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Kramer Vanguard S-440S
List: $640
The Kramer line of guitars were the shredder’s pick way before Ibanez realized they can’t win being copycats in the ‘80s; even Joe Satriani did much of his Surfing with the Alien slinging a Kramer Pacer (surprise!) in the studio. Much came to a halt in the ‘90s as Kramers were made available only through online acquisition (Music-Yo) but thanks to Gibson’s current ownership, Kramer are made available more readily once more. The Vanguard S-440S on review here hails from the manufacturer’s more affordable offerings namely due to its Indonesian production.
Build/ fit/ finish/ features
By now, every cynical, Eastern manufactured guitar dissenters would realize that shoddy workmanship is a thing of the past for guitars not made in USA or Japan. The QC displayed by the build team did well to make the S-440S an affordable and good entity. This V-type model sports an offset body prong ala Jackson’s RR make. As evident from the pic above, the manufacturer included adequate beveling/ chamfering to ensure comfort once the guitar is strapped on; you’re likely to be a happy camper to do so as opposed to playing it sitting down.
However, the quirk here is that there’s only one strap button provided, located at the bass-side body tail end. The manufacturer expects the other strap end to get attached to the headstock via tying down with, maybe a shoe lace. It’s sheer moronic to do so & is a great omission in terms of thoughtful provisions. The reviewer here has since equipped his guitar with an additional strap button affixed to one of the neck bolts (refer to pic)
It is sufficient to say that there are no deviances to report in terms of production quality; everything is, to say the least, top notch.
Rating: 90%
Tone/ playability
You are not buying this guitar for country music, yes? That should ideally be the intention especially so when the neck profile is one sumptuous C-section with enough meat to sever itself from being an Ibanez Wizard I (read: super slim) clone – it screams rock/ metal for sure. Shred dweebs need to note the restrictive upper fret access as the neck joins the body at the 17th fret but no generous cutaway is provided for that crucial reach. Nevertheless, treading the 20th-24th fret area is rather easy owing to the nature of the V-body design, there’s virtually ample room for reach despite the restrictive allowance. The guitar also possesses a great mass factor, nothing too imposing on the spine or feather-weight being to impede a natural bottom end resonance.
Perhaps the divine issue here (tone-wise) is the pair of Quadrail humbuckers- each coil is a humbucker itself hence the ‘quad’ reference in its entirety. Interestingly, the manufacturer provides a coil split feature (pull to activate) in the tone control but upon activation, you’re still dealing with a humbucking option, the only pseudo-single coil tone available-if you ever need it- is the option of volume reduction. However, as the reviewer discovered, one has to knock quite a substantial amount of volume off to conjure some twang-like voicing which compensates drive/ gain too much. So interested parties, be wary of this concern.
Through some clean settings, the S-440S sounds rather bland, there’s no proper neck pickup to help this guitar sing as the neck-most humbucker sits quite in the middle of the body. So if you are looking forward to that comp-friendly jazz voicing when you play clean, you might want to reconsider your option. It’s a definite crossover when you plug this guitar into a drive-intense setting; in its true manifestation, the S-440S was conceived to disintegrate everyone in its projection path so all ye of metal inclinations, for thee this Kramer was brought to life for.
All in all, the S-440S has a strong distortion performance, the default Quadrail pickups has very good bass response, this reviewer feels that there is a need to avoid truncating the treble setting too much for an overall balanced, less muddy, response.
Tone test equipment:
CLEAN
• Amp: Epiphone Valve Jr
• Effects: Artec SE-ADL (reverb inducing settings employed)
Straight through DISTORTION (guitar + amp only)
• Amps: Marshall JVM/ Sound Drive SG612R
Pedal induced DISTORTION
• Amp: Epiphone Valve Jr
• Effects: EHX Metal Muff/ Guyatone Metal Monster
Cascading DISTORTION
• Amp: Marshall JVM (OD1 channel, amber mode)
• Effects: Biyang OD-7/ Ibanez TS7/ BOSS OD-3/ MXR GT-Overdrive/ Rocktron Austin Gold
Rating: 85%
Conclusion
You’re set on buying a guitar for distorted tones primarily, you don’t mind a tranquil clean response, you need that visual attraction so a conformist body outline is out of the question & you are indeed on a budget; get this Kramer. If this is your subsequent guitar, be wary of that reverse headstock design as it needs a little getting used to. If you insist on getting both great clean & distorted tones, you need to look elsewhere. In this reviewer’s affordable yet above-average record book, this S-440S is a noted instrument.
Overall rating: 88%
Product availability: Swee Lee Co
Likes:
• Price
• QC
• Neck profile
Dislikes:
• No bag included
• Pickup positioning on body
• Bland clean tones
• Only one strap button provided
Worthy competitors:
• Dean XP V
• BC Rich KKV (Metal Master)
