Kramer Baretta Special Electric Guitar - Vintage White Reviews

This is easily the best "budget" guitar I have ever bought. The finish is blem free and well executed. The pickup, sounds fine, but I've only played it through my practice amp, so I may upgrade. What really impressed me are the fret ends. I fully expect to shape and polish on something at this price point. Not needed on the example I received. I'll just polish the frets, oil the board, and call it a day. The tuners seem adequate, but I'm lazy and like locking units. I'll change those. I just might buy a second in black.

Honestly, how does Kramer do it!?! $179? This Baretta Special is a killer guitar! It plays and sounds awesome! From Indiana to Washington State via FeDex, I open the box, the guitar looks perfect, played it just to test it and this thing is in tune and in Eb Standard 440! The neck is dead straight! I usually setup new guitars before I plug it in but this time, I just plugged in. This thing is a BEAST!!! It played and sounded so good just literally out of the box. I always have a very specific setup for my playing style on all my guitars. Since this thing felt so great out of the box, just out of curiousity, I checked the action, pickup height, intonation and neck straightness. Intonation is dead on! Action on the 12th fret is 4/64 on all the strings across the fret so the radius on the bridge is perfect! Pickup height is 1/16 on the bass and treble side! Virtually no neck relief, dead straight! NO STRING BUZZ or fretting out on all 22 frets!!! Daaang! However, I didn't like the feel of the stock strings so I put on a set of Ernie Ball Super Slinkys and clipped that pesky capacitor on the volume pot and it went back to the way it's supposed to work, increase and decrease the volume. The cap just made it so the pot is like an on/off switch. But aside from these two, it was absolutely perfect! The single bucker is high output and sounds killer! Perfect for what these guitars were designed for, to ROCK!! The guitar looks beautiful and fit and finish is flawless! As usual, Sweetwater delivered once again. Super fast and free shipping! Thank you Sweetwater!!!

Well I finally got one of these Baretta Specials, and I gotta say it's just great! If I had to nitpick I'd say the tuners aren't the best but they are totally functional. The action was perfect out of the box, very low. Nice fret work and no buzzing. The humbucker is very hot but crisp and articulate, l like it a lot and although I thought about putting a Seymour Duncan in there I see no reason to. I stretched the strings well, removed the middle spring from the trem and set up the bridge to float. I also removed the treble bleed capacitor from the pot, and lubed up the strings at the nut and bridge. To my amazement this thing will withstand some aggressive whammy bar shenanigans and actually stay in tune very well!! Build quality is very good and it feels, plays, and sounds like a much more expensive guitar. If you're thinking about getting one just do it already before prices go up! It's so good that I'm going to upgrade to locking tuners and a VegaTrem and it'll be an absolute monster!

I have been a Kramer guy for a few decades now, I had a 85 white baretta that I wish I still had. I bought a 87 American Flip Flop blue and thought, well I won't need this one anymore. SMH. I saw this online and it took me back. Well I have to say, when I got the guitar in the mail I was really impressed. Now is it as good as my vintage ? no...but for the money, I am shocked how good it feels. I am gonna drop in a FR and mod it a bit, but to be honest, even if I didn't plan on upgrading I would HIGHLY recommend this guitar for anyone who loves the style. Even if you are jut gonna hang it on the wall, it looks amazing. I am not so sure I won't buy another. You won't be disappointed.

My father in law got one for Christmas and after playing his,I had to have one for myself!!! A very good guitar for the price!! The quality is better than expected,the pickup is hot and the neck and fretboard feel very comfortable ,the guitar balances out very well!! Buy one while you can!!!

For the price I don't think you get get better value for your money. Like many other reviewers I own a couple of these guitars and for the same reason, the price allows one to experiment with some expensive upgrades and ones own paint job! Very important to me though, they have a nut width slightly wider than Kramer's look alike more expensive models, else I would have considered spending more money. The neck, fingerboard and overall finish on these guitars is awesome! Sweetwater really do an amazing job with their bubble wrap packaging - so good to see!

Got mine today, and, as always, Sweetwater sent it out quickly and packaged well.
With only a small setup, I had it rocking in minutes.
If you can find one, or are patient enough to wait one out, they're definitely worth it.

My more expensive Ibanez with SD pickups does not sound and feel as good as this Kramer.
Way worth to wait for 5 month to get it. I am beyond satisfied.
Thank you Lindsey for updates while my guitar was made and shipped!

First of all, I had pretty low expectations with the price tag of this guitar. I was expecting a total project. I was very mistaken. This thing right out of the box with a basic setup is killer. The neck is worth the money alone. Fast, smooth, flat and rest for shredding. The frets could use a good polish, put were plenty playable for the get-go and there were no sharp end or uneven frets that I could find. Kramer is doing a really good job qc'ing their stuff. The stock humbucker is hot, but not the most articulate. It sounds good for what it is though. The trem and tuners are the weakest part of the package, but they still work pretty well. All in all, for the price, I haven't seen another guitar that can beat this.

