Kramer Assault 211

127
127
T
ake a good, hard look at your guitar.
Sure, you guys have had some good
times together; you’ll never forget
bringing it home from Argos, holding
it all night long, forming your calluses on its
cheesewire strings, promising you’d take on
the world. But be honest: you’ve outgrown
each other. Your fingers are writing cheques
the fretboard can’t cash. Your band are
playing venues the pickups can’t fill. A split is
on the cards, and you’re going to need a new
songwriting partner.
That’s where this issue’s Group Test
comes in. We’re not lying in the gutter with
four budget-scraping horrors. Nor are we
looking at the stars with a quartet of limited-
edition pipe dreams. Instead, we’ve rounded
up four realistic rockers that shouldn’t break
the bank and that we hope should prove a
killer choice for improving guitarists, whether
you’re keeping them as a spare or rocking
them nightly on the gig circuit.
We’re setting a tight-ish budget of £500
on this test, but you’d be amazed how
far that gets you. First in the ring is Adam
Black’s Brit-built Libra UK (£399), fighting
a bloody price-point battle with Hagstrom’s
Ultra Swede (£399). Cheaper still is the
Kramer Assault 211 FR (£299), while Italia’s
Maranello Speedster1 (£449) brings a dash
of va-va-voom to proceedings at the higher
end of the price point.
■
Flip the page to
 nd out which one
won our Group Test
head-to-head
“THESE ROCKERS ARE
REALISTIC AS SPARES
OR FOR GIGGING”
Adam Black
Libra UK
Italia Maranello
Speedster1
TGR201.gear_test 127 24/3/10 2:04:25 pm