Kramer Baretta FR404S/D

update to a previous review i submitted 2 years ago (!!!), still think features are excellent for a guitar this price. neck-thru, nice grover tuners, decent floyd copy (not great, but works fine). very high-output pickups, coil-splitting, 24 frets. i also like the comfortable shape of the neck and the frets arent super high like many other modern floyd rose type guitars. d-tuner but i have never ever used it, i'm always in standard or occasionally open tunings.

although the stock pickups were decent, i always wanted to upgrade - dimarzio x2n in the bridge, duncan '59 in the neck. definitely a big step up in terms of clarity and character, but these 2 pickups just dont work together (i've heard alnico 2 mixes better with ceramic than alnico 5 does), plus i have no need for a pickup as hot and heavy as the x2n (though it is good), so im gonna chuck a gfs dream180 in the bridge. this guitar is acoustically resonant and dark, probably due to the neck-through design and mass of heavy wood, good basis for an excellent amplified sound. 6 or 7 stock. 9 with change. hopefully 10 with next swap!

almost everything was fine from the factory. BUT. i believe either the 15th fret is too short or the 16th fret too tall because there is unacceptable buzz at this fret - should be easy to sort out but annoying nonetheless. also the tremolo doesnt have enough spring for my liking, and although there's nothing wrong with it, i'm going to get a gfs fastloader soon, more out of curiosity's sake than anything else. i just believe in buying a cheap guitar with a nice neck and good acoustic sound, everything else can be changed - give your guitar some personality!

i've gigged with this frequently for over 2 years and have never had any problems that weren't my own fault (got to stop drinking) :) i've noticed people always say "never gig without a backup" - well i reckon if you put new strings on that day or the night before - why not? unless you're pete townsend

only dealt with them to ask about potentiometer ratings so dont know, but they were quick, and it was post-sale

still glad i bought it, and its back at my top spot - good value, but production of kramer guitars seems very erratic. if you live in britain - check amazon because they are the only place you can buy kramer online from here - it'll be cheaper than the ones they import in academy of sound or whatever. but you'll be taking a bit of a risk - this guitar had some imperfections when i received it, but fortunately they are minor and i accept i am taking a small risk when buying online - but sometimes something seems too good a deal to pass up, and let's face it - kramers are f***in' cool and i had to have one!

2002 model, maple neck-thru-body with alder wings, 24 frets, I changed mine to 1H 1vol, Licensed Floyd.

With the stock quadrails, the sound was okay for heavy metal rhythm work, but with leads the sound was muddy and just didn't cut through. I replaced the bridge quadrail with a Duncan Distortion, and it gave this guitar new life.

Setup at the factory was horrible. When I received the guitar, the action was about 1/4" above the 12th fret, the truss rod needed to be adjusted, and the trem did not sit anywhere near level when the guitar was tuned. I own 3 of these guitars, and 2 of them have noisy/scratchy pots. Cosmetically, I could not find any flaws with these guitars.
After replacing the pickups and electronics with quality parts and spending about an hour on the setup, this is a pro-quality guitar.

I gig with these guitars several times a month, and have had no issues. I filled in the routes for the neck humbucker, tone knob, and selector switch to make these 1H/1V guitars. I replaced the quadrail with a Duncan Distortion pickup, and put a quality volume pot in the guitar, and have found the guitar to be very reliable. I've heard of a lot of people getting rid of the Kramer licensed Floyd, but I am a fairly trem user, and have had no problems whatsoever with the Kramer Floyd. It never goes out of tune and always returns perfectly to pitch.

I've never used their customer service, but I've heard nothing but good things. They do have a no-questions-asked return policy if you're not happy with your guitar.

I've been playing on and off for almost 20 years, but only seriously for the last 2. I play mostly metal. If these guitars were stolen, I would replace them. If you're prepared to put in the time to properly set up the guitar (or pay someone to do it), and prepared to spend around $100 replacing the low-quality stock parts for decent ones, you'll end up with a top notch guitar that plays as well as anything out there.

