Dennis Berardi, Gary Kramer, Peter LaPlaca and Phil Petillo started Kramer in Neptune Township, New Jersey, in 1976, and the brand's rise through the 1980s owed a lot to one endorsement: Eddie Van Halen's Kramer guitars, fitted with Floyd Rose trems that actually held their tuning through a dive-bomb. Heavy advertising spend and a string of legal disputes caught up with the company by the end of the decade, and the original Kramer effectively folded in bankruptcy in January 1991. Gibson bought the name in 1997 and now builds Kramer models through Epiphone, leaning into the brand's 80s shred-guitar identity with reissues of the original Baretta and Pacer shapes. Anniversary reissues and Van Halen-era gear stories are what we cover most. Here's what we've written.
Eddie Van Halen's studio-used 5150 Kramer guitars built by tech Zeke Clark hit auction at Backstage Auctions, starting at $50k each.
