I have always loved this body style and while it is most commonly associated with Charvel guitars (specifically the Charvel Star model), it was also produced by Kramer (Voyager model), Dean (ML model) and a few other guitar manufactures. The origin of this body shape has been linked to Eddie Van Halen's modified Ibanez Explorer which dates back to the early 80's. The story goes that Wayne Charvel, who did some work on Eddie's guitars, came up with the "Star" shape after seeing Eddie's butchered Explorer body. Wayne supposedly named the body shape the "Star", in reference to his belief that this young guitarist would become a star one day. Although this has often been argued as folklore, Eddie and his band, Van Halen did become stars and went on to establish themselves as rock and roll legends. Others believe however, that the name had a more practical origin and was named for the fact that the body shape looked like a Star. Either way, this body shape was certainly unique for its time and still remains fashionable today.

In 1981 Kramer started to manufacture guitars with wooden necks, prior to that time Kramer guitars featured steel necks. This change also led to the introduction of three new body styles by Kramer; the Pacer (Strat style body), the Vanguard (V style body) and the Voyager (Star style body). This guitar has serial number C1652 and dates to 1983 when both the two hum pickup layout and Floyd Rose trem were available as options. This guitar is a real "ball kicker" and although there is not much interest in used Kramer guitars today (2004), these guitars are still an excellent bang for the buck and of high quality. The neck on this particular instrument is superb and has a nice medium C profile and jumbo frets. These “classic" style, or sometimes called "chicken beak" necks were manufactured by ESP at this time and to me, feel a lot like my Charvel guitar necks.  However, unlike Charvel necks that are simply oiled, these "classic" Kramer necks were lacquered. While I am not normally a fan of finished (lacquered or painted) necks, this neck feels great in my hands. In fact, this particular neck is the best Kramer neck I have ever played. At one time I had close to twenty Kramer’s in my guitar collection, but have since concentrated on Charvels and as a result have sold most of my Kramer’s. The fact that this guitar still remains in my collection is a testament to how great this guitar plays and sounds.

Other than replacing the original Schaller pickups with Dimarizo PAFs, she remains in factory original condition. If you are considering buying a used Kramer you can not go wrong with an early example like this one. Sound, playability, workmanship, original Floyd Rose trem and cool graphics make the $210 I paid for this guitar, one of the better deals in my whole guitar collection. It puzzles me that Kramer guitars, once at the very top of the food chain during the 80's, command such little interest today. While this is a common fate for most 80's style guitars, (other than Charvels which have a devoted following) it is probably the consequence of being tied to the 'shred" or "metal" style music scene and the stereotypes that go with it. After grunge music came and killed the 80's metal scene, most people in the business washed their hands of this style of music and the "pointy" guitars that created it. But do yourself a favor and grab the next cheaply priced USA made Kramer you see or at least play it if you have the chance...trust me these are TERRIFIC guitars. One can argue that if these were good enough for Eddie to endorse and play, they are most likely good enough for anybody.