Kramer (guitar maker)

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Kramer was an American company that manufactured electric guitars from 1979 to 1990 . Gibson has owned the trademark rights since 1996 .

history

Kramer was founded in 1975 by Gary Kramer and Dennis Berardi. Gary Kramer was a former employee of Travis Bean , which had been making instruments with aluminum necks since 1974. Based on these instruments, Kramer initially also built guitars with aluminum necks. Although some guitarists (e.g. Stanley Jordan ) played it enthusiastically, it failed to achieve great success on the market.

From 1980 on, guitars with necks made of wood were built. The breakthrough finally came with Eddie van Halen as an advertising medium and innovator, and Kramer guitars reached their peak in the late 1980s. Many of the then popular rock bands such as Bon Jovi , Cinderella or Skid Row played guitars from Kramer. Some guitarists had so-called "signature models", guitars that were built according to their ideas and were also available in series. These include B. Richie Sambora (Bon Jovi) or Vivian Campbell ( Whitesnake ). For a while, Kramer guitars were the best-selling in the United States. With the demise of these Hairspray Metal bands, things became quieter around Kramer too, until the company was finally dissolved in 1990.

In the fall of 1996, the American company Gibson bought the trademark rights and re-released some of the old models. These are produced by the Epiphone company , which is also part of the Gibson Group.

Construction

The extremely modified guitars by Eddie van Halen served as a template for the series models from Kramer, thereby bringing some innovations onto the market that later formed the term Heavy Metal Strat :

Another feature was the unusual motif paintwork, for example with the face of Marilyn Monroe or futuristic heavy metal motifs.

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