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Henry Vaccaro Sr., the finance director for the original Kramer company attempted in 1995 to resurrect Kramer by offering several newly designed aluminum necked and wood necked Kramers reminiscent of the original models. Vaccaro along with Phil Petillo, the designer for the original aluminum necked Kramers went to work on several new guitars and basses including 10 aluminum neck models and 3 wood neck guitars. Literature and more information on the KMI era can be found here.
One of the wood necked models were to be the Pacer which sported the old style classic headstock, Strat style body, 2 hums and a Wilkinson trem. Another model called the Classic gave a nod more to the Elliot Easton model Kramer with it's extensive pickguard.
The last was a Tele shaped model with similarities to the Kramer Classic III or Tele Thinline with a hardtail bridge and newly designed pickguard.
This Mach II Pacer era was short lived however as production was slower than expected. Gibson soon stepped in and bought the Kramer name and the Kramer investors made a profit. The new designs stayed with Vaccaro and the aluminum neck guitars were made up until around 2000. These "new" Pacers are easily distinguished from the old ones by the Wilkinson trem, of course, and the Kramer logo which seems to take on a more "slanted" version than the originals had. The spurt of these new Pacers was short-lived and are rare as not many of them hit the streets. Musicyo Related Materials Original
1995 Kramer USA “Pacer” In
the spring of 1995, some of the original Kramer visionaries formed Kramer
Music Industries (KMI) with hopes of reviving the legendary Kramer name.
Using classic Kramer guitar designs, they produced a small number of
guitars in the original Kramer factory in Neptune, New Jersey. In January
1996, these guitars were introduced at the annual Winter NAMM Show in
Anaheim, California to enthusiastic Kramer dealers and fans.
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