Kramer Guitars - Formation

Formation

The company was founded in the late 1970s by Dennis Berardi, Gary Kramer and Phillip J. Petillo, Master Luthier to manufacture aluminum-necked guitars. Gary Kramer, Dennis Berardi, Peter LaPlaca (a Vice President at Norlin, parent company of Gibson), and investor Henry Vaccaro joined forces to open a plant in Neptune, New Jersey. Soon thereafter, Gary Kramer moved to Los Angeles, and his connection with the company would be in name only.

The Kramer factory was originally located at 1111 Green Grove Road, Neptune, NJ 07753 before moving to a larger facility at 685 Neptune Boulevard, Neptune NJ 07753.

==Aluminum neck period==Designed and Handmade 4 Prototypes by Phillip J. Petillo Ph.D. The First four original Kramer prototypes that were presented at the Chicago NAMM show in the summer of 1976 were invented, constructed and built at the studio home shop of Master Luthier-Engineer, Phillip J. Petillo, Ph.D. in Ocean Township, NJ. These four prototypes generated an incredible amount of sales of orders from music stores throughout the country at the exhibit in Chicago with no guitars even manufactured yet. It was Dennis Berardi and Gary Kramer who came to us at our home workshop in 1974 through his brother, Richard Berardi to ask Phil Petillo to design, invent and build an aluminum neck guitar consisting of four prototypes. These were the Original Four Prototypes that started the company and the used scales that were created by trade secrets of Petillo who apprenticed with Jimmy Di Serio, Godson of John D'Angelico. The scales divisions were kept in a vault at the factory in Neptune, N.J. that is how valued they were by the company for these scales produced perfect intonation on all the frets of the fingerboard up the highest point. The machine that cut the slots for the frets was built and designed by Petillo who has never really gotten the full credit that he deserved for without his skill and genius, these handmade unique Prototype guitars and his major contributions for setting up the factory in the beginning stages utilizing his engineering background would not have taken place in this time period. Stanley Clarke endorsed the Kramer Bass playing on the original prototype with the forked headstock made by Petillo. His unique Patented Frets were on all the Kramer forked neck Guitars. The machine that was built to cut the slots for the Petillo Frets on the fingerboards and the basic set up of the factory was done by Petillo. Petillo's affiliation with Kramer ended several years later due to unresolved quality control issues. Petillo also made large amounts of miniature necks in kits that were used by salesmen to sell the guitars but the History and Design of the FIRST FOUR Kramer Prototypes was done in a lone Master Luthier's workshop. To validate here is a quote from a letter written on September 14, 1976 by P.J. La Placa of BKL International Distributing, Ltd. which stands for Berardi, Kramer, LaPlaca, "I would like to sincerely apologize for the upsetting meeting we had a few weeks ago in my office. I can only say that it is not typical of me to behave in such an unprofessional manner.... I can't help but agree with you as to the MAJOR role Phil has played in bringing Kramer to the brink of success that exists today and I do sincerely want our relationship to continue in a very positive way." This was written after the Namm Show to Lucille A. Petillo, CEO of Phil-Lu Inc. which owns Petillo Guitars. I sincerely hope this sets the record straight as to the actual beginnings of KRAMER from someone who was there from the beginning, watching it happen in person. Introduced in 1976, early models featured the trademark "tuning fork head" aluminum-reinforced necks with a fretboard made of Ebonol—material similar to one used in bowling ball production. Other features of the necks included aluminum dots, and a zero fret made out of Petilloi fretwire. Unlike Travis Bean, Kramer went beyond the idea of a neck forged entirely out of aluminum, due to both its weight and its feel. Instead, Kramer opted for wooden inserts in the aluminum necks. The inserts, set in epoxy, were usually Walnut or Maple. The bodies were usually made of high grade Walnut or Maple, with the earliest instruments made of exotic tonewoods including Koa, Afromosia, Swietenia, Shedua, and Bubinga. The hardware was top-notch as well: Schaller tuning keys and bridges; Schaller and DiMarzio pickups; custom-made strap pins; aluminum cavity covers. Kramer's "alumi-neck" line lasted roughly until 1982. Out of this early part of Kramer history were born some exquisite musical instruments; truly a fine example of lutherie. Generally, the ratio of basses to guitars produced was about 4:1, primarily because bass players were more willing to experiment. By 1981, Kramer had the tools, and the experience, to take guitar mass production to a new level. Switching to wooden-necked instruments both held the promise of keeping production costs low as well as being able to appeal to traditionally-minded guitar players.