Kramer Pacer FT-211S

[JPO1959]

I just ordered one of these Kramer Pacer FT-211S models that Musician's Friend is selling on clearance for only $99.99. It finally came in today and I'm not too happy with it. Do they know how to do Guitar wiring in Indonesia, obviously not!!! Mine came with positions 2 and 5, stuck in positions 1 and 4 instead, throwing me off completely. I just emailed Kramer, asking them for a set of the schematics so I can fix this oversight. Plus I'm going to put some new pots in because the ones that are in now, are very trebly sounding. Plus the saddles really suck, so I guess I'll have to see about getting either a set of graph-techs or some vintage Fender style. Oh well, I guess you get what you pay for.

[JPO1959]

I'm all calmed down now. I finally got around to doing a full setup and intonation on this guitar, and I will say this, if you put some work into it, it's not really that bad. Concerning the wiring, It's only position 2 that's off kilter. Somehow it got reversed and is in position 1, but I can live with that. I did take open the back plate to look at the wiring and it is a mish mash and I decided not to mess with it for now, but I will be seeing about getting a Orange capacitor cap for the tone knob. I did adjust the bridge saddles which did take a while and now, it stays in tune. The bridge was pretty easy to adjust as was the truss rod. I'm using D'Addario 10's on it and I did reset the intonation, plus I lowered the pickups as much as I could, because they are very loud and bright. Now it sounds pretty good and is a keeper.

[JPO1959]

It's been a couple of weeks now since I've had this Indonesian made masterpiece LOL, and I have made some changes to it. I did install a Sprague Orange Cap on the stock Tone Pot which helped out immensely. I took out the stock pickups and installed some Aluminum tape in the pickup compartments to reduce the hum, after which I installed the single coils back in and left the stock humbucker out, which after looking at it, did not seem to have enough winds on it and was making the tone of the guitar rather muddy. I've rewired the 2 Single Coils with the Neck Position left as it was and the Middle, now wired where the Humbucker was. Quite a huge difference and a major improvement. I'm undecided if I'm going to invest in a new Humbucker for this guitar, considering that I only paid 99 bucks for it. I have it set up as a hardtail and to it's credit, it stays in tune quite well. I have it intonated for use with 10's and am running it through a 2002 USA made, Crate GX-65 combo, which when using the Gain, gives it a AC/DC, Zeppelin type tone.