Custom Hybrid - $0

Not a bad Saturday project. Really fun guitar for not a lot of money!

 

[Jarick]

One more observation, the guitar is really loud unplugged which makes it pretty hot plugged in, even with lowering the pickup and swapping for lower output. It's supposed to be made of mahogany and I was surprised that the body wood is pretty solid...most cheap guitars have soft wood and the screws strip out of the gate. Anyways it's pretty fat sounding for a bolt on. I may end up having to swap out for a PAF output pickup at some point...

 

[Warmart]

Damn, haven't seen one of these! Great find and killer deal! And love it when you have the parts laying around!

Huge congrats and I hope you love it long time!

 

[ᛗᛜᛜᚺDᛜᎶ Ꮤᛨᚳᚴ]

Congrats on the new axe and upgrades! If all else fails, you can use it as a workplace weapon to "motivate" individuals who are standing in the way of your project launch/completion ;~))

 

[Los-D]

One more observation, the guitar is really loud unplugged which makes it pretty hot plugged in, even with lowering the pickup and swapping for lower output. It's supposed to be made of mahogany and I was surprised that the body wood is pretty solid...most cheap guitars have soft wood and the screws strip out of the gate. Anyways it's pretty fat sounding for a bolt on. I may end up having to swap out for a PAF output pickup at some point...

 

[TubeStack]

Cool guitar and a great deal! Enjoy!

 

[Jarick]

Here's a photo. Outside the bridge it looks fairly stock still.

 

[Jarick]

Might have a second NGD today as well...stupid crazy deal I couldn't pass up.

 

[la szum]

 

[la szum]

My first check when I got out of US Navy Bootcamp in 1986 was spent on a Kramer Baretta.

You get that nice fat check with nearly 3 months of backpay and I went to a few local
music stores and found a Baretta with the custom Haley's Comet graphic on it. Went
back the next day and bought it. That was my first real shredder guitar.

It's long gone now. I traded it for a Tascam 4 track Machine in 1993 when I was going to move to the
woods and become an acoustic singer-songwriter.

Always loved the hockey stick/banana headstock on the Kramers.

 

[Jarick]

My first guitar was a Kramer Strat knockoff I got from Sam’s Club for $200 back in 1995. It’s amazing this guitar was $200 today which is probably less than $100 back then with inflation. Funny to go full circle!

 

[Warmart]

My first check when I got out of US Navy Bootcamp in 1986 was spent on a Kramer Baretta.

You get that nice fat check with nearly 3 months of backpay and I went to a few local
music stores and found a Baretta with the custom Haley's Comet graphic on it. Went
back the next day and bought it. That was my first real shredder guitar.

You get held back for not agreeing with your CC Master Chief or sumthin'?

I was Oct 10th to Dec 10th-ish 1985.

 

[Eagle]

The headstock prevents any non locking trem working properly but these are disproportionately good for the money.

 

[la szum]

You get held back for not agreeing with your CC Master Chief or sumthin'?

I was Oct 10th to Dec 10th-ish 1985.

Nah. I actually got lucky. My A School was full post-BT, so I got put in a Holding
School/Role where I did Color Guard (awesome!), and then---since I was fit and trim
---they put me in a role where I had to weigh-in the chunky guys and gals who were
also in "holding" until they dropped the Lbs needed to move on to their next port/station
of duty.

 

[Warmart]

Nah. I actually got lucky. My A School was full post-BT, so I got put in a Holding
School/Role where I did Color Guard (awesome!), and then---since I was fit and trim
---they put me in a role where I had to weigh-in the chunky guys and gals who were
also in "holding" until they dropped the Lbs needed to move on to their next port/station
of duty.

Ahhh, heh, I bet that was fun!!

I was fit and trim then, too, but now , well, I'm working on it at least.

 

[likitlikeyoulikeit]

Nah. I actually got lucky. My A School was full post-BT, so I got put in a Holding
School/Role where I did Color Guard (awesome!), and then---since I was fit and trim
---they put me in a role where I had to weigh-in the chunky guys and gals who were
also in "holding" until they dropped the Lbs needed to move on to their next port/station
of duty.

Ha! So you're a squid too huh? Same here.

 

[la szum]

The Artist Formerly Known As Squid.