FORMERLY OWNED GUITAR
1983 Kramer Pacer



---purchased: new (NOS) from Guitar Center, San Diego (employee) (1986)
---owned: 1986-2000
---disposition: parted out/trashed (2000)
---disposition reason: Floyd Rose posts were pulling forward; tried & failed to refinish neck/headstock
---part(s) kept: Floyd Rose, Schaller tuners, and DiMarzio pickups for Kramer Pacer
---related picture(s): three Kramers (right), circa 1987 - with others (center), circa 1987 - circa 1998 - Pacer w/ Bill Edwards Finger-Tite locking nut, circa 1998
---related guitar(s): Kramer Pacer
---notes: a lot of history with this guitar - "I bought the 1983 black version Pacer from Guitar Center in San Diego in 1986 (employee discount) - new! It was pretty ugly back then. It was black with a tortoise shell pickguard and gold hardware. It had been hanging on the wall there for nearly three years! I put in new pickups and a white pickguard, and switched the hardware to black (and then chrome) and it became a favorite of mine. I swapped the original Floyd nut for a Bill Edwards Finger-Tite locking nut. I did have trouble with the neck pocket, and I made it worse in the long run by gluing the neck in there to prevent it from shifting.

"Over the years, the black Pacer had a DiMarzio HS-3 in the bridge, along with an active preamp by DiMarzio called a Shock Wave system (DP144 - no longer in production). I swapped out the HS-3 for a Class of '55 in 1995, but the FS-1 and VS-1 (DP108 - no longer in production) date back to 1986. (I held on to the HS-3 and it's now in my Smithtone Flintstones guitar.) Also, in '95, I installed a hybrid pickup switching system made by Starr Labs, an electronics company in San Diego. It was pretty cool, but not worth paying someone to wire it up in the red Pacer. The real bummer was that maple neck. I was really hoping to salvage it when I took it apart in late 2000, but it wasn't meant to be."


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