Kramer Baretta Special Electric Guitar - Candy Blue Reviews

Received mine a week ago, packaged very well. Needed a little set up but was to be expected. For the price you can't beat it.great sound, overall excellent product

It lives up to the many positive reviews on you tube and just about any where else. For the money, this axe is hard to beat.. mine came out of the box ready to rock..just had to tune it and that wasn't far off. The pickup is hot! Frets are smooth, fast neck feels great, action was perfect for my liking.. nice and low with no buzz.. I did clip the cap, and remove a spring on the trem, and lube the nut..very fun guitar to play.. it will scream through my Boss ME 80 and Randall and 5150 combo.. so yea, the reviews your seeing while doing your research are legit.. if your thinking about it.. get it.. it won't disappoint

Disclaimer: I bought mine used from a local store. This is a review of the Baretta Special only.

Wow, simply surprised at how great this sounds. I picked this up last night used looking for a second Guitar that I could drop tune permanently without a Floyd rose. The reviews on YouTube are mostly positive in my opinion so I did expect it to be decent. But when I plugged it into my Boss ME-80 that I I have set up for my Kramer Pacer, this Baretta just growled.

I totally was not expecting the throatiness and clarity. It has plenty of.Chunkiness for palm muting and the highs scream, and harmonics straight from hell.

If you're an 80's hair metal fan/player, you just have to add this to your collection. For relatively $, this guitar is undervalued. I almost like it more than my new Pacer.

One other thing, the website photos do not do the actual paint job justice (nor do my photos). I really didn't want blue based on the images, but in person, it's badass looking. Don't let the image color deter you.

NOW BUY THIS GUITAR!

Really good guitar for the price.Needs a couple of upgrades but a great beginner or backup guitar

For Beginners to Professionals the Kramer Baretta specialist gotta be the best budget guitar on the Market. I have owned several guitars over the years an honestly this guitar is really worth it and I keep it with my high end guitars. Perfect for modding or play it with the original hardware you wont regret it.

Bought one of these for the sake of nostalgia for 80's hair bands, not expecting it to be anything more than my "throw it in the car" travel guitar. However, it's a great guitar! I'm going to keep this one as is and buy a second one to do some mods on and use in rotation with my higher end guitars. Pickup is a little hot and the tuning pegs could be upgraded, but the body and the neck are far beyond what I had expected! (I'm not a tremolo user so I can't speak to that.)

I've always wanted a Kramer, and decided to take a chance on this one. Guitar arrived safe & a day early than expected; well done Sweetwater. Pictures don't do the candy blue justice, you have to see how gorgeous it is to believe it. I thought I would have to replace the stock pickup, but I don't; it roars & sings nicely. I spent a few minutes setting up the tremolo (removed the middle spring to make it easier to dive) and lubricated the nut to help with tuning stability. I also made a small modification to the volume pot (removed the capacitor on it) and I'll upload a video of that in a separate review. The build quality is stellar too; the finish looks amazing as I said, no sharp fret ends, which is common on lower-priced guitars, no fret buzz. Overall, I'm satisfied with the Baretta Special; so much so, I find myself looking at plenty more Kramers to add to my collection.

After I went through the guitar and "set it up", as in adjusting the bow of the neck with the small wrench and the string fixture "holders" (I'm not a specialist), somehow I have made it perfect in intonation. I absolutely love this Krammer guitar now. It's so fun to play. I play RUSh and Led Zepplin and Yes, etc. Totally Cool Guitar ! But, you do have to "Set it up".

This is an amazing guitar at this price.
I saw a review on this guitar and based on that review I decided to purchase this one.
I was expecting to have to do some fret work and a few other things to make a guitar at this price point play well. When it arrived I first checked the neck relief and it was at precisely 12 thousandths. Checked the intonation and it was spot on. The action was set at a standard 2.0mm at 17th fret. I like low action so I lowered the action to 1.25mm and to my surprise even at that low action there was absolutely no fret buzz. The fret ends are smooth and polished. The frets themselves are polished with only a very slight amount of scratchiness. The only things I did was removed the capacitor from the volume knob as I was told this would smooth out the tone and it did smooth it out nicely. And I adjusted the pickup height which was necessary as I lowered the string action. I also checked string height at the nut and it was perfectly set from the factory. I have never received a guitar that was so well setup not even on high end guitars from Japan. This guitar not only looks beautiful in the flawless candy blue finish, it plays great, the neck feels great, and the pickup sounds awesome. Its a mahogany body and maple neck and only weighs 7.9lbs and it is well balanced. I cannot recommend this guitar highly enough.

