2021 Kramer Barretta

Brand: Kramer
Model: Barretta
Year made: 2021
Body Material: Mahogany
Finish: Custom blue sparkle
Neck: Bolt on
Radius: 12
Neck Material: Maple
Fingerboard: Granadillo
Fret wire: Medium jumbo
Fret Number: 22
Scale: 25.5
Pickups: Alnico V Zebra Coil Humbucker

This one came in for a new Vega-trem bridge install, New tusq XL nut, New Killpot and a full fret level and setup.

The frets had quite a few high spots and corrosion.

The original stock bridge.

The cheap plastic nut. I'm replacing this with a Tusq XL. The Tusq nut has a lubricant imbedded in the plastic. With the new tremolo on this one this new nut will help with tuning stability.

The customer bought the wrong tuning machines and wanted me to swap them for the correct version.

I am also swapping the truss rod cover.

The original fret board. It has a super light color and the customer wanted it darker.

The new Bridge getting installed. If you haven't looked into the Vega trem you should look them up. Its like a Floyd with much easier installation and setup.

The Shadow Kill pot. Instead of cutting into the body and installing a switch to kill the sound this pot allows you to kill the sound with easy install and no modifications.

The new tuning machines.

Sanding and cleaning the fingerboard to accept the dye.

Taping of the edge for a clean line. When all said and done i found the easiest way was just to be very precautious and not rely on the tape. `

A before and after when i was running some test on the color and process.

The side shot after running a test to see how to get a clean edge.

I applied the dye and let it soak in.

It took 3 coats and 4 days of letting it sit to get the finger board to the point where i was happy with the results.

After dyeing the fingerboard i had to scrape each inlay dot with a scalpel and magnifying glass to clean off the dye.

The new bridge wouldnt fit due to the thickness of the aftermarket paint job.

I had to file the inside of the cavity to clean up the paint and allow the bridge to fit.

I painted the inside of the cavity to make in uniform and look finished.

Ready for install

The new bridge in place.

The nut cavity needed to be cleaned of all the glue and the overspray from the paint job.

I double sided sticky taped some 320 grit to my chisel to clean up the nut cavity.

ready to install the nut.

The new tuners installed.

The new nut installed.

A picture of the old 500k pot

The new Shadow kill pot .

The Shadow kill pot wired up.

The new pot installed.

Even though this was a brand new guitar the fret work had a lot of work needed to get the action low with now buzzes.

The little red line left after i crowned the frets.

I use my Digital nut slot gauge to get the string height at the nut exactly where i want. This is the most accurate way possible to do this in my opinion.

The final photos

For a budget guitar this one came out the box playing great. With a few upgrades and a little work this thing plays great. I wish I had a guitar that played like this when I first started. When i started playing guitar 15 years ago i just assumed cheap guitars played bad and that's just how it was.

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