Kramer Guitars - 1990-Present

1990-Present

The original Kramer company effectively came to an end in January 1991, mostly due to financial problems. The company had been spending huge amounts on advertising and endorsements, and then lost a lawsuit with Floyd D. Rose over royalties. A notorious firesale of surplus necks, bodies and hardware was held out of New Jersey.

By 1995, Henry Vaccaro owned the Kramer brand; in addition, he was the only one of the original partners interested in continuing in the guitar business. He tried one last time to produce Kramer guitars from surplus parts, in the Neptune plant, but only a few hundred were made. Henry Vaccaro started making aluminum-necked guitars under the name Vaccaro Guitars, but that, too, was short-lived.

In 2005 the original founder and namesake of Kramer Guitars, Gary Kramer, started his own guitar company: Gary Kramer Guitars. In 2007, the original service manager of Kramer Guitars, legendary luthier Paul Unkert started his own guitar company, featuring designs reminiscent of aluminum-era Kramers: Unk Guitars.

The Kramer brand was sold out of bankruptcy to Gibson Guitar Corporation. Gibson's Epiphone division has produced guitars and basses under the Kramer brand since the late 1990s, mostly factory-direct through the now-defunct MusicYo.com website. Encouraged by the resurgence of interest in the Kramer brand, Epiphone has been reissuing classic Kramer models, including the "1984 Model;" (a homage to Eddie Van Halen's famous "5150" guitar used from 1984-1991) the "Jersey Star;" (a homage to the Richie Sambora signature 1980s Kramer) and most recently, the "1985 Baretta Reissue (A standard slant-pickup Baretta)". These high-end instruments are assembled in the USA from American components. On January 2009, Gibson shut down the MusicYo.com website, instead promising that Kramers would be available through dealers and in music stores by the end of 2009. But supply was not consistent and promised new models were either seriously delayed or never produced.

More recently however under guidance from a dedicated Kramer team at Gibson, new models have made it to stores, and now includes the budget priced Baretta Special (a model touted on the MusicYo pages but never released until now) plus designs never seen before including the Pariah & Assault ranges brought out to bring the Kramer name to a new generation of rock musicians, while homages to vintage models like the Stagemaster in the form of the SM-1 and Classic Pacer Imperial now simply called the Pacer Vintage are also still produced.

In 2007, a Kramer Striker controller was created for Guitar Hero III for the PS2, under a licensing agreement with Gibson Guitar Corporation. A Kramer Focus was also available as an in-game guitar, as was one of the earlier aluminum neck model Kramers. The Kramer Fatboy has been featured in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and Guitar Hero Aerosmith.

The Internet greatly helped fuse the interest of Kramer collectors around the globe. In the mid 1990s, pioneering sites Kramer Krazy, by Terry Boling, and Kramermaniaxe, by Mike Mojabi helped spark a renewed interest in these instruments. Beginning in 2002, VintageKramer.com, by Mike Wolverton, and KramerForum.com, by George Tarnopolsky, have become the primary voice of Kramer Musical Instruments enthusiasts worldwide.

Original Kramer guitars are now highly collectable, after being considered undesirable in the early-mid 1990s. They regularly fetch high prices on eBay and other auction sites. Kramer collectors hold a Kramer Expo every year in Nashville, Tennessee, near the Gibson plant, and have also held them annually in locations around Europe including Holland, Newcastle upon Tyne in 2006 & 2007, and more recently Liverpool, UK in 2010 & 2012, to showcase and celebrate Kramer guitars.