They've stopped making this particular model so i presume it was made late 2003/early 2004. 24 jumbo frets 1 vol, 1 tone (with push-pull coil-tap). H/H config. floyd rose. quad-rails. 3piece Maple neck-thru alder body wings etc etc go to musicyo.com for specs. this one's metallic red which suits the whole '80s sportscar retro vibe. excellent grover tuners lots of cool features for the money. Chunky comfortable neck, with fairly flat radius rosewood fretboard, frets and fretboard good quality, nicely polished. d-tuna worthless for me and slightly spoils the look but doesn't affect anything

i play hard rock and this guitar has tons of output, very thick fat sound with quad-rails untapped, can be a little murky-sounding but very powerful and smooth lead sounds. for rhythm work i prefer to tap the bridge pickup, has a slightly thinner twangy quality vaguely similar to a p-90 but still powerful. am not especially into high-output neck pickups and this one sounds very dark, i much prefer this pickup tapped. clean sounds are useable untapped and actually quite nice in any position with the pickups split (especially the mid posn.). All in all, good quality thick sounds. i may change the pickups eventually to something a little clearer but these are fine. 8 and a half Very rich and resonant acoustically

i can't expect a great setup for a #250 floyd-rose guitar that has travelled something like 3000 miles, but i easily adjusted it to my tastes. scratch on headstock presumably from careless storage. the only thing that bothers me is that from the 19th to 22nd frets on under the high e-string there is a slight indentation where the guitar has clearly been dropped on its front - it's so slight that it doesn't affect the playing but it IS a bit annoying.

seems very solid. is very heavy which i find reassuring and not a problem cuz i trade between this an a Mavrick F-1 live. Finish seems thick, strap buttons are solid, i actually bought this guitar as a backup but it gets just as much attention as my main guitar

actually bought it off a distributer in uk so i can't speak for muicyo but these guys were very helpful and quick

been playing 8 years my style is very variable but at the moment am really digging outrageous 80s hard rock which i suppose compelled me to buy this axe. i can't believe this was only #250 new, it plays sounds and looks better than guitars i've played that were #hundreds more. i advise ayone with an interest in floyd-equipped gtrs to check this out, my next guitar purchase will probably be an other Kramer. In terms of value, a definite 10.

See other reviews below. Mine is red.

It sounds fantastic. I posted this review mainly to defend the QuadRails, which people seem fond of bashing. Don't believe it. They're excellent for all types of metal/rock, which really is what the target market for this guitar is. The sustain is great (neck-thru design helps a lot), and the dual humbucker setup with coil tapping makes the guitar really versatile. Interestingly, it's noticeably lighter than a Fender strat, but this doesn't impact the sound.

I had to set mine up, and most reviews I've read have said the same thing. No big deal. Otherwise, the build quality is excellent. I was leery the licensed Floyd Rose, but it actually stays in tune perfectly, even in really heavy use. The finish looks great, the neck is really playable and the electronics work perfectly.

I've had it for about a year now, have played it regularly (i.e., at least every other day) including some gigs, and it looks like it did the day I got it. It is dependable, but you need a backup with a locking-tremolo equipped guitar since string changes can knock you out of tune. My only complaint is not with the guitar itself, but with the D-Tuna, which was really flimsy and which required the floating bridge to be stabilized (dive bombing only - no more pulling up). I eventually got sick of it and took it off.

MusicYo is pretty good. They take guitars back for a month with no questions asked, will respond courteously and quickly to e-mails, etc. The downside is you have to pay for shipping if you return an item (not that much $$$, but still). I didn't like the first guitar I purchased from them (not a quality issue), so I sent it back and they credited me right away.

Overall, I give it a 10. I bought it for nostalgia's sake (I traded in a Kramer back in the 90s and missed it), but it's an excellent guitar. Fact is, this one was 1/3 the price of the '80s model I had and, even though the collectors will think I'm nuts, I think it's a much better guitar overall than the old '80s Kramer I had.

Again, a super-strat style body, maple neck-thru with alder wings. Two humbuckers, vol & tone knobs, coil split on the tone knob. Floyd licensed trem with locking nut. Psycho Splatter finish!

This has my favorite electrical setup, two hums with coil split. I would make the volume push/pull and get rid of the tone (I might still) but otherwise this is exactly how I would have it. The wiring is fine, the pickups are good, but I find they're best suited for light distort classic rock type stuff, which kind of clashes with the wild Psycho Splatter finish. I replaced the bridge pickup with a Dimarzio Evo, and everything's great now. Nice sustain. I liked the original sound a lot, but it didn't fit the look, so I knock off two points.

The setup was pretty good when I got it, but I bought it as a scratch & dent, so maybe the first owner set it up. It's not important in my mind. I set these things up myself regardless. All in all it seems very solidly built. I like the neck profile, which is thicker than Ibanez's wizard, but thinner than average. The headstock tilts back, the Floyd is somewhat recessed, there's a little pit there to make room for the EVH D-Tuna, which earlier Barettas didn't have. I have a little problem with the high E string sliding off the neck during bends. If the neck was a bolt-on, I'd try to shim it to fix that. Anyway, I can live with that. I've always been curious about the Psycho Splatter finish. It's white, with tiny dots of red and black paint scattered across the guitar. It's like someone held a brush loaded with paint and swiped just above the guitar two or three times. It's kicky, but it won't put anyone in mind of a gory crime scene.

