Kramer has long been known as a brand that makes guitars that meet the needs of highly fluid and technical players–a brand for shredders and virtuosos. Some players might consider it a bit of a “retro” brand that is mainly focused on 80s musicians. The new Kramer Volante HHFR is here to put any retro illusions firmly to rest. While the Volante HHFR is ideal for shredders and virtuosos, it’s not confined to big-hair 80s metal stylings. This is not your dad’s guitar; it’s a modern instrument built to satisfy the needs of contemporary players who demand a high-performance guitar suitable for a variety of styles, including today’s heavier musical genres. 

The Italian word “Volante” translates to “flying” or “light” in English and signifies the musical ideas of speed and movement. As a musical direction, it commands playing fast and fluidly. Kramer’s latest platform, the Volante, embodies that spirit of speed and fluidity. It offers cutting-edge features, including a lightweight alder body with forearm and body comfort carves. The 3-piece, satin-finished maple neck is bolted to the body with five bolts and ferrules and has a sculpted heel for improved upper fret access. It also features the new Kramer Key Lock system. The Key Lock, developed by Senior Product Development Engineer Richard Akers, provides incredible neck stability. Paired with Kramer's 5-bolt neck-to-body joint, it prevents movement in the neck pocket, increasing vibrational tone transfer, sustain, and intonation. The neck is thermally aged and has a fast-playing Kramer Elliptical C profile. It is capped with a maple fretboard with 24 jumbo frets and a compound (10-14”) fretboard radius. The truss rod uses a spoke wheel style adjustment at the body end of the fretboard, making it quick and easy to access. The 25.5” scale length is great for drop tuning. A Floyd Rose® R3 locking nut and 1000 Series tremolo keep the tuning stable no matter how much you use the vibrato arm. 

The pickups are a pair of Kramer USA Neptune humbuckers™ wired to master volume and tone controls and a 5-way blade-style pickup selector switch that is wired for maximum tonal versatility. In position 1, the bridge pickup operates alone as a humbucker wired in series. In position 2, the bridge and neck pickups run together, but each is in single-coil mode, with the slug side of the bridge pickup running with the screw side of the neck pickup. Position 3 is both pickups combined, running as series-wired humbuckers. Position 4 is the neck pickup alone, wired as a parallel humbucker, while position 5 gives you the neck humbucker pickup wired in series. The pickups are hum-canceling in all positions. 

While this isn’t an 80s design, it’s a Kramer, so like all of their guitars, it still has plenty of in-your-face, Made to Rock Hard attitude and all of the features that today’s virtuoso players demand. A premium gig bag is also included.