Is this Kramer anything interesting?

[LBS-bass]

No matter what your neck is made of, don’t put it in the trunk

Back in those days everything went into the cargo trucks and the humans rode in the heated areas. But yes, nowadays I don't need to travel with truckloads of gear, so everything rides with me.

 

[chriscarcinogen]

I do like the looks of that 350B.

My bandmate uses an aluminum neck Kramer guitar which seems to go out of tune after about 5 minutes of playing. It holds tune sufficiently after that though.

 

[Passinwind]

I have no interest in it at all other than just wondering what the deal is with these things and are they actually that desirable these days?

You might want to take a look at Travis Bean prices to better understand why the Kramers’ values have finally started to appreciate.

 

[220_Hz]

Looks like a really nice Kramer 450B. I have a '78 lefty - one of my favorite basses. However...
- That one is missing the wooden trim rings around the pickups. That's not a big thing; they're quite fragile, and it's not unusual for them to be gone. Mine still has them - but, I bought it from the original owner.
- The bridge is a replacement, but it looks like a nice one. The original has holes in the back of the base plate for the ball ends to hook into. It looks like a thru-body bridge - until you look closer. It works quite well, but it's nothing special...
- The price? IMO, it's... a little high, for one that's missing the trim rings and original bridge. But, if there are no other "problems", and you just have to have it? Try and talk him down - of course - but if that doesn't work? $1200 isn't too unreasonable.
But, I gotta warn you;
- A 450B is not a light bass. Mine weighs 10.1 lbs.
- Aluminum necked Kramers are the Neck Divers From Hell. Take your hand off that cold aluminum neck, and the headstock will head for the floor - like a JU-87 Stuka on an attack run. With a grippy strap, mine will try very, very hard to pull my shirt over my head. Doesn't take it very long, either. But...
- Those custom wound Kramer pickups are ridiculously high output, and sound amazing. And the bass sustains like crazy. Obnoxiously long sustain...
I really like mine; strung with Optima 4099RL Chromes, the tone (IMO) is to die for. But, I don't play it for more than a song or two at a time. At my age, holding that neck up is... a strain...

Hit the nail on the head with this description

My 450b weighs 9 or 10 lbs, make sure your pickups don’t need to be rewound (my bridge pickup has always had low output, needs to be sent in)

don’t use steel strings or the zero fret will wear down a lot, but it can be replaced

also FWIW neither my 450b nor my DMZ4000 suffer from neck dive. I did own an XKB-20 once that had a stupidly thick and heavy neck

 

[220_Hz]

I have read that the aluminum neck is very temperature sensitive, so much so that changes in venue temperature can throw the tuning out.

I regularly play gigs outdoors at night in the mountains (California, gets to be about 40 F at this time of year) with a Kramer. I never have any issues with tuning stability

 

[prowla]

I've got a Kramer bass in my collection.
I like having it.
I'm not sure I like playing it.
Two of the machine heads have issues; I've successfully replaced one (with an identical Schaller), but the other is proving troublesome to remove.

 

[Jeff Scott]

Oops; missed the replacement tuners. But, other than being black, they do look like the original Schallers.

Those look like Gotoh GB-7 tuning keys, to me.

 

[higain617]

You ain't known neck-dive until you've strapped one of these on. The headstock is the coolest thing ever, but the sound is pretty underwhelming.

 

[JimmyM]

Fun bass, played them many times at stores, but no way I'd buy one. Just isn't me.

 

[BobKos]

This is true. I always had to retune after a song or two due to the neck warming up under my fingers.

My DMZ Kramer did this too.

 

[Titch]

It's worth the 1200 he's asking for.
I've been searching for years for one like that.
Can't find them here in Western Australia (can't find much of anything here actually) and if you do find one, it's between $1500 - $2500 AUS $$

 

[Artman]

My brother had one during the 1980’s. His was fretless and had a more sculpted body with more stringers down the center, and the cutouts made slightly pointy although still curved horns. It also had Dimarzio Model P-J pickups. I liked the sound of that bass, but it was neck dive city even with a wide leather strap. We used to call it the two ton heavy thing. I borrowed it for a few sessions. Heavy bugger, it was.

 

[Zooberwerx]

My first "good" bass was a 250B w/ black pickguard...bought it from @202dy 's cousin in '79 along with my Sunn Beta Bass. Interesting concept and I didn't know any better.

Riis

 

[Gunga Din]

I special-ordered a fretless Kramer DMZ5000 when I was in high school. Best sounding bass I ever owned.
.

You could afford to commission a bass when you were at high-school??

 

[LowActionHero]

*I* find it interesting!

 

[deff]

I had an XKB V style through a Sunn 300. So much brightness. It was definitely a thing.

 

[mongo2]

I had a Kramer 650B. Beautiful woods, great sound but way to heavy for me to play for long and the definition of neck dive, so I had to let it go.

 

[fdeck]

You could afford to commission a bass when you were at high-school??

Ah, good question. I think "special order" just meant it was a production instrument but not in the dealer's stock, so he ordered one from the factory. And it was pretty modestly priced for what it was. I had a job at the public library, shelving books, and really nothing else to spend my money on.

Plus, minimum wage went further back then.

 

[GretschWretch]

I regularly play gigs outdoors at night in the mountains (California, gets to be about 40 F at this time of year) with a Kramer. I never have any issues with tuning stability

But suppose the temperature gradually rises from 40 to 60 or 65 (which in Alabama is common this time of year)? That was the sticking point, not stability at any particular temperature that remained constant.

 

[gazzatriumph]

I have read that the aluminum neck is very temperature sensitive, so much so that changes in venue temperature can throw the tuning out.

I played a 350B in the early eighties at a gig with a low ceilings that had spot lights in it sent it out of tune. I bought another one 5 years ago for nostalgia sake from America, they do have their own unique sound which I liked. They are heavy.