It's durable, it'll hold its tuning, assuming you don't have the Floyd floating. Only Ibanez's Edge and Lo-Pros can float successfully, and even then only in the best conditions. I would say "Go ahead, throw it around, it's cheap" but for the fact that many of the Barettas are disappearing from musicyo.com. Because of this I'm valuing these guitars more than I did before, and there are several Kramer/MusicYo models I wish I hadn't missed out on.

I've ordered several things from MusicYo. Once I ordered 4 guitar hangers and received only one. One email and roughly four days later I had the other three. Their support is at least average, and they seem ready to take their lumps if a product is no good. I got this as a scratch and dent deal, and all I could find wrong was a broken high E string. They must have accepted this back from another customer who had little or no reason to complain.

The Musicyo Kramers have been around a few years now. They're cheap, some of them are very cheaply made, mainly the <$100 models, and they haven't been taken all that seriously. I thought what everyone thought, here's a way for me to get the kind of guitar I couldn't otherwise afford, maybe someday I'll get a REAL guitar. Well, 4 years and roughly 8 used Ibanez's, ESP's and whatever elses later, I'm back with Kramer. They're solid, cheap, well-made and unpretentious. Maybe you won't be as happy with one as I am, but you're certainly not going to open the box and scream to the heavens "My God, what have I done?!" Kramer seems to be dropping the Barettas one by one, and their wilder designs are disappearing as well. It would be a shame if they stop making guitars, because I think their 'retail model' is new, and smart, and a better way to buy and sell musical equipment. Go ahead, buy a Kramer, hotrod it, do what you like. If you buy them, they'll make more.

Got it late 2003. Neck-thru w/ rosewood fretboard and 24 frets, terrible quad-rail pickups and a licensed floyd.

I do not like the quad rails at all, as soon as it arrived and I plugged it in I swapped them out for duncans - a trembucker and a 59. Now this beauty competes for playing time with my esp stephen carpenter signature model, which cost me more than eight times as much.

The guitar arrived very poorly set up, but I have no clue as to whether it came from the factory like this, or if the previous owner messed it up. Regardless, it took less than an hour for truss rod adjustment, action setup and intonation. The fretwork is fantastic, akin to more high end guitars, and the finish is nice...of course you can't expect a nice translucent finish or flame top etc for this price, but I'd much prefer it to a solid color.

So far so good.....the licensed floyd will go soon to make way for an original, and then I'll have no complaints. I'd gig with it without a backup in a pinch, but that's never smart.

dunno

Search around, good deals can be had......and for $200 this guitar is the deal of a lifetime. For less than $400 total this guitar screams like a $1000 american made axe.

Got it 2003. Korea. Maple Neck through. Hardtail. Quad Rails. Coil split.

Sounds extremely muddy. Useless for blues, but does sound good on very high gain settings of my ROland Cube 30. QUiet. It does not "sparkle". Nice lead tone, but for any type of rhythm other than speed metal type stuff, I call it pretty useless.

Beautiful guitar. Well made well balanced. Nice neck. Needed setup, but neck is arrow straight and fretwork is excellent. Intonation was way out.

When I got it, there was an electrical short. SIgnal would keep dropping. Had to re-solder it. But other than that, it is great. THis thing stays in tune and I do 2 step bends and the like.

NA

I rate it a 10, since I paid $100 for it, but if I paid list, I would rate it an 8. DO NOT buy this instrument if you want versatility. It does EXACTLY oner thing.... thrash.

Good. Everything you need -> 10

Ok clean sound. Killer Disto sound. Don't be fooled by people saying it's too muddy blabla... Put tone on full, use the right amount of Gain and watch it fly!
Perfect Metal sound, I can play Maiden, Metallica, Iced Earth, Pantera without any problems. Sounds just as good as a Jackson/Charvel - trust me.
I use a Peavey Bandit for Practice and plugging it direct to it with reverb on max i can play eruption PERFECTLY - sounds just like the tape with that cheap of a equipment!

