Kramer Guitars Assault Plus and Pacer Vintage

This video is bonus content related to the February 2015 issue of Guitar World. For the full range of interviews, features, tabs and more, pick up the new issue on newsstands now or at the Guitar World Online Store:http://guitarworld.myshopify.com/coll...

In the Eighties glory days of hair metal and glam rock, Kramer was one of the industry’s leading guitar companies.

But the company slipped out of the limelight during the early Nineties, at about the same time that musicians started swapping their spandex for flannel. Although Kramer didn’t disappear, the company’s guitars mostly flew under the radar after Gibson acquired the brand in the early Nineties and started selling its models direct via mail order.

Lately, however, Kramer guitars have worked their way into public consciousness once again through a growing artist roster and more aggressive distribution through traditional retail channels.

These days you’re much more likely to find a new Kramer guitar on display at your local music store than you were a few years ago, and a growing variety of Kramer models is available from online retailers as well.

Today, the company’s line consists of 15 different guitar and bass models. We took a look at a model that represents Kramer’s past—the Pacer Vintage—as well as an entirely new model, the Assault Plus, which represents the brand’s present and future.