Amazing guitar for just $180....this truly is a steal. I own way more expensive Charve's, Les Paul's and custom guitars and this plays almost just as good as any of them at a fraction of the price. No Floyd, so what. It's not an actual 80's Baretta which are going for about $900 on the bay. Same vibe as the original and the neck on this thing is smooth and FAST. Busted out some Jake E. Lee riffs right out of the box and the stock pickup in this thing is pretty darn hot! The Gator hardshell case that is recommended by Sweetwater when you purchase the guitar is perfect and fits it like a glove. And what can you say about Sweetwater staff that hasn't already been said?? I'll tell you. Brian Loney and his team of Hunter and Jessie made the shipping process so smooth and went out of their way to have the guitar shipped in the case (normally would've been two separate boxes). It's been in the single digits here in NJ recently and that extra layer of packing in the case was a life saver for the guitar. It arrived in perfect condition two days ago , plays so sweet I haven't even changed the strings on it yet! Well done Kramer and extra well done Sweetwater. I won't be surprised when they are the only on-line instrument source standing. They are and will remain my go to for all my musical needs.

This guitar is totally worth the money! The finish is killer.The pickup is tasty.The neck is nice with great fret work and the head stock is cool as always! This guitar shipped to my house in perfect condition in 2 days after I ordered it. sweet water is a great store and i stand by them.

I was skeptical, but figured why not. Boy was I surprised! I ordered on Sunday and had it at practice on Wednesday. I couldn't believe how well this thing plays. Like I've owned it for years, just felt right in my hands with good balance and a smooth, easy fretboard. Pickup is solid and tuners are OK. All it needed was a little lube on the nut and it stayed in tune even after some rough playing. Bought this Kramer as a beater to take back and forth to rehearsal, but it has found its way onto the stage. At this price you should buy 2!!!!!

I ordered mine a little over a week ago. I ordered the white one. I received it and noticed a finish flaw, huge crack from the trem plate to the edge. I ordered this with the intention of being a birthday present. But with the finish flaw, that ended up being washed away.

, I set it after I emailed Sweetwater about the flaw. I set the bridge to floating and cleaned the nut a little to play with it. It sounded great! The neck is a gem feeling. Perfect profile. The frets need a little polishing but overall the guitar is a great sounding guitar as is. The volume cap has to go. The trem bridge sucks. If you are not a trem player, you can torque it down and it will be great. Tuners are meh.. Not the best. The input jack is good!

Sweetwater hooked me up with the finish damage and I have decided to keep the guitar. The finish crack doesn't bother me. Sweetwater is the best company hands down, they take care of you!

So this guitar is a perfect core for modding. Seriously that good! And modding it I will.

1. Bought a PRS SE Bridge, screws, springs. Should be a easy drop in with the screw spacing being 2 and 1/8 like the Kramer's bridge. Might have to route a little for pull ups.

2. I have a custom A2 pickup wound by Tone Volt going in. 9.3k output.

3. I have a Tone Volt passive boost switch going in to boost the pickup to a modern tone.

4. I bought a PRS 500k pot with the guitar when I ordered it.

5. Ordered a Graphtech nut to replace the plastic one

6. I have some Gotoh staggered locking tuners that I have had for about 8 years looking for a home.

7. I have a killer graphic sticker that I am adding to it.

I am excited as all the parts should be here by Wednesday this week. About an hour doing all the work and should be rocking it Wednesday night! I have already polished the frets, darkened the fretboard, installed the tuners.

Would I recommend though this guitar out of the box? 100%! This is a great core guitar that can be made pro easily but rocks as is. The pickup is good. The neck and body is great. The pics are a Photoshop mockup with the graphic, the PRS bridge, the Graphtech nut and TVolt pickup, and how it looked when I first played it.

This is a lot of guitar for the money! Easy to play. Strings are still breaking in but already the guitar is very stable. Pick up is very ballsy and well balanced. Neck is thin with flat fretboard and big frets. feels great! construction and finish quality far exceeded my expectations. I've played $600 guitars that don't feel and sound this good. def a hard rock guitar. I am not a trem user so I will not comment on that. Keeping it more as a hard tail. color is slightly more cream than it appears in photos and intonation was slightly off on 2 strings. Great value. Impressive Follow-up by Sweetwater customer service!!

I want to love this guitar. Kramer got almost everything right. It is bare bones but has a hot humbucker. A volume knob that works. A fast neck. Beautiful finish.
The problem is the horrible nut and string angle. It is impossible to tune the high E and B stringa. They stick and bind and fall out of tune after bends and whammy dives. Nut lube does not help. I think I'll need to carefully file the grooves on the head side to better match the angle the strings take toward the tuners.