Action was good, but I changed it about 200 times since i bought it.
The finish is perfect no flaws at all. PERFECT!. Frets are good and it's a very fast playing neck. Better than those Ibanez Wizards in my opinion. It plays perfectly smooth. But I do have some problems with the action and the neck pickup tends to literally fall down into the wood -hehe. I'll fix that some other time thus --> 9!

I've gigged with it about 5-6 times. No probs, I never used a backup. I have slaughtered this guitar on stage I'll give you the link for the video sometime. It was perfectly in tune and looks killer.
Strap buttons are solid enough for me. I give it a 9 because no guitar is 100% reliable, especially with a Floyd (which is pretty good by the way on this one, a little rough though) because strings can break even on a 2000$ Soloist and then your screwed.

Suits my style. Great looks, good tone, good sustain.
IF you really search for the best, get new pickups. That's it, then it's better than those Soloists hehe, because it plays perfect. Trust me. Many acoustic guitarists have told me how great and fast it plays.

Features have been mentioned many times already..24 fret, Neck thru, alder body,Quadrail humbuckers w/ coil tappin..FLoyd rose style trem..all the fun stuff!!
I give it a 10, because its a $300 guitar with neck thru construction

Other reviews have said this guitar is muddy with distortion..Im guessin its more nu-metal players using way to much distortion to cover up sloppy playing...Because this has VERY good tone...Its got a very thick sound..The quadrails total kill the Seymour pickups in my strat, the volume control is very responsive and accurate...Spin it down..and it gets a great light overdrive tone, I play alot of Dream Theater, Children of Bodom..Vai..and a wide variety of classic/modern stuff
This guitar is great for that style.. Also, i should mention, clean without coil tap..Now that is muddy..and IMO un-useable, BUT coil tap them...and its a nice bright clean sound. Not much of a punch too it, like a Strat has..but this guitar is "made to rock hard"
Last about the sound..this guitar is noise free. Im talking EMG noise free. Overall i give it a 10, because this one of the few guitars under $400 that doesnt require a pickup change to sound good.

When i pulled this guitar out of the box, the finish FLOORED me. I had to get red, because its only left handed color available, Beautiful guitar though. Setup was decent, ive had it 3 weeks..and havent had it setup yet..the action is nice..Only needs alittle tweaking..The Kramer Floyd rose is decent..I am having a problem, that when i use it for an extended period, the tuning of the guitar goes flat..BUT this guitar has not been setup yet. and the bridge needs alot of adjustment,wont even pull up a 3rd..which being routed the way it is..should hit a 5th. But the fact this guitar plays as good as it does with a poor setup....yeah, thats good.
My only complicant, is there is a short in the pickup selector..everynow and then it will cut out, and the pickups lose alot of output..Not to mention it feels like it will break off easy, but easy fix. But hey..$300 guitar...I will be shocked if this is the only electrical related problem!!!
Also, the D-tuna is crap, I took it off and gave it away..It does not work with this guitar, Mine rested on the body, and just put the guitar out of tune..so ill let someone else figure out how to use it
Music yo sends you the pieces to take it off.
Also, the allen wrench holders on the back the headstock are one of the greatest things..EVER.

Only had the guitar a few weeks, but seems very well built over all
I plan gigging alot with it. In the time ive had it, ive played 4-6 hours A DAY on it..Only had the small problems i mention above..Which are easily fixed. You will not believe how much you paid for this guitar...

I emailed Musicyo before i bought it..Still havent got a response..So, who knows..

I love this guitar, i have not played a guitar under $1000 i like better.. I plan on buying a 7 string Kramer next in fact
This guitar kills the midlevel Jacksons as far as playablity and reliablity.. I liked it better than Ibanez RG series, just for the fact it sounds better, and is Neck thru(not to mention $100s cheaper than the RG470 and RG570)
If your looking for a "Shred" guitar and dont have $1000s to spend, GET A KRAMER!!!!!

korean made
24 neck thr body
3-way control, available to switch to singal coil
rail pickup
maple tap neck
floyd rose

great for hard stuff~~
fairly good clean tone(don't compare with fender, its for hard~~)
the sound of this axe really kick the ass of big company around this price arrange

so far so good for korean made guitar
anyway, don't expect too much for a cheap guitar

just brought a week
it works fine to me

any tried

well, u may like to buy a hard stuff such like jackson/ibanez rg...
do try karmer before u make ur purchase decision
i think its the best choice for a cheap/hard stuff
the quailty is far more better than other brands
does it clean tone damn? nope, really fairly acceptable...
if u play jazz/blues, it won't suit u...go to play a fender/gibson...
how come a karmer.............lol~~~~~~