Kramer George Lynch Purple Tiger
So strong is George Lynch's brand association with ESP that many today forgot or aren't aware that he was using Kramer guitars for a long period before that, until at least the band's 3rd album 1985's Under Lock And Key when the band were already big (he even plays various Kramers in "The Hunter" video) and Kramer George Lynch models were still being advertised in Japan as late as 1988.
In fact he may have played a pivotal role in ESP becoming an actual guitar brand rather than just a custom workshop/parts manufacturer, as we know ESP was the OEM for Kramer, and it was a visit to Japan that spurred him to just go straight with the source manufacturer, who were willing and able to accomodate his wild design requests. So for what it's worth, these early Kramer Japan guitars could be considered early ESPs and are exceedingly rare, having been produced more or less on order in that time.
This Japanese Kramer comes in a rare & vivid Purple Tiger finish, I've not seen another in this finish yet. But we shouldn't be too surprised as there were several different Kramer GL models being offered at the time and I have yet to uncover them all.
They were not cheap in the day, and the familiar ESP craftsmanship is apparent in the top notch finish and solid feel of contruction. The neck is of a surprisingly high quality flamey maple and slimmer than what would be the standard on later ESP GL models. The pickup is unknown but could be a typical ESP LH-200, it certainly looks like it.
In fact he may have played a pivotal role in ESP becoming an actual guitar brand rather than just a custom workshop/parts manufacturer, as we know ESP was the OEM for Kramer, and it was a visit to Japan that spurred him to just go straight with the source manufacturer, who were willing and able to accomodate his wild design requests. So for what it's worth, these early Kramer Japan guitars could be considered early ESPs and are exceedingly rare, having been produced more or less on order in that time.
This Japanese Kramer comes in a rare & vivid Purple Tiger finish, I've not seen another in this finish yet. But we shouldn't be too surprised as there were several different Kramer GL models being offered at the time and I have yet to uncover them all.
They were not cheap in the day, and the familiar ESP craftsmanship is apparent in the top notch finish and solid feel of contruction. The neck is of a surprisingly high quality flamey maple and slimmer than what would be the standard on later ESP GL models. The pickup is unknown but could be a typical ESP LH-200, it certainly looks like it.
above we can see that GL had a wide variety of Kramers, indeed various types of Tigers
Here we see ads for the Kramer JK-1000GL in 1986, and a dealer custom JK-1000BGLR Red Tiger in 1988 (not costing 100k, but 160k). The Purple Tiger could well be another of those dealer orders.
ESP Mirage Deluxe
