Kramer Baretta-II Pro

Made in Korea, in March 2001, although I bought it new from MusicYo in December 2003! Either they forgot it in a corner of the warehouse, or they don't sell many of them, or it kept being returned by customers (though it looked brand new). Two humbuckers. MusicYo lists them as "Kramer USA", but mine came with two Seymour Duncans: JB in bridge and JN (Jazz) in the neck, probably because in 2001 when it was made they were still using Duncans. Maple neck thru with alder body wings. Kind of Strat-ish body style with pointy non-reverse headstock. 1 volume and 1 push-pull tone. When tone is pulled, it coil taps the humbuckers, and the coils closest to the neck are on.
Mine is metallic black. That's black with some small aluminum shavings thrown in the paint, I guess. I would have preferred just plain black, but it's not available. Original Made in Germany Floyd Rose tremolo, not recessed, floating, so it can pull up. The non-recessed tremolo causes the strings to sit higher than usual from the body. I thought it would be a pain, but got used to it quickly. Gotoh tuners. Locking nut. Rosewood neck, 24 medium jumbo frets and a pretty flat 16" radius. On the thin side, but not Ibanez thin!. Pretty good features overall.

I'm into hard rock/metal/progressive (it's a Kramer, right?). At home, I plug straight into my computer, which I modified so that it has two guitar inputs right on the front panel, FET buffered so they have a 1 Meg impedance, as they should. The output of the FET buffers goes to the Line In of my M-Audio sound card. From there, into my Digital Audio Workstation (Sonar 3), and the Amplitude plugin, which I use as my Guitar Effects processor (and beats the HELL of the Boss ME-8 and ME-33 I had before!)
The guitar sounds very nice and resonant when not amplified, which is a hint that it will sound good when amplified. With the Seymour Duncans it came with, it sounded very nice clean in all positions. Almost acoustic with the neck pickup and coil tapping. When distorted though, I found the JB not hot enough and with too much bass, which turns into mud at high gain settings (I mean metal-grade high!). It was less hot and muddier sounding than my cheap crappy chinese Aria Pro II with stock bridge humbucker! This is a metal guitar, but the pickups they chose, though really nice for cleaner sounds, are not well suited for metal, I find. BUT! For reasons detailed in the next section, I ended up selling both pickups (luckily they have pretty good resale value, dunno about the newer Kramer USA though...) and replacing them with DiMarzio X2N's. Yes, I even put an X2N in the neck, though it's theoretically not supposed to go there. Man, what a HUGE difference they made! They competely transformed the guitar. Now it completely RIPS, with excellent note-to-note definition, even when playing open chords at huge gain! And those palm muted riffs! Crystal clear, not the slightest hint of mud, lots and lots of pick attack, with that infamous bass swell afterwards. Think the German band Accept. Both their rhythm and lead parts seem to have been played with this guitar! With the X2N's on it, this is clearly the best metal guitar I ever played in my 20 years of playing. Cannot be beat! As for clean tones, many people bitch about the X2N's, but on this guitar, they sound very decent clean. Those who bitch about distortion even on the clean channel probably have their amp gain set too high, or the amp just can't deal with the high output of the X2N and distorts when it shouldn't. No pickups produce distortion on their own!
When coil tapped, the X2N's actually sound very Strat-like, except hotter. One coil of an X2N is hotter than the Duncan JB with both coils on, by the way. My rating for sound would be 7 with the original pickups, and a perfect 10 with the X2N's. On average, a 9-