As a beginner play this guitar is awesome being a teenager in the eightys i had to have this guitar. It plays like a dream as i progress may do a mod or two but out of the box it's great recommend this guitar to anyone for the price point you cant beat it highly recommend it rock on

Keep it simple great little guitar probably the best affordable player you can buy sounds great easy to play QC on point great job Gibson!

waiting for this guitar for months, and worth the wait and money...out of the box checked it out up and down, no flaws, tuned it up and played some Dokken, Stryper, Wasp, 80s rock to make it short, it screamed like i knew it would, i bought one of these a few years ago from Sweetwater in the black finish, it still looks and sounds new ( i take care of my guitars oh yeah!), if you do not have one of these in your arsenal, what are you waiting for huh? go and buy one now i can wait, go ahead \m/, please do not miss out on this 80s rocker gem, you will always hit a home run with Sweetwater, shout out to Blake, helped me so fast when i received the email they were finally in, you rock Blake \m/ ok metalheads, rock on and keep on keeping on, \m/

Oh Yeah..I had 1 Long ago and Now its Better then EVA

Bought my Baretta Special just about 3yrs ago now. So this is basically just an update on it.
For the last 2yrs, I've been gigging in 2 bands, 4-5 times a month minimum. Playing at weekly Open Mics and all that sort of stuff. While this is not my main gigging guitar, it does see a fair bit of use.
It's still completely stock, except for changing the volume knob and removing the Treble Bleed capacitor. Which was recommended by players, in countless reviews. With the Treble Bleed in place, the Volume control, is basically an On/Off switch. There's nearly ZERO volume function. Simply remove the backplate, bend that capacitor a few times until it snaps off.....Boom! Fully functional Volume control w/a good taper to it. Actually works very, very well after that.

None of the hardware feels like it's super high quality. But nothing on it, has failed me yet, in 3yrs. Tuners are smooth and pretty stable. The nut on mine was cut well and doesn't bind or catch when bending notes. I don't use the trem at all, but I've come across numerous reviews, where players have mentioned that it is very possible to setup and use for moderate action.
The neck feels great, the shape and fret board radius are great for your standard 80s Shred/Rock/Metal stuff. Fret edges are rough. There's no denying that. Some people might be more put off by that, than I am. It noticeable, no question. But not to the point where it physically hinders anything I'm trying to do. The frets themselves feel really good. Not overly Jumbo, but big enough.
The pickup is fun, aggressive, moderately chunky and again, actually sounds/functions pretty decently, especially for a guitar at this price point.
I also have a Black one, w/a Rosewood fret board and while it plays/performs/functions every bit as good as this one. It doesn't quite have the same lively feel that this one does. But again, at the price point we're talking about, I have no real complaints.
The accompanying pic and vid are from a gig this last weekend (yes I flipped the mic around after I took this pic. LOL) and it performed great through 1/2 a set. I used it for the first several songs, that were 1/2 step down. just so I didn't need to muck around with switching up tunings, mid-set. No tuning issues or anything to complain about at all.

I did mark it as 4.5 Stars.....Just because, being honest, it's a cheap guitar and it's not going to meet everyone's standards

I bought this guitar with Bonus Bucks and didn't know what to expect. Now I can confidently say, much like other reviews, there's a lot of guitar here for the money. Is it perfect? Absolutely not. Mine has some small finish blemishes in the paint and the black fretboard dots have a bit of bleed to them. That said, it's a very playable and great sounding guitar for the price. After doing my own setup (including a fret polish) and some new strings, this thing has become a blast to play. It will definitely compete for playing time among my other, more expensive guitars. As always, Sweetwater is great and I couldn't be happier with my purchase.

I've only had this guitar just over 24hrs now, so all comments/opinions are obviously going to be based off of initial impressions. But I've been playing guitar for, many years now and owned several Kramer guitars back in the mid/late 80s. One original Baretta, several of their Focus series and a Explorer shaped Condor model. So i'm familiar enough with it all, that I know what I like and what I don't....and more or less, what is a good deal.

Those 80s Baretta and even the early Focus 1000 models, were one of my absolute favorite Super Strat style guitars.
So, to be completely clear...
For under $... just to be honest, you're not getting that. The body shape and contouring are very close to those Barettas. I always liked those, because they had just that little extra in the contours, that gave them a little more attitude than other Strat shaped guitars. The headstock pretty much nails that classic hockey stick look. I mean visually, it really does pull off that simple, sleek 80s look.

