Kramer 450B

Gary Kramer was one of the partners of the revolutionary guitar maker Travis Bean. Kramer had joined with Travis Bean and Marc McElwee in 1974, to form Travis Bean Guitars, but quickly developed disagreements with Bean and, in October 1975 joined with Dennis Berardi to form Kramer Guitars.

This bass guitar from the 1970s has a bolt-on aluminum neck and two humbucking pickups. The fretboard is phenolic. The back of the bolt-on aluminum neck is enhanced with two walnut inserts.

Kramer's aluminum necks differed from Travis Bean's in that the Kramer necks are bolted into a socket, like Fender guitars, whereas Bean's design evolved into a single piece of aluminum that extended from the tuning pegs to the tailpin. Kramer eventually abandoned aluminum necks altogether and began to produce guitars that were closer in design to Fender's Stratocaster, but incorporating some modern improvements such as Floyd Rose's vibrato. Eddie Van Halen's first records were made with a highly-modified version of one of these later models.

The Kramer brand name eventually became the property of Gibson Musical Instruments, which still produces a product line resembling Kramer models of the early '80s.