Mike McCready’s 1980s Kramer Pacer

Mike mentioned in a in interview with Guitar World in 2011 that prior to owning a Stratocaster, he played an Ibanez Iceman and a Kramer. While the Ibanez is pretty well documented (can you can read about it here – Mike McCready’s Ibanez Iceman IC100), the Kramer is unfortunately largely a mystery.

Stone and Jeff bought me a black 1962 Japanese reissue Stratocaster. It was just so cool. I was like, ‘Oh my god…’ Because I had always wanted one. I had a Telecaster prior to that, and before that I had an Ibanez Iceman and a Kramer. But that was my first Strat

So I used that (on Ten). … I felt I wanted a Strat to complement what Stone was doing. If we both played Les Pauls, the record might’ve sounded different.

Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready looks back on 30 years of Ten

The only photo that we have of the Kramer originates from Danny Newcomb’s Rainy Day podcast, during which Danny and Mike talked about their early years, playing together in a band called Shadow. Sometime during the podcast Danny showed a photo of Mike with the Kramer, and towards the end of the podcast, Mike noted that in the final years of the band he did indeed have a Kramer, and joked that that was the reason he started playing lead guitar more.

Based on this photo, the guitar was a white Kramer Pacer model equipped with pair of humbuckers, and a tremolo system with a locking nut. Based on the “beak” style headstock, it was an early 80s modal, made no later than 1983 when Kramer started using the “banana” style headstocks.