“Keep Rude Dude”: Mick Mars’ ‘Girls, Girls, Girls’ Kramer appears in Motley Crüe’s You’re All I Need video, features NSFW rear artwork and has just gone up for auction
The guitar was used extensively during Motley Crüe’s 1987-88 Girls, Girls, Girls world tour
Mick Mars’ custom Girls, Girls, Girls Kramer KM-1 is to be sold at auction as part of Julien’s mammoth Music Icons collection.
The guitar, which featured heavily during the glam metaller’s heyday is part of a dizzying collection of historic instruments.
That includes Prince’s yellow Cloud 3, John Lennon’s Framus 12-string thought to have been “gone forever”, a ‘65 Bob Dylan Telecaster, and 200 guitars from Randy Bachman’s personal collection.
The 1987 Kramer, which bears the serial number #E10670, was used extensively during Motley Crüe’s 1987-88 Girls, Girls, Girls world tour. It was also immortalized in the music video for You’re All I Need.
Its visual aesthetic locks into the four-times-platinum selling record’s cover, with its red neon font, painted by Dennis Kline, all over its steel grey finish.
Its Telecaster-style body also sports a painting of, erm, “disembodied breasts” on its rear – stay classy, guys.
Mick Mars’ signature can be spotted near the bridge, along with the note “Keep Rude Dude, Mick Mars -91-”.
Get The Pick Newsletter
All the latest guitar news, interviews, lessons, reviews, deals and more, direct to your inbox!
The six-string offers a 25.5” scale length, with 22 frets making up its rosewood and dot inlay pocked fretboard. It also has two humbucker pickups (not specified), a black Floyd Rose for divebomb bombast, and black Schaller tuners.
There are three black control knobs – two volumes and one tone – and a three-way pickup switch, with its potentiometer resistors dating to the final weeks of 1986.
The guitar’s modesty is bolstered with a black hardshell case with a black interior.
At an estimated $60,000-80,000, it represents one of the more modest guitars in the Music Icons collection. The haul includes a plaque and a Creem Guitar Heroes of Metal Collector Series magazine. Mars features in that issue and can be seen ripping a different Girls, Girls, Girls guitar.
The guitar will be displayed at an exhibition at the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville between May 15 and 18.
It then moves to Times Square’s Hard Rock Cafe between May 22 and 28, before the auction, which will be held at Hard Rock Cafe New York on May 29 and 30.
Head to Julien’s to learn more about this iconic glam metal guitar.
Thank you for reading 5 articles this month**
Join now for unlimited access
US pricing $3.99 per month or $39.00 per year
UK pricing £2.99 per month or £29.00 per year
Europe pricing €3.49 per month or €34.00 per year
*Read 5 free articles per month without a subscription
A freelance writer with a penchant for music that gets weird, Phil is a regular contributor to Prog, Guitar World, and Total Guitar magazines and is especially keen on shining a light on unknown artists. Outside of the journalism realm, you can find him writing angular riffs in progressive metal band, Prognosis, in which he slings an 8-string Strandberg Boden Original, churning that low string through a variety of tunings. He's also a published author and is currently penning his debut novel which chucks fantasy, mythology and humanity into a great big melting pot.
“A great-looking guitar that’s just a few minor tweaks away from being as good as its style suggests”: Gretsch Electromatic Pristine Ltd Jet Single-Cut with Bigsby review
“Billy Corgan literally said he wanted the ‘Sabbath note.’ He wanted that midrange that Tony Iommi has that really cuts through”: Reverend Guitars’ founders on their wild signature collabs with Smashing Pumpkins, Vernon Reid and Reeves Gabrels