Kramer Pacer “Lawsuit” Strathead
1982 appears to begin with this neck, as well as the Floyd Rose FRT-4 installed. A back-and-forth with the Square Heel Boogie Bodies neck ensues. It is hypothetically possible that the Square Heel neck may have been first inbetween the tours, but there is simply no way of knowing. I say this because it has the gold FRT-4 nut attached and therefore may have been the configuration Franky was in when it received the FRT-4. He later got the Strathead neck, equipped with a different nut, and began using it? This timeframe requires more investigation
**Seen reattached 9/15/82
1. The Kramer Pacer “outlaw” strathead neck is seen simultaneously with the famous Floyd Rose FRT-4 prototype during the summer of 1982. Eddie switched back and forth between this neck and the Square heel neck during the Diver Down tour.
Eddie sanded the “Kramer” logo off due to a lawsuit infringement on the headstock by Fender. Others say Alex Van Halen told him to do it until they paid him money.
The neck is taken off sometime prior to April 1983.
2. The Kramer Pacer strathead neck is next (and last) seen ironically on the VH-II guitar during a Japanese photo shoot in 1992.
It’s unknown where this neck is today, but it can be assumed this is the neck Eddie threw in the grave of Dimebag Darrell. However, it’s not for certain.
This is the earliest known photograph of the Kramer Pacer strathead. Here, you see the logo is still on the headstock and not sanded off (yet).