Playing/Feel wise, it does not have the truly "solid" feel and heft of the originals. The neck is very comfortable in size & shape and the fret edges are ultra smooth. They could have been dressed/polished a little better. Playing right out of the box, you could feel a good deal of roughness in them, when bending notes, etc. It's not horrible and it is one of those things that subsides, as you play it more. Not a deal breaker at this price point, but worth noting. Only concern, is related to just again, how light it feels. It just does not have that rock solid feel of the originals. I did change string gauges and tuned down a 1/2 step and it was completely stable. Had no problems. I just am not sure, how it would handle things like temp/humidity changes, getting banged around/dropped, that sort of stuff. It's just tough to say, but first impressions, I like the shape/feel/etc.

The Volume control is basically "On/Off", there's no taper to it at all. Easy fix on a guitar this simple, but again, worth noting.
The Tuners are stable and smooth, but do feel rather cheap. I don't feel the need to rush out and replace them right off the bat though, as I've had no issues with them slipping or being a liability at all. As I mentioned, I changed strings to a slightly different gauge (lighter top/heavier bottom) and tuned it down a 1/2 step and had zero problems and came across nothing that felt like it would lead to any impending or immediate issues.

The bridge is pretty "light", you could say. The saddles are crazy lightweight material and the block is a pretty meager cast material. Along with the volume control, the Bridge would be a prime candidate for an upgrade, sooner than later. It's functional resting against the body, almost as a "hardtail" style. But feels flimsy when using the bar at all. Also with the angled string pull of the headstock and the lack of a locking nut, it would take a fair amount of pretty skilled setup, to get it to function flawlessly. It's just not made for much more than very subtle vibrato action.

The pickup is actually Ok. Not a crazy hot shredder or anything. A bit boxy sounding, maybe....but not in a really bad way, if that makes any sense. LOL It's a bit hard to tell how it reacts to rolling the volume back, because as I mentioned, the volume control has pretty much zero range to it. It's all or nothing. But it does react decently to picking dynamics, muting & all that, so I feel like it has potential. It seems like it will handle your basic Rock/Hard Rock tones. I think that if you're looking for anything really METAL, you're going to want to look to upgrade it.

I think, for a beginner/intermediate player, as a very inexpensive backup or extra guitar for practice around house, or just for the old cheap *** like myself. With very minor/easy upgrades, you'd have more than just a cheapo instrument. Would also be a decent choice for anyone looking for a simple Super Strat to customize and turn into a full blown 80s shredder.
It is what it is. But it's also very worth it, IMO. Especially if you have any nostalgia for the vibe of those late 80s, one pickup shred machines of that era.

The Kramer baretta special is a good guitar, fun to play! And I like the simplicity of it with the
One pickup and one volume knob. It has a great sound and it's all I need.

I bought a EVH 5150 but I am a 80's hard rock fan n Kramer n Jackson are still the Sheite IMO.
I thought Kramer went out of business as I I had financial issues n sold my Farington, big mistake.
But found this guitar here n for the money, I had too try it, out of the box n a string tune it was amazing! The sustain blew me away for a $ guitar! I'm kinda afraid to do a set up on it! The purple one is great but my blue one must have been made on a Wednesday cuz it that good.
Buying another (blue) one for my brother.
The bad, action is way too high, the strat style bridge would be better as a hard tail but the spring tension is so strong most pull a spring out. The volume pot is a light switch but easy fix. Also I play a lot back by the bridge n the knob is in the way like most shredder guitars. But you can't go wrong for the money, great mod stater guitar as seen on many YouTube videos, locking tuners, better nut, bridge n pot issue but the pick up is pretty hot. Get one, you'll love it n should be a five star because of hardware.

This is my 2nd Baretta special. This one I had to file the fret ends and Kramer still hasn't addressed the capacitor issue on the volume pot.I snipped it off and now it works fine. This guitar has nicer tuners than my 21 and it's a pound lighter. All in all, it's a fantastic guitar at this price, the generic JB pickup rocks and cleans up nicely by rolling the volume knob back.

Just received my candy blue baretta about a week ago and I gotta say I'm fairly impressed with the product. From comparing to the reissue Kramer Pacer Classic and from my own measurements, it is an identical body structure. Despite what all the youtube videos about this guitar say, it is definitely not shred ready right out of the box. It really needs to be broken in and the tuners and bridge definitely need some attention. Perfect Segway to where this guitar really shines is that it is a blank canvas for modding. The other 10/10 aspect is the overall appearance. It has a really beautiful, sparkly paint job. The headstock in and of itself is flat out sexy. Overall this is a must own axe for any 80s guitar enthusiast.

Extra disclaimer: I needed to wait about 8 months for this instrument