Kramer Nightswan Electric Guitar - Jet Black Metallic Reviews
Originally a signature guitar in the 1980s, the Kramer Nightswan is a true shredder’s delight. And who’s signature model was it? Let’s just say that this sweet-savage axe-wielder was a real holy diver. This made-for-performance double-cutaway boasts a head-turning metallic finish, but it wasn’t built for show — unless it’s to show off your chops. It’s C-shaped, 3-piece maple neck is unlike any other guitar you’ll ever pick up, while its ruler-flat 16”-radius ebony fingerboard ensures lightning-fast playability. Plug into any high-gain monstrosity, and you’ll be greeted by classic hot-rodded humbucker tones, courtesy of two Seymour Duncan JB pickups. No guitar would be shred-worthy without a double-locking tremolo, and the Nightswan includes the gold standard — a Floyd Rose. The Nightswan features rock-solid deluxe tuners, stylish fingerboard inlays, and an era-defining reverse banana-style headstock.
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Highest Rated Reviews
An amazing guitar after a proper setup
The new Kramer Nightswan is a great guitar. The small scale, 24.75", neck and light weight makes this the perfect guitar for fast and smooth playing. The guitar does not feel the best directly out of the box, but a good guitar setup will fix this. Unless you have done this before, hire a guitar tech that understands Floyd Rose adjustments (many do not). The first thing I would suggest is to shim the neck with a small piece of fine emery cloth. Next add appropriate shims to the Floyd Rose to may it match the 16" neck radius. Adjust the height of the Floyd Rose to you preferred height. Always remove the springs and tension from the Floyd Rose when making post height adjustments or you will ruin the blades and your guitar will not stay in tune. Put on new strings and you have the perfect feeling guitar. If you really want to deck it out, add your favorite pickups. For us it is usually DiMarzio, but there are a lot of great companies out there.
Mine is awesome!
Don't know what everyone else thinks. But mine is great! Special thanks to Carson at Sweetwater. He's the best. I will continue to purchase from Sweetwater. It's the best!
It's awesome! But it took awhile to form that opinion.
I absolutely love this guitar! I've personalized mine a bit by slightly shimming the neck and a few of the Floyd Rose saddles and putting in different pickups. She is awesome!
The JBs are alright. Personally, there isn't enough of a sound difference between the middle and the bridge pickup, so I opted to replace both. If you watch or read any reviews on any of the new Kramers, you will hear the same thing about the potentiometers. I replaced mine with a PRS push pull pot, and it works great! Fits in with the exact same dimensions, so no need to drill.
My main problem comes down to how many guitars I had to go through in order to land on the perfect one. I bought my first through AMS, but returned it due to having Floyd post issues, a popping nut, as well as dents at the back of the guitar where the Floyd hits.
I came to Sweetwater and ordered one right when they received their first shipment in, and was greeted to a guitar that seemed awesome! However, after looking deeper, there was a HUGE wood crack that went from the Floyd rose post, through the pickup ring screw, through the rest of the body of the guitar. I hated to return it since it played great and everything else, but that crack was a deal breaker for me.
Sweetwater offered to let me keep the current guitar until I got a new one! So after waiting a few weeks, they sent me one from their next shipment! However, this time, it had a huge unfinished area at the top of the neck, multiple dents in the neck, as well as a crack that went through the 24th fret on the fretboard, and a crooked tuner.
Sweetwater had me send this one back, and keep the original one that I had purchased from them and sent me one more.
This time, I received the guitar that I still have today. The guitar still had a crack from the Floyd post into the pickup ring screw hole, however this time, it did not go through the body of the guitar. I put some epoxy inside of the hole to make sure that it does not expand in the future and sent the original one back.
I want to thank Sweetwater for getting me to the point where I finally have the perfect guitar for me. Obviously, as the main purchaser of the guitar, the user will find more issues than what the Sweetwater can find, and it also comes down to quality control from Kramer directly and what Sweetwater can sell.
Poor attention to detail
I was really excited to get this guitar, as I have a Kramer 84 that I love.
First the good: the JB humbuckers sound fantastic. It's also a nice looking guitar.
Now the bad: the quality is just not there. The input jack came loose in the first week of playing, which lead me to discover this guitar has a cheapie Epiphone jack. It looks just like the jack I replaced on a $100 Epiphone I bought to modify. Also, the tuners, jack plate, and toggle switch are low quality - like they are made of tin. The paint on the headstock also bleeds into the wood instead of the clean lines like on my 84 (which was actually cheaper than the Nightswan.
I also paid the extra $250 for the plek and setup. Frankly it wasn't worth it to me and I ended up having to do a setup anyway.
