1979 Kramer XKG-20 Guitar

The Kramer aluminum neck era ran from 1976 to 1985 and was the legacy of the company before switching over to the more popular wood neck models during the 80s. The first production batch of Kramers were introduced in November 1976. All of these early Kramers featured a “forked” aluminum headstock and aluminum “skeletal” neck These necks, designed for sustain, contained slots that ran the length of the neck for holding the wood fills in place. The idea of the wood inlays were to reduce the coldness feel of aluminum. Usually but not always, the wood neck fills were the same type and color as the body. The Ebonol fretboard contained large Phil Petillo designed “center-touch” frets, a zero nut and aluminum dot inlays. The higher up models had the mother of pearl “crown” shaped inlays. Scale lengths were 25″. Tuners were Schallers. They were manufactured at the Kaiser Aluminum plant on East Avenue in Erie, Pennsylvania. The necks were attached to the body by two bolts and the bolts were covered by an oval shaped aluminum plate. Control cavity covers were also aluminum.

In 1980, Kramer offered the XK series. This contained two guitars and two basses. The guitars are labeled as the XKG, the basses as XKBs. First was the “10” series which was a wedgeshaped body reminiscent of a Randy Rhoads type shape with a notch cutout at the crotch. The XKG-10 and XKB-10 both sported this type body. Controls on both were one volume and one tone. Next was the “20” series which was a clear copy of the DMZ1000 guitar shape minus the neck pickup. It was a streamlined double-cutaway with one humbucker and a volume and tone knob. This is one of those cool early production 1980 XKG-20 guitars & possibly one of the best made at the time 43 years ago. Its maple body halves are very figured & its single DiMarzio Humbucker sounds like a Les Paul Jr. on steroids. Its quite clean & feels great ! Its excellent overall & comes in a nice gig bag.