Kramer DMZ3000 1979 Natural ALL ORIGINAL

One of the rarest yet most known pieces of gear when it comes to electric guitars' history: this is an ALL ORIGINAL, extremely well-documented and gorgeous piece of aluminum neck-ed Kramer/Vaccaro DMZ 3000. See and hear it in action played by me in the live session at the YouTube video attached!

Some bits of history before we get into the description of this guitar: in 1976, Henry Vaccaro was the founder and main investor in Kramer guitars and while Travis Bean had the idea and the concept of "aluminum necks" for guitars, it's to Vaccaro as head of Kramer that the actual introduction on a broader scale of this design is due.

The "DMZ"s sported - as the acronym suggests - DiMarzio pickups and the number reflects the "quantity" of pickups: 2 for the 2000 and 3 for the DMZ3000, equipped with 3 super-powerful DiMarzio strat-sized single coils that actually sound like P90s. The output of these pickups is rated at around 9Kohms so yes, they're hot but they're also cristal clear with a HUGE bottom-end and a really clear top, but you can really hear it in action in the video attached, I'm the guy playing it.

The timbral character of this guitar is a clean-tone player's dream as it really sounds like a piano: the aluminum neck, along with the heavy, all-maple body, give you days of sustain and if you're all about arpeggios, the note-separation that you will hear will literally blow you away. By the way, if you're all about distortion… we're speaking of an alu-neck with 3 "p90s": it doesn't get any better than this. Also, the zero-fret and the scale of 25" (0.5" shorter than Fender), make it "twang" only if desired but it's not meant to be a "surf" guitar, hence you won't have to play VERY softly if you don't want it to twang.

Two common misunderstandings about this model: no, the neck is not held in place by "just 2 bolts", the 2 bolts you see in the back at the body-neck junction hold in place the cover with the serial number, behind that there are other 3 in-line screws that solidly tie the neck to the body.

No, the fretboard's not ebony and whoever tells you that is either ignorant or trying to scam you: ALL these guitars had an Ebonol fretboard. Ebonol's a composite material made to look, feel and - possibly - sound like ebony (given that fretboards make a difference on sound) while being more stable during time and more sustainable as to the impact on the environment.

Now for this item in particular: we're talking about an ALL-STOCK exemplar. This never underwent any modification, it has always been played but never abused and the previous owner dedicated a web page to it with further info and pictures, portraying even the inside of the electronic parts, head to: realvintage. it/archivio/dmz3000eng. html (remove the spaces after the dots).

Those pictures (taken years ago) also show the almost-invisible "crack" in the pickguard below the bridge pickup, proving it was already there when I purchased this item: along with the few dings it sports, I did my best to document all details in the pictures provided and I believe this beauty's shape should be considered gorgeous, given this is a 43 years-old guitar. Added particular: my pictures along with those on the website, make this probably the best-documented DMZ3000 available on Earth: you know it was imported in Italy directly by "Meazzi" (Kramer's local distributor of the time), that it stayed here in Italy for 43 years and you have proofs it was never altered throughout its whole life.

The frets are in very good shape (that's 6130 fret wire, i.e. the narrowest and largest available out there), also the necks on these guitars all have a natural relief so any luthier claiming "something's wrong" is very probably unaware of the history of these models - which pioneered a trend NOW uprising, 50 years later - hence he/she's probably not the right person to handle these guitars.

One more thing: the "crack" shown in the pics at the neck-body junction is common to all these guitars at this age: it's a paint crack and has nothing to do with the mechanical stability of the junction and of the guitar overall.

Last but not least, just like the previous owner I'm not going to include any case as these did not include any per default, but I'm including the original cardboard box (obviously it will be a box-in-the-box shipment) that has always been there throughout the whole life of this guitar: it doesn't get more "collector-suitable" than this.