Yeah, I have one - had it for.... well, quite a while, now. Mine is a left handed one - which were only available in black. Rightys came in a rainbow of colors - which that one seems to have been turned into by a previous owner...
Do I like mine? Oh, Hell yes. For the last few years, mine has been my main "practice bass", so it get played a
LOT. I have several "American" Kramer basses; the aluminum-necked ones, made in Neptune, New Jersey, when they were a fairly high-dollar, semi-custom bass. But, they were always kind of... idiosyncratic... instruments. All of mine are... well, they don't exactly match the ones in the sales brochures. The people that made them, evidently liked to... experiment. My '78 450B, for instance, does not have the control layout - or the bridge - that the one in the sales brochure does. It wasn't changed by a previous owner; it came from the factory this way. Kramer employees seemed to like to experiment; it's like they came in on a Monday morning, and said "Hey; I've been thinking... how about we try
this, and see how it works?" Every one of my Kramer basses - even my Japanese '88 Forum III bass - is different from the sales brochure... Anyhow;
That Duke looks to be a "Deluxe" or "Special" model - as opposed to the "standard" model, with a pretty nice, normal humbucker pickup (I've had one of those, too). That one has a Schaller "Twin-J" pickup, along with Schaller guitar tuners and a Schaller 3D-4 bridge (my favorite bridge). It is
supposed to have a 3-way switch, but... I have owned one with only a 2-way switch - like the standard, humbucker model. Like I said; the factory liked to mess around... If that one has the 3-way switch, it
should give you: both coils in parallel; one coil (the rear one, which fakes a Jazz Bass pretty well); and both coils in series. However, it might be like mine, which gives me both coils like a humbucker; the rear half like a Jazz Bass; and half of each coil, like a split coil P-Bass pickup. Which is how I run mine, about 95% of the time. And, with a set of DR SFL Legends flat wounds on it? It does sound an awful lot like my '78 Fender P-Bass... Other than that? Well... it
is a small bass; 31" scale, and 38" long overall. It is
not a light bass, though. The aluminum neck and the mahogany body clocks in at 7.95 lbs. on mine. Some people find them to be badly balanced, and awkward to play; personally? I have no problem with mine. But, Rick basses fit me like a glove, while some people find Ricks very hard to play. You'll have to find out for yourself... Other than that? It is disconcerting to string a Kramer Duke the first time, since everything is backwards, and there's no nut - just a zero fret. But, unless you use ridiculously large gauge strings, they will work just fine with the Schaller guitar tuners. The 45-105 DR Legends on mine were no problem at all. Neither were the short scale 50-105 short scale GHS Boomers it came to me with...
So... bottom line? Yeah, it's a quirky little bass. But, if you can work with it? It's a really cool, quirky little bass. I've had mine for over a decade, now, and... it ain't going anywhere; not as long as I can still play...
