History of Vaccaro Guitars

RE-DEFINING SOUND

The Vaccaro Guitar Company was founded in 1997 by the Father and Son team Henry Vaccaro Sr. and Henry Vaccaro Jr. in their hometown of Asbury Park NJ. Vaccaro’s high quality cutting edge electric guitars and basses featured a revolutionary proprietary aluminum neck design that produced phenomenal sustain, intense attack and vibrant note definition. They were virtually indestructible. The guitar body designs were equally as impressive with bold retro styled looks that attracted many top artists such as Lenny Kravitz, Kid Rock and The Edge of U2.

The Vaccaro’s passion for guitars has lead them to spend the last decade further developing and perfecting their Newly Patented Aluminum Core Guitar Neck Design. It’s now even stronger and more vibrant sounding than ever before! The new Vaccaro Line will feature all top quality tone woods, high-end components and striking modern designs, coupled with Vaccaro’s passion for perfection. The new Vaccaro Guitar line is taking inspiration and help from their vast guitar legacy. That legacy is the original world renown Kramer Guitar Company, and the team that propelled Kramer to the hottest guitar company in the world. The team has joined forces once again to Relaunch the New and Improved Vaccaro Guitars.

1976 Dennis Berardi and Henry Vaccaro Sr

Background History

The Kramer Guitar Company

Kramer was started in 1976 by founders of Kramer, Dennis Berardi, and developer Henry Vaccaro in Neptune NJ. All instruments featured their unique aluminum guitar neck design. The Kramer aluminum necks were made from a structural aircraft grade aluminum forging. The benefits of these necks were that it 1976 Dennis Berardi and Henry Vaccaro Sr provided the player with tremendous sustain and note clarity, and the sound was like no other guitar. The forging also provided rigidity unlike conventional wood necks that warped, bowed or twisted over time.

On the picture: 1976 Dennis Berardi and Henry Vaccaro Sr

The downside to this design was it was very costly to manufacture, players felt the cold metal while playing and the necks, and they were heavier than to which players were accustomed. However, the phenomenal sound and beautifully created guitars drew endorsements from R&B Heavyweights Earth Wind and Fire. Vanilla Fudge, The Jacksons and Stanley Clarke to Rock Acts KISS, Kansas, Uriah Heap, Meatloaf, Genesis and Country Superstars The Johnny Cash Band, The Oak Ridge Boys and Hank Williams Jr. While all this was happening, a young Henry Jr fell in love with all things guitars and was introduced to the world of Rock N Roll. Through Kramer, Henry Jr was exposed to the music industry at an early age and developed life long relationships with some of the biggest names in the business.

In 1982 the late great Eddie Van Halen joined forces with Kramer Guitars. Eddie’s meteoric rise in the guitar world, his impact on the MTV Generation, and Pop Culture in general was so powerful that Kramer became a household name. As a result, Kramer was catapulted to one of the biggest guitar companies in the world!

For two years running, Kramer Guitars was voted by the readers of Guitar Magazine to be the Number One Guitar in the under $500 price range, and the Number One Guitar in the over $500 in price range for the entire US. Kramer Guitars was endorsed by other top bands of the day. Those artists included Bon Jovi, Skid Row, Motley Crue, Queensryche, Twisted Sister, Cinderella, Loverboy, Enuffs Z Nuf, Heart, Guns & Roses and White Snake. Even tennis player John McEnroe and Vitas Gerulaitis and comedian Sam Kinison.

On the picture: Henry Sr with Eddie & Valerie

Enter The Era of Vaccaro Guitar

In 1997, following the purchase of Kramer Guitars by Gibson, Henry Vaccaro Sr. along with his son, Henry Jr., launched Vaccaro Guitars based upon a redesigned version of the Kramer aluminum neck with the help of famed luthier Dr. Philip Petillo. Henry Sr., drawing from construction background, set out to redesign and improved upon the original Kramer aluminum neck concept. The first thing in the redesign was changing the structural forging to a structural aluminum extrusion, making it lighter and fully encasing the aluminum in wood, allowing the player feel the warmth of traditional wood neck that he was accustomed to and not cold metal. This design did away with all the drawbacks associated with the old Kramer forged aluminum neck, but kept the positives, which were the sustain, punch and note attack, note clarity and definition, neck stability and the indestructibility of the neck.

The Vaccaro line of guitars and basses utilized the finest components.They were hand crafted in their Asbury Park NJ under the management of former Kramer craftsman—Paul Unkert, and Painted under the management of Former Kramer guitar painter George Felise. (Eddie Van Halen’s famous ‘5150 Hot for Teacher’ guitar that sold for just under $4M in 2023 was built by Paul Unkert and Painted by George Felise at Kramer)

Some of the notable artists using Vaccaros

The Edge from U2 who re-recorded their smash hit “The Sweetest Thing” using a Vaccaro Generator Guitar stating “I have used the instrument on some of our recent recording and I love it, Congratulations on producing a modern classic!” - The Edge Dublin.

Lenny Kravitz Appeared on The American Music Awards playing his Custom Red Silver and Blue Sparkle Vaccaro Comet.For his performance of “American Woman” The Band Fountains of Wayne featured matching safety yellow Vaccaro Guitars throughout their hit MTV Video “Denise” Kid Rock featuring his Vaccaro Comets on the inside album cover of “The History of Rock”.

Other Vaccaro Artists included Peter Distefano (Porno for Pyros) Stevie Salas (Mick Jagger, Rod Stewart), Ira Dean (Trick Pony), Steve Stevens (Billy Idol), Billy Idol, Eric Erlandson (Hole), Rodney Sheppard (Sugar Ray), Geno Enter The Era of Vaccaro Guitar Lenny Kravitz playing his Custom Red Silver and Blue Sparkle Vaccaro Comet. The photo is from his “American Woman” performance at The American Music Awards.Lenardo (Filter), Blues Saraceno, CC Deville (Poison) Allen Woody (Gov’t Mule), Kenny Vaughan (Marty Stuart) & Everlast

VACCARO GUITARS Re-EnVisioned

The new and improved neck design captures more natural resonance, attack, note definition and sustain than ever before. Thus magnifying your tone that will redefine your sound while maintaining the feel, comfort and weight of a traditional wood neck. The metal core ensures the necks rigidity obtaining optimum trueness for tuning stability.

Vaccaro Guitars has recently opened shop in Asbury Park. The factory is currently set up as a custom shop. It will be focused on building high-end production and custom guitars, using our new and improved proprietary guitar neck technology. This technology gives us the capability of building our Wooden-Aluminum guitar neck at a significantly lower cost than our original Vaccaro Guitar Neck. This will give us the opportunity to offer top quality consumer grade models at a price that is affordable. Giving the opportunity to the masses to purchase our unparalleled instrument.

We are also in the midst of designing an updated line of guitars that incorporate the original Vaccaro Guitars style, The Kramer Shredder guitar styles, as well as traditional timeless guitars.

Our Custom Shop is led by both Master Luthier Paul Unkert. The Vaccaro Atomic Paint Shop is ran by Master Guitar Painter George Felise. We are all excited beyond words to see this new product hit the market like none we have ever seen before. We are opening both departments to the public for custom guitars and custom paint finishes.