OK, here we go. I'm in Canada. Shipping the guitar back to MusicYo would cost me lots of $$$, plus shipping it my way was $62 which I won't get back if I return it, plus I paid duty, and I'd have to unleash a bureaucratic nightmare to get it back. If it weren't for all this, I would have returned the guitar immediately. It was THAT bad!. Note that I didn't buy the guitar blemished, it was supposed to be brand new and flawless! Here we go:
- Finish was buffed through to the wood in several spots along the edge of the body, on the back side (the edges are pretty sharp by design, very little rounding off, so I guess it's easy to buff them thru if you're not careful)
- Skewed Floyd Rose. Not square with the pickups and neck! About 2mm closer to the bridge pickup at bottom compared to the top. Does not affect functionality, but it's ugly to look at and unprofessional.
- They did not have the sense to use a tremolo spaced (or F-spaced) pickup in the bridge position. The use of a standard spaced JB resulted in poor string alignment and both E strings almost completely off the poles, sounding faint compared to the other strings. Were they BLIND? And DEAF? Anyway, this is how I started to think about replacing the pickups, and luckily the Seymour Duncans sold well, but still, are they total idiots who don't know that there are two different pickup spacings?
- The included Tremolo bar simply did not fit into the Floyd Rose receptacle! It won't go in, no matter how hard I tried. I'm sure they mixed up and included one that was meant for "licensed" Floyd Rose and it was slightly too big.
- There were a few chips in the varnish along the upper side of the fretboard. Funny, you don't feel them as you glide your hand past them, but they were clearly visible.
- One of the humbucker ring mounting screws was shorter and fatter than the others. I discovered this when I replaced the pickups. They must have stripped the hole and had to use a fatter screw. Its head is slightly bigger, so you can see it if you look close.
- The idiots used linear taper pots, instead of the correct Audio taper, for both Volume and Tone controls! This means that most of the volume and tone changes happen in about 20% of the range of their respective pots, and the other 80% of the range has almost no effect. Idiots! Idiots! Incompetent dumbasses!
- Fret #23 was really high, causing lots of buzz when playing on the high frets. Also a few smaller buzzes here and there on the neck. I'll have to take it to a pro to have it leveled.

The guitar is solid. The neck is very hard to flex, so it stays in tune really good, even after realy crazy dive bombs. The original Floyd Rose with locking nut helps here, too. Too bad the finish probably won't last very long, considering the buff thru's that I've seen. It's probably thinned out by excessive buffing. The hardware is good quality, but put together by a bunch of poorly trained monkeys. I think I can depend on it, but due to the floating Floyd Rose, I wouldn't gig without a backup. When a string breaks, the whole thing goes out of tune, and it takes a while to change a string on it. You have to cut off the ball end, find the Allen keys etc.

Customer Service was great, I have to admit. And the price I ended up paying was so low, that I overlooked all its defects and turned it into a project guitar. Fixed it up, sold its pickups, bought new ones, modified the wiring big time etc. But still... I bought a new guitar, not parts for a project guitar! And this is what it ended up being.
Normally the guitar sells for $599 on MusicYo. I got a $300 off coupon by e-mail (which is what made me buy it), so it cost me $299 (+ $62 shipping to Canada + duty!). After complaining to MusicYo, about the problems I found, they gave me $100 off to live with it as is (it was my suggestion). For $599, I would have been VERY pissed with the quality. For $299, still pissed, because the fact that I had a coupon is not grounds for them to send me an inferior product. For the $199 I ended up paying, what the hell can I say? I could sell it in parts for more! I made $110 just on the pickups... So in conclusion, only buy it if the price is right. Certainly not worth $599 as I received it.

Overall, after all the work I did on it, it turned out great and I'm now very happy with it, it just rocks big time, sounds great and stays in tune like a synth. If it were stolen, I'd be extra pissed, after all the work I put in it. I wouldn't buy it again, though, because you just never know what you get from MusicYo and it's a big hassle and waste of money to return it from Canada. Next time I'll make sure I can try a guitar before buying it. If you're in the US, though, considering that shipping is free, no duty to pay and you have 30 days to return it, you might want to take a chance if price is right.

this beauty was made finely in Korea, i dont really know much about the quality of guitar construction in different countrys but this guitar is made brilliantly. it has a finished neck thru designed neck for great sustain with 24 frets, its 2 pcs laminated hard maple so the babys quite tuff , not as light as an SG or a Strat but less heavier than a les paul .... just right in my perspective, and the balance is spot on the strap bolts are mint! its has 1 volume & 1 tone which is great cos you can nail all them volume swells , the tone nob is coil tapped aswell so you can have an unreal range tone just using your guitar , the tonal range is amazering! both pickups on this are seymour duncan and they sound great (seymours always do). the finish aswell was spot on , i got mine in metallic red .... its like a dark candy apple red which looks vintage! the body is like a strats body only better because the wings are longer and it has better balance than a strat! and it comes equipped with a USA floyd rose locking trem in a gorgeous chrome ...... and the son of a gun never goes out of tune! it has gotoh SG tuning pegs which are top and the locking nut never ceases to amaze so its perfect for all that 80's shred rock sorta stuff. back to the neck > its nice n thin and great for fast soloing .... i own an SG and theyre terrible for it cos the necks real big, i dint receive anything free with this axe but at such a great price and with fed ex's speedy quick deliveries i didnt really expect much else..... but all in all i was please please pleased with this Kramer Baretta 2-pro and i recommend you all to bag ya self one !

