Kramer Elliot Easton Signature

In 1987, along with many others, another signature guitar came out of Kramer, the Elliot Easton model. Elliot Easton, as you'll remember was the lead guitarist for the band the Cars. Two models came out the collaboration between Easton and Kramer, the EE Pro I and the EE Pro II. The differences being subtle yet distinguished Both models had the shape of a somewhat exaggerated Strat, that meaning the body seemed slightly longer with narrow horns with the upper horn extending out a bit more. The EEs came with extended pickguards which covered almost half of the surface of the body and held the pickups and switches.

The EE Pro I had a Duncan JB in the bridge and two APS-1 single coils in the neck and middle positions, two on/off switches for the single coils, a three-way coil tap switch for the humbucker, a rhythm-to-lead bypass switch, one volume, one tone and a Floyd Rose.

Elliot Easton Pro 1

The EE Pro II sported a SLANTED Duncan Hot Lead humbucker and one APS-1 single coil and a five-way switch which tapped the humbucker. These also had had a FIXED bridge via string-through design.

Elliot Easton Pro 2

The most notable feature of the EEs were the pickguard and pickup cover color schemes. Featuring mix and match colors, the EEs really took on a special persona. Some of the colors were as followed:

White body with white/orange/white pickguard and white pickups
Creme body with black/creme/black pickguard with creme pickups
Light blue body with pink/light blue/pink pickguard with pink pickups
Black body with red/black/red pickguard with red pickups
Black body with yellow/black/yellow pickguard with yellow pickups
Black body with white/black/white pickguard with white pickups
Red body with white pickguard and pickups
Sea foam green body with white guard and pickups
White body with rainbow edge pickguard and white pickups
All White version

The bolt-on necks took on the Classic head shape with Kramer block logo and "EE Pro" on the headstock with 21 fret maple fretboard and black dots. In late 1987-early 1988, rosewood fretboards were offered as an option.

Price lists tell us that the Elliot Easton model did not make it into 1989 although the internet shows us many NOS parts and whole guitars are still out there.


Interview Excerpt from Elliot Easton

Elliot had this to say about the signature line in this interview.

From Vintage Guitar Magazine
By Willie G. Moseley

At one time, you had a Kramer signature model guitar.

That was something that I designed with Tom Anderson, who's a fine builder. The guy who was running Kramer at the time, Dennis Berardi, loved to hang around rock bands; I don't know any other way to put it. He was a nice guy, and he offered me the opportunity to design my own signature instrument. I took it as a challenge to come up with something for Kramer that had more of a traditional vibe. At the time, they didn't offer a guitar that didn't have a Floyd Rose. So I designed a guitar with a Tele-style bridge. It was available in two models: The Tele bridge and Seymour Duncan Quarter-Pounder system with a five-way switch for a lot of sounds, or with a humbucking-single-single pickup setup with a Floyd Rose. I thought such a guitar might have some appeal to country players and roots rockers who might go for the Tele configuration.

Looks-wise, I was inspired at the time by that orange Jackson guitar Jeff Beck was playing around the time of his Flash album. I wanted something that looked like it could have existed, but didn't. The pickguard on the Kramer is an example; Fender could have done that with their Tele, but didn't.

Mick Jagger played one of the Tom Anderson-built prototypes in the Mixed Emotions video. Tom built fabulous guitars, and I can't honestly say that the production guitars had the "magic" of the Anderson-built ones. That's not to put Kramer down, but you're talking about two completely different setups; one is an artist in a small shop, building one guitar at a time, the other is a huge factory, which by its very definition has to turn out a lot of instruments. In effect, Fender has gotten around the same potential problem by offering the Custom Shop; they don't ask you to expect the same thing out of a Mexican-built Strat as one that Jay Black builds for you (chuckles).