The original output jack on the guitar is in the lower V part and it sticks kinda straight out. This sucks if you ever wanna play sitting down while plugged in.

More modern guitars and even the new Kramer Vanguard have the output jack in the upper V out of the way. Also, they use a Stratocaster style plate for the jack so the cable comes out at an angle.

I am going to do this. I’ll need to cut a recess in the upper V to inste the cover plate and provide clearance for the jack and wiring. I’ll also need to drill a loooong hole for the wires to connect. Because the tremolo routing is so big, I’ll drill into the bridge pickup cavity and route the wires there.

Wish me luck!

I did the routing for the tremolo. It was a pain in the butt. The bit slipped out of the router at one spot…so I have to fix that. I’ll prolly use Bondo or something. That spot won’t show much anyway.

I’ll see how the tremolo fits next. I think I will need to do some fine tuning and that’s no biggie.

The original tremolo on the Kramer was surface mounted. This is just how it was done back then.

I want to install the new one the modern way. This allows the pitch to be raised as well as lowering. This is accomplished by removing all the wood under the tremolo. The tremolo comes with studs/pivots that are raised. At the end of the day, the tremolo is in the same spot.

Floyd Rose gives a handy dandy measurement for routing the body to fit the tremolo. I recreated the part I need in SketchUp and printed it full size (thanks JoJo!) And taped it to the guitar in the correct position. After that, I used some pieces of straight wood to act as guides for the bearing on my trim router bit.

Next step, wood chips!

The site vintagekramer.com has some old scans of Kramer catalogs. I think the guitar I’m rebuilding is from 1986. The site has scans of the catalogs from 1985. Here is the page that has the Vangaurd on it. According to their site, they discontinued the guitar in 1986.

I think I have settled on a color for the V. My friend’s daughter has a Squier Telecaster that is bright orange and I love it. Her guitar is orange with a white pickguard and chrome hardware. It looks like an orange creamsicle. As everyone knows, orange and black look really cool together so I think I’m going that direction.

A company named Createx makes a line of water based paints that can be used on guitars and purchased in small amounts. The have a some really cool metallic colors that can be used with their clear orange. The video below shows all of their candy colors applied on 4 different basecoats. I love the orange applied over a charcoal metallic basecoat.

Metallic orange has a cool 1980’s vibe with a cool “heavy metal” twist with the dark metallic undercoat. Slap some all black hardware on that and it will pop.

I think I also want to paint the black part of the headstock with the same orange metallic and add the same logo back except in black.

I picked up a new Floyd Rose tremolo and locking nut for the Kramer Vanguard. Bombs away! It seems like a drop in replacement for the original tremolo (that’s what I was hoping for).

A friend donated a pickup to me. It’s a wicked nasty Seymour Duncan Invader.

Seymour Duncan Invader humbucker

I measured the resistance of it and it’s 18k Ohms which is STUPID hot! It’s going to be a flamethrower.

I’ll prolly fill in the neck pickup rout with wood and run this as a single pickup guitar. Edit: I decided I’ll buy another one of these for the neck position.

I’ve always wanted a flying V guitar. My friend gave me an old one that he had laying around for a bunch of years.

This is the assembled guitar. My friend wanted to convert it to a hardtail and disassembled it and then lost interest.

Assuming all the parts he gave me are correct, it’s a Kramer Vangaurd. The serial number on the neckplate dates it to 1985-1986 according to vintagekramer.com. The included pickups are Schaller brand which jives with the date. The tuners are also Schaller and are stamped with “Made in W. Germany”. The tremolo is a licensed Floyd Rose.

This page has some info on Kramer Vangaurd

I want to put a cool flashy paint job on it and some newer parts to get it back into playing shape.

Kramer Vangaurd body

Kramer Vanguard neck pickup and neck pocket. TC was added by my friend.

Kramer Vanguard body back

Kramer Vanguard neck with hockey stick headstock

Kramer Vanguard hockey stick headstock with logo

Kramer Vanguard headstock back

Kramer Vanguard neckjoint crack?

Kramer Vanguard neck heel

Kramer Vanguard neck plate and truss rod cover

Kramer Vanguard front of Schaller pickups

Kramer Vanguard back of Schaller pickups

Kramer Vanguard pots

Kramer Vanguard Floyd Rose tremolo

Kramer Vanguard Floyd Rose tremolo

Kramer Vanguard Schaller tuners