Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: Twinfan on May 31, 2008, 11:57:59 PM
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Bit of a long story behind this one, so please bear with me ;)
Sounds Great is my local music shop and I'm in there quite often, as the guys in there will tell you, mainly checking out their used stock looking for something interesting. About 18 months or so ago they had a really nice condition Kramer Baretta in there - maple board, original Floyd Rose, Flip Flop White (pearl) paint. It was up for £449 or £499, I can't remember, and I umm-ed and ahh-ed for a few days, calling in to play it a few times etc. As I hesitated, it got sold :(
Fast forward to a week or so ago when I was chatting to Matt, one of the sales guys, asking him about cheap Floyd equipped superstrats with maple 'boards. I've mentioned on here previously that I'm on the lookout for one, and I told him about the Baretta I'd played all that time ago and that I shouldn't have let it go. We discuss a few other options in the new guitar market, but I decide to leave it while I look for something used.
Fast forward to yesterday and I'm off work with Mrs Twinfan and we decide to call into Sounds Great. She wants some piano music and I decide to check if they've sold either of the Tokai guitars I have in there for commission sales. I walk through the shop, browsing as usual, and a bloke demoing a Tom Anderson starts talking to me. We chat for a few minutes and my eye wanders a bit, and there in the corner is a Flip-Flop White Kramer Baretta with a maple 'board.......
I wander over and grab it and sit down to check it out. I'm swearing blind it's the same guitar I played 18 months ago and think it must have come back in as a trade-in. At that point, Matt comes over with an envelope full of cash from the recent sale of my Tokai Love Rock Relic. He tells me that a deposit was paid on the Baretta waaaaaaaay back, but the customer never came back to collect it. So it's been sat at the back of the storage area since then, and put back on sale two days ago. He didn't think to give me a ring :roll: The best bit is that I asked if the pickup in it is the original 80s JB and it turns out that it had been fitted with my favourite superstrat pickup - a BKP VHII! Could it get any more perfect!
So I'm sat there with a pile of cash, plus a guitar I wished I'd bought 18 months ago, that's already been BKP'd with my own personal favourite pickup. I don't think I left empty handed, do you? :lol:
So here are the two guitars that will be used in my new 80s rock band ("Doppelganger") that's just starting to take shape. They're a Japanese Jackson DKMG Dinky from 2005 and a 1986/87 USA Kramer Baretta made with ESP parts. Both are fitted with VHIIs.
Spandex anyone?
(http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r267/junkacct/Baretta.jpg)
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Awesome.
Truly brilliant.
I want it.
NOW.
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What an amazing turn of events. :D
What did Mrs Twinfan say?
I always liked Kramers.
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Mrs Twinfan wanted me to buy it straight away. She's a big Richie Sambora fan a wants to write "Bad Medicine" on the back of it ;)
It's now been called Richie, of course...
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Great story - sat in a guitar shop with guitar you like in lap... some bloke suddenly gives you a load of cash, and then the missus goes "buy it...", sigh, heaven!
Looks cute as well, though not quite my taste (and hasn't the previous owner put that VHII in a bit wonky?!! :wink: - I can't quite get to grips with angled humbuckers, they always look odd to me)
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I can't believe you have a wife that tells you to buy guitars!
Whenever my girlfriend find out I've bought another 1 she goes :roll: and asks why do I need more, I can only play 1 at once!
Guess I best not tell her I'm more or less sorted to order a Baja Tele :lol:
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Mine's even better Brow - she buys them for me!!!
(She won't learn to play bass though...)
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Guess I best not tell her I'm more or less sorted to order a Baja Tele :lol:
Quite! This is CERTAINLY not the sort of news a wife would want to hear!
:D
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Mrs Twinfan wanted me to buy it straight away. She's a big Richie Sambora fan a wants to write "Bad Medicine" on the back of it ;)
It's now been called Richie, of course...
Wow, that Mrs Twinfan is one in a million! :D
Nice score, Dave. I don't think I'll ever be a fan of superstrats (except maybe a Hamer Diablo) but you can't argue with a proper '80s Kramer.
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Nice and tacky
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awesome. nice story too! :)
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Beautiful, kramers ftw
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You were obviously destined to have it. Well done my good man.
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So doing a hair metal and a AC DC band
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Wish I had your lucky!!!
(for the wife and for the guitar, I would never see the guitar again if I had lost it)
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Great story and nice guitar! Good luck with the new band.
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Cheers folks :)
Forgot to say, the Baretta is really light too. It's a cracking rock guitar!
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not sure about the guitar myself, but its obviously got a high cool factor, and you have an excellent story to go with it 8)
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The guitar is ugly as sin, but hey nice story. Can't beat sentimental value.
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The guitar is ugly as sin.
Ouch.... :cry:
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The guitar is ugly as sin.
Ouch.... :cry:
A touch harsh maybe...
But, of course, it'll look absolutely great when you've got the spandex and "big hair" wig on as well - you have budgeted for those, haven't you? :wink:
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Well if it's any consolation, I think all strats are ugly. And this one has the sound right and that's what matters.
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I'm not too sensitive folks - it's not everyone's cup of tea I agree ;)
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Wow - that was a spot of luck. Enjoy the new guitar! :)
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Found this out there and thought of you!
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Ha ha - cheers Johnny!
If only I could play like him...
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Ha ha - cheers Johnny!
If only I could play like him...
I know what you mean, even his subtle playing is cool as.
That Kramer you found is a right gem and such a steal with the VHII, I'd love one! Does it sound EVH-ish when you plug it into one of your amps?
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Yeah, it's pretty EVH-ish it has to be said.
I'm considering getting a Holy Diver to try in it........
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Mucking about with the Baretta last night, I realised the pickup was WAAAAY low in the body so I raised it up to my preferred 2-3mm. Big difference in output and tone as you'd expect, and it didn't sound as much like my VHII'd Jackson. So I took a DC reading - 15.28! So it's not a VHII that's fitted then :roll:
I looked at the BKP website specs and the Holy Diver is the closest match resistance wise, but I didn't think it sounded fat or heavy enough. Is it a BKP after all?
So I took the pickup out and it's actually fitted with a Seymour Duncan JB :? The guys at Sounds Great clearly told me rubbish! Anyhoo, it's nice to have the original pickup as mine is stickered as a "JBJ", so it's the genuine mid-eighties article wound by Maricella Juarez. Apparantly (according to a few Google searches) her pickups are very well respected and are the 'best' JBs out there. She currently works in the SD Custom Shop.
I've got to say, it's the nicest SD pickup I've ever heard......
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That's pretty cool actually! Maybe you can sell it, buy a Holy Diver, and actually make a profit.
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Mrs Twinfan wanted me to buy it straight away. She's a big Richie Sambora fan a wants to write "Bad Medicine" on the back of it ;)
It's now been called Richie, of course...
Wow, that Mrs Twinfan is one in a million! :D
What's that ?
An identical twin
Would make sense if she were.... :wink:
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Spandex anyone?
(http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r267/junkacct/Baretta.jpg)
there was a jackson similar to the one you have on coda a week or so ago with warpig set and a green flame maple top for £349
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Yeah, I saw that one. Not interested in Warpigs otherwise I'd have been tempted...
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Yeah, I saw that one. Not interested in Warpigs otherwise I'd have been tempted...
Thats what i was thinking, I also thought of getting it and selling the warpigs and refitting something else then i decided to move house instead lol
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wow, i knew the credit crunch was bad, but i didn't realise houses were going for £349...
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wow, i knew the credit crunch was bad, but i didn't realise houses were going for £349...
Haha no rented..
that was for the deposit
I wish i could buy a house for that
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ah ok. yeah, me too. :D