I thought it would be a good idea to have a record of some of my guitars ‘just in case’. If ever some of these were lost or stolen I’d be heartbroken.
This guitar is a bit of an oddball. It’s a 1987 Kramer Pace Deluxe, serial number F9322. I bought it new in 1989 as a stopgap guitar because I found myself living in Hong Kong but hadn’t taken any guitars with me.
To be honest it didn’t play right for years and the tone controls didn’t work until I got my soldering iron out. It turned out that two ground wires had been missed off the tone pots so I added them in and, lo and behold, the tone controls came to life.
A few years ago I had it professionally set up but spent more time on it myself because I found the Floyd Rose whammy had not been setup correctly from the factory. The stock shim left in place under the saddles so the whammy didn’t match the neck radius correctly. Removing the stock shim fixed that. A fat brass Floyd Rose tone block and some damping of the whammy bar springs definitely enhanced the tone.
The Pacer Deluxe has a Poplar body and a bolt-on 22 fret maple neck with a Rosewood fretboard. It sports Seymour Duncan pickups; two Alnico II Pro (APS1) vintage single coils and a hot JB in the bridge position. The JB is tapped so it can be used single coil, in parallel or in series. When in true humbucking series mode the JB sounds great. Schaller machine heads and Strap Locks – they let you lock your guitar strap to the guitar – complete the hardware.
I think this guitar now plays as well as it’s ever going to and in fact it’s now pretty darn good. Definitely a product of its time. A 1980s Super Strat.
Hi Andy. I have a left handed version of this guitar. Love the neck (very fast) but I found that the guitar was not versatile enough for my requirements. Tis certainly a decent instrument.
Hi Neil. Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment. It’s not an everyday guitar for me either but there are are times when it really fits the bill. Most guitars with a Floyd Rose suffer from tone loss to some degree but this one seems to suffer more than most. However, with high gain sounds that’s really not an issue. It does a ‘thing’ and can sound great in the right context. Maybe the Semour Duncan JB has something to do with that. Happy music making!