Jeff Fiorentino's equipment details - page 2
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Jeff Fiorentino's equipment
details - page 2
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main website
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Jeff Fiorentino's Green (Metallic pea)
mid 80's
era Kramer Baretta
All text
written by: Guitarist Jeff Fiorentino
This guitar was found in a dumpster near
our "old" studio location on 5th St. in
Santa Monica CA. It has a crack in the body and was thrown
away
probably by either a brain dead fool, or someone's angry girlfriend, or someone that just didn't know any
better.
I have a lot of spare parts laying around the house so I put it back together
and to be honest its become one of my most asked about guitars. 1.
because it's a Kramer Baretta and people love those because of Eddie Van Halen,
and 2. because they wonder why I ruined it with such an awful paint color...lol...
All that aside
I've done a couple of studio gigs with it, and it's a real nice playing and
sounding guitar. I really like it a lot despite what some think about the
color. Its certainly come a long
way from its original final resting place in a Santa Monica dumpster. As far as electronics go
I originally had put it together with a Duncan JB pickup at the bridge, however I changed it to
a Duncan PAF 59. This pickup seems to work better in this guitar. It gives
it a very authentic VH tone especially on big chord ring outs. Obviously
it being a Kramer from the 80's I use it primarily for Van Halen type
applications. But you know it can do Jazzy stuff too. So if you have
a Kramer like this one at home go ahead and take it to a Blues or Jazz gig /
jam, it'll do just fine I promise. The Floyd
doesn't float on this guitar and much like the White Kramer I leave this guitar
with a flat tuning. Although because it's a non-floating bridge I can easily tune
this guitar to a standard tuning if I want to, but tuning a Kramer to a standard
tuning is kind of a sin around here.
Not much more I can say about this guitar, I don't use it a lot on video but I
do use it to record a lot of the mp3 files you hear. It's not a good video
guitar because it's hard to see the neck. Maple necks are easier to watch
and see finger movement on. I use this guitar to record about half the
song tracks featured on our Van Halen style product line though, so you've all
heard it a Million times.
The neck on this guitar by the way is actually the original neck that was on the
White Kramer. It's a Kramer American neck for the Sustainer guitar with a
classic "U" shape to it. It's a smooth playing comfortable neck. These vintage Kramers from the 80's are worth their weight in Gold and should never be just
tossed away for something as stupid as a crack in a non-essential location.
Frankly there's really no need to throw away a solid guitar body because it's cracked
in the first place. It's just a piece of wood, glue the darn thing back together
tightly with some biscuits and it'll be just fine. I should point out that
things get
more complex with hollow body guitars, but if it's a solid body you're dealing
with, a little glue and C clamps is really all you need per say. Worst
case scenario just cut the darn thing into a new shape. Make a Triangle
out of it or something, who cares. As long it plays OK that's all that
matters.
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