Kramer 1983 Baretta Reissue | Review

Kramer 1983 Baretta Reissue | Review

MSRP: (UK) £2199 / (US) $2199

Nick Jennison unleashes the spirit of '80s shredding with the Kramer 1983 Baretta Reissue. With its sleek single-pickup design, Floyd Rose tremolo, and lightning-fast maple neck, this guitar screams retro cool while delivering the precision and playability die-hard Kramer fans demand.

There are great guitars, and then there are iconic guitars. Guitars that shook the musical landscape and changed the way we play the instrument forever. I'm talking Gibson Les Paul, Fender Strat… and some would argue, the Kramer Baretta.

Introduced in 1983, this stripped-down, unapologetically aggressive guitar embodied the emerging spirit of the era. Designed to facilitate the fretboard-melting antics of '80s virtuosi, including none other than "King Edward" himself, the Baretta's faster-than-fast neck, single humbucker, and original Floyd Rose tremolo packaged all of Ed's home-brew modifications in a sleek, off-the-peg guitar that was stage-ready right off the rack.

Over 40 years later, Kramer has released a loving reissue of this legendary instrument, and it's every bit as shred-ready as the originals. Handcrafted in Japan, it sports the same slimmed-down superstrat body and "hockey stick" headstock. It features an oil-finished maple neck on a maple body with a rosewood fretboard for a bright and forward attack, paired with a single Seymour Duncan '59 humbucker, mounted at an angle and routed through a single volume control. No coil splits, no pickup switching—just one tone and the truth! What a tone it is too—leaner and more cutting than a Les Paul but with the fat transient "smack" that only a good PAF-style pickup can provide.

In terms of playability, the Baretta is absolutely ferocious. The 14" fretboard radius allows for a very low action without bends choking out, and the slightly wider string spacing, thanks to the R5 locking nut, leaves a little more room for error on complicated scale runs. Combine that with a friction-free neck, and you've got a guitar that absolutely rips.

The inclusion of the original Floyd Rose is another welcome addition. These units are rightly revered, not just for their stability but for their tone. Wherever you fall on the "wood makes a difference" spectrum, we can all recognise that anything that touches the guitar's strings has the capacity to influence the way the string vibrates, and the solidity of an original Floyd—especially set up flush with the guitar's body—is the gold standard for locking tremolo systems.

The Kramer Baretta 1983 Reissue is like stepping back in time to an era when the guitar ruled the airwaves. It's a fantastic instrument, sure, but it's also a little piece of '80s magic.

For more information, please visit:

kramerguitars.com