i play everything from 80's rock to 90's pop to blues to every damn thing and the tone variety covers all them areas and more. i own a marshall vs100 combo amp & it sounds great distorted and clean , i cant really explain the ranges of tone cos theyre so vast but theyre great all in all.

the guitar came in great condition lookin as gorge as ever, it actually looks so much better up close than in the pic! the factory setup was great 2 , trem nice n high , well out of tune but wodda ya expect , came with the allen keys (of course) for the nut so once it was tuned i was away , there was no flaws or blemishes. the pickups are arranged great and the bridge is routed as the trem is floating.

i've played her live once since xmas and she stood up with excellence , great sound great action great lookin ! the body is well put 2geva so it looks as if it will last as long as me. the strap bolts are solid in and i dunno about dependin on it for a gig without a backup cos if you snap a string the crowd aint gonna watch you re-string the buggger but other than that , top notch !

music yo were spot on , always reply straight away and the delivery speed was mint! came half way across the world in 2 days in great nick! the warranty is 39 days or somethin but i never had any worrys or problems so its fine by me.

i've been playin for 3 years now , i own an epiphone acoustic , and epiphone SG and for the last year or so i've been well into my halen , gilbert , vai stuff so this guitar is more than perfect for that stuff ! great value for money ...... go & buy 1 !

To the best of my knowledge, this guitar was made in late 2001, one of the last, I suppose, to be supplied with the Duncan Jazz and JB pickups. Made in Korea, I was terribly gratified by the overall impression it gave right out of the hard case I ordered with it. It has a full two octave, 24 fret rosewood fingerboard that is radiused perfectly (in my opinion) from end to end. The neck is of maple, and goes all the way through, with alder wings double cut in a "SuperStrat" style reminiscent of Jackson Solists. Mine was finished in metallic red and topped off with a chrome Original Floyd Rose and Gotoh tuners. Ireceived a thin, junky little instrument cable (which I use without complaint) and there is a chromed wrench holder in back of the non-reverse "banana" headstock.

Since I play in an "old school" noisy shredder style, This guitar mates well with the Crate GFX212T amplifier I own, which is solid state. The Baretta 2 Pro is as near to perfect as anything I've owned before, and the Crate makes the most of it. The guitar's electronics are somewhat hummy and noisier than I'd like when the volume is turned down, but moving away from the amp cancells most of this. The duncan Jazz pickup is superb, with plenty of clarity for lead passages, but a little muddy for chording on clean channels. The Duncan JB is a little less hot than I prefer I can get great rhythm "chunk" out of it, but leads are somewhat thin. I'll likely drop a Scremin' Demon into it someday, but for now, It serves its purpose.

Actually, this guitar's action was set up too low when it arrived, and I had to raise the strings. I also had to remove the .10- strings supplied and put on .08s instead, which is just a personal preference. That done, there were no buzzez anywhere alonf the entirety of its slim, sloid, comfortable neck. I was pleased to note that the locking nut had been installed in the correct style, being that the anchor bolts were through the back of the headstock. There were, however, small paint chips evident at the sides ofthe figerboard just past the neck/body junction, but you really have to look to see them. I wasn't concerned, and was able to fill them myself.
The Floyd Rose bridge is recessed, but the studs are not place inside the recess as with the Baretta 404SD (whiach I also own)so there are some distinct differences in its resonation. This method of bridge installation might bother other folks, but has not caused me any concern. It, along with the Gotoh machines, holds this guitar in tune remarkably well. when I broke a B string, it, of course, went out of tune, but after i replaced the B and returned it topitch, all the other strings caught up with it almost perfectly. I've never owned a guitar that solid.
Two things I really don't care for are the fact that it had the red metallic finish on the back of the neck. I'd prefer oil finish or none at all. Too, the 3-way pickup selector switch is rather tight. I own a Kramer Striker 422 with a 5-Way switch that's smooth a butter.

I'd put this guitar up against any I've ever owned in a live situation. If the strings on it were new, I wouldn't bother with a backup. I know the Floyd Rose of old, and they have always performed near flawlessly for me. I believe the chrome finish, with a modicum of care, will last long years. The overall paint finish is questionable---I believe it may be too thin to sustain casual neglect, so I take care to clean and polish it often. I have had no complaints with the strap pins, but most of my playing these days consists of sitting down.

I've Emailed the peple at MusicYo concerning the Baretta 404SD and the supplied D-Tuner, and they responded at once (within hours) and also on a request for information on a particular model of the Striker. To me, MusicYo seems to be an honest firm, and I will do business with them again. I WILL get another Baretta 2 Pro in the future, this time in metallic black.

I've been playing for twenty years. As stated, I own a Kramer Baretta 404sd, and a Kramer Striker 422. If ANY of my Kramers were stolen, I'd buy again. Particularly the Baretta 2 Pro. My main loves in this guitar are its playablity and price. A stunning buy for the money! I nearly bought a $1700.00 ESP George Lynch SunTiger (I still want one) but am GLAD I found the Baretta 2 Pro. I only wish they were available in a wider range of color options, and with reverse headstocks.

See the review with the MusicYo list

This guitar sounds great for a large number of styles. Perhaps better for lead than rhythm because the SD's don't pack quite as much punch as I would like but it generally sounds great whatever. Good tone clean, great tone overdriven the quality surprised me for a shred style Kramer guitar. I play blues through this guitar, it looks slightly out of place but sounds the part.

The action was fine, the only alteration I made was tuning the guitar (it was already strung). I had none of the problems highlighted in the other review. In fact if you take off the 'Made In Korea' sticker no-one will be able to tell that it was made in a sweat shop.

Very reliable, I use this guitar a lot. I can't imagine having any problems for a few years and I would definately use it live. I wouldn't use it without backup just because if a string breaks it takes a while for the tuning to settle (a problem with all Floyd-Rose guitars)

The UK branch of music yo has shutdown so I don't no if I can go through the US site

I have been playing for many years (started age 8 still playing age 18) and own a few electric guitars. I have a Yamaha Pacfica 112 (my first electric) an Epiphone Black Beauty and a couple of strats. Definately the best value of all my guitars it sounds great through my Triamp Stack. I'm not sure that I could buy it again at the same price but if it were stolen I'd definately try to find a replacement.

This is a 2001 year model. A superstrat with neckthru.
Parts are made in the USA but assembled in Korea to keep costs down. It has an american alder body with a solid top finished in a real nice red colour. Has tone which also puts the coil tap in motion when pulled out, volume and 3 way slotted switch.
Hum/Hum pickup configuration which are USA kramer passive pickups. (as seymour duncan do not provide the pickups not more). The body is made of good ole alder and has a 24 fret rosewood fretboard. It is in the super strat
double cut away style with an original chrome double locking floyd rose tremolo unit at the bridge but only partly reccessed,
with six in line gotoh tuners in chrome. Neck is made of maple and is not
too fat which suits me fine as I mainly play rhythm anyway. Only accesories which were included were 3 wrenches of which 2 attach to the back of the headstock and a cable. Shame that there was no gig bag. Still what do you expect for such a good price.

Suits my style perfectly which is 80s and early 90s metal from Motley Crue to Metallica. I am using it with a Marshall TSL 602 2 x 12 combo amp, with a Boss metal zone, super chorus and delay with a 7 band graphic at the end.
Both the Kramer pickups have planty of balls with the bridge pickup giving a high output harsh sound of 80s hair metal. I actually have a guitar with seymour duncan JB in the bridge and Jazz in the neck and these Kramer stock pickups come close.
I did in fact change the bridge pickup to a seymour duncan JB just because I like the same pickup in the neck with my super strats.
The Baretta has excellent harmonics and all the notes ring out beautifully. Even when unplugged it gives out a rich balanced sound and all the notes ooze sweetness.
Also what i think helps is the neckthru design. Sustain is splendid.
If you pull the tone button out this acts as a coil tap and engages the coils nearest to the neck. Nice clean sound but if you want fender clean tones get a fender.
Cannot think of any dislikes but I will only give it a 9 as nothing is perfect.

When I got the guitar the action was set a little high but it was in tune. I play standard EADGBE. Pickups were a little low but when I buy a new axe I send it to my tech to set up as I like. The finish was flaws even down to the cavities but who looks in there anyway.The only thing I did notice and that was after a week was a indentation in the finish along the neck on the body. Apprx 5mm long but the paint was not broken so I can only assume it was already there before it was painted.Nothing else to say.

I have played 7 shows on the trot with this and stood up well.
I do not use the floyd a lot so it stayed pretty much in tune.
Hardware is good and solid but will keep my eye on the floyd and service it regularly as it is chrome(rust etc.)
Finish seems pretyy tough. I dropped it once and it did not even leave a mark.
One of the reason I chose this guitar was because of the tough alder wood.Built like a brick s**thouse.
I changed the strap buttons to schaller strap locks just to be on the safe side.
I would think I can depend on it without a doubt but i always take a back just in case. But never had to use it yet.

Spoke to MUSICYO.COM when I recieved it and they replied within 12 hours.
Apart from that nothing else. They were very helpful.

I have been playing 14 months but practiced 7-9 hours a day so my playing ability is to be modest quite good now.
I also own:Ibanez Jem 10, 90, 7WVH, 7DBK, 77FP, 77BFP, 777VDY, 777DY,
777VSK, 777SK, ESP KH-2 and KH-2 Ouija, ESP M-100 custom, PRS Custom 24, PRS McCarty, Jackson DK3 custom, Jackson PS4, Jackson PS3-T, Jackson SL2snk, Jackson SL1 custom shop, Gibson Explorer 76 reissue, Fender Lonestar Stratocaster, Ibanez RG470, Ibanez RG570ex and an Ibanez JS1000 BTB so as you can see i have lots of axes to compare
with.
I actually own a Marshall TSL 602 2x12 combo amp, Line 6 ax212 amp and also a Crate Blue Voodoo 120 head and Crate Blue Voodoo 4 x 12 cabinet which i use when touring.
The Kramer Baretta II Pro for the money ($599) is an excellent but and is excellent value.
If it was lost or stolen I wuld use the money and buy another one, probably in black as they were out of stock when I bought this one.
The thing i love about is is the neck thru design. I have 2 Jackson soloist neckthrus and this guitar sounds just as good but for a 3rd of the price.
The thing i least like about it but it only a small dislike is that the floyd rose is only partly recessed and makes the action higher than what I usually like but I adapted to it quickley.
Obviously i compared but for the money it is a splendid work horse and I have used it for the last wekk playing live every night without a problem.
I do hope that they will come with a hardcase in future but that is a small price to pay as a case does not cost alot off ebay.
Overall a excellent guitar for rock and metal for an excellent price.
Yeah I know it was assembled in Korea and some pepole have a problem with that, but at the end of the day if it looks good, plays well and most inportantly sounds f**kin A who cares..well I don't.

24 fret neck-through design
Maple laminate with Alder wings
Rosewood fretboard
Floyd Rose trem
Gotoh tuners
Seymour Duncan p/u's with center coil tap at neck
gig bag

For what little ability and talent I have as a musician and player, this guitar is more than satisfying through my Boss GT-5 and Mesa/Boogie Rectoverb 50.

The set-up from the factory was a disgrace. The neck was bowed backward and I'm still not done adjusting it. The Floyd was not level and, of course, the intonation was not right. The guitar is, however, beautiful to look at (Red) and feels good in your hands.

Aside from the terrible factory set-up, the guitar seems to be constructed well and should last as long as I do.

The only thing I don't like about this guitar is the weight. In a short while it becomes burdonsome. Other than that, this guitar is designed and built to do as advertised - Rock Hard. And it does!

December 2000 made Korean Kramer Baretta-II Pro. 24-fret, neck-thru, 2 Seymour Duncan hums(JB & Jazz), Original Floyd Rose trem. Maple neck-thru with alder body sides. Finish is a cool black w/ med-heavy silver metaflake.

What more could you ask for? A solid neck-thru guitar with Seymour Duncans and an original Floyd Rose, of course it sounds great.

I got his one used so not quite sure what it was like from the factory but it looks new with all the original stickers and plastic on the cavity plates, even the hangtag. I currently own 2 1999 Baretta 404S/D's and was really curious to see if there really was much difference between the PRO-II and the 404S/D. To my surprise, there are a lot of differences! Differences I've found so far include:

1. Original Floyd Rose vs. Kramer liscensed Floyd
2. Seymour Duncan JB & Pearly Gates vs. Kramer Quad-Rails
3. Regular headstock vs. reverse headstock
4. Chrome hardware vs. black
5. Chrome regular Gotoh SG tuning keys vs. black Gotoh SG skull & crossbone tuners
6. Neck angle is very different, neck sits 1/4" above the top of the body.
7. Original Floyd is not quite as recessed, more picking room(I like) from this and the neck angle
8. The Floyd locking nut is mounted the old way, 2 screws from the back of the neck
9. Kramer added a good 1/2" of wood for strength to the part of the neck the 2 locking nut screws go through
10. The neck is mounted in a different spot for easier access to upper frets, 24th fret at the lower cutout vs. 22nd fret on the 404S/D
11. 3-way sliding pickup selector switch vs. 3-way toggle
12. The neck is 1mm thicker

I had to make a truss rod adjustment, level out the Floyd and setup the action when I got it but can't blame the factory for that since it was used. The paint is great, hardware is top-notch, nothing to complain about here.

My other Baretta's have been perfect so I expect this one will be too.

All my dealings with MusicYo.com have been positive. They have always been helpful and respond back to emails within 1 day.....good people.

OK, let me say this first.....the guy who did the negative review is obviously full of $hit. I've never seen the problems he mentions and suspect that he has never owned a new Kramer Baretta. I have 3 of these now and 2 other friends with them.

All these new Baretta's are a lot of guitar for the money. Is the PRO-II worth the double in price over the 404S/D? I don't know about that. $600 vs. $289 is a pretty big percentage increase for basically just Seymour Duncan pickups and an Original Floyd Rose. Since I picked up mine used but in new condition for $300, it was a great deal. The Duncans do sound brighter and a little more alive. The quad-rails are a little more dark and bassy. The original Floyd is a little nicer but the liscensed Floyd on the 404S/D isn't bad at all.

If I was buying one new, I don't think I'd pay the extra money for the PRO-II over the 404S/D but it is a really nice guitar. You won't go wrong with either.

Taken from the Musicyo website:




Neck Material: 3-pcs Laminated Hard Maple
Neck Profile: Neck-Through
Body Wing Material: Solid Alder
Pickups: Seymour Duncan Humbuckers

- Neck: ?Jazz?
- Bridge: ?JB?

Controls: Master Volume
3-Way Pickup Selector
Master Tone w/ Push/Pull Coil-tapping

- Down = All Coils ON
- UP = Coil Closest to the Neck ON

Bridge: ?Original? Floyd Rose Tremolo
Nut: ?Original? Locking Floyd Rose
Machine Heads: Gotoh SG
Nut Width: 1.625"
Fingerboard Radius: 16"
Fingerboard: 24 fret, Rosewood
Scale Length: 25.5"
Headstock: 14 degree pitch
Non-Reverse, Pointy
F/B Inlay: Mother of Pearl, Dots
Strings: Kramer USA, Hi-Power 10?s
Finishes: Black Metallic, Red Metallic




I gave this guitar a 10 in this category considering the ton of features it has for only $600. Neck-thru, alder body, original Floyd Rose tremelo(try finding this on a new guitar for $600) and real Seymour Duncan pickups(Jazz in the neck and JB in the bridge). It also came with a free case.




Made in the USA.

First off, for $600 on a guitar you would think it would sound decent right? WRONG! If that's what your thinking, re-read the specs and tell me if you think it still sounds weak. This guitar sounds faboulous. First off, the neck pickup. The neck pickup produces very nice clean tones, it blend is perfectly with my Fender Hot Rod Deville 4x10 for when I'm doing my BB/Clapton runs. But since my main style of music is Satriani/Vai style, the sweet spot of the bridge pickup. The JB model is a high output pickup and works extremly well with distortion. With my DS1, I can easily achieve that Satch sound, or Vai sound depending on how I setup my pedals and amp. Also, like most Seymour Duncan pickups, they are very quiet. Another thing that also attributes to the great sound on this guitar is the Floyd. I can dive bomb all I want without it going out of tune. I have an Ibanez RG470