New Guitar: Kramer XL1

A friend of mine who knew I liked Kramers spotted this one in a local pawnshop in my college town, Statesboro GA. I went to check it out, and was able to get a nice SKB hardshell case thrown in - the grand total around $100.

This one had a very unique gloss lacquered neck with a beak headstock, H/S pickup config, and a 6-screw traditional trem. Since my other guitars all had floating Floyd bridges at the time, I put 5 strings in this one and used it to experiment with different pickups, string gauges, and tunings. It was a great “fun” guitar to learn on without messing up my much nicer Kramer Pacer or later my ESP Maverick.

I eventually traded this one in on a Charvel, which was a great guitar on its own, but I wish I had kept this one. For a “cheap” guitar it was very nice and a bit on the unique side as far as budget Kramers go with that fantastic neck.

New Guitar: 1986 Kramer Pacer Custom II Red

Purchased this guitar on eBay, my first ever internet guitar purchase. I remember being nervous about buying a guitar based on pictures alone (hilarious now that I purchase almost all of my guitars this way now), and the seller never provided a tracking number and I was really thinking I got scammed. Anyway, guitar arrived in great shape in the original case. I’d been wanting a Kramer since I started playing and was thrilled to finally have one.

New Guitar: Rickenbacker 360/6 Jetglo

This was my first guitar - an incredible gift from my parents after graduating high school. I had been looking for a Rickenbacker 350 Liverpool because Susanna Hoffs of the Bangles played on, but that guitar proved very difficult to find. Eventually we found this one in a local shop - at the time Ric’s were very scarce - so we jumped on it.

While not exactly what I had in mind for my musical style, as I was getting more into 80s hair metal and rock, this is an incredibly high end instrument with a very unique tone. I’m glad to say I haven’t sold it all these years despite thinking about it very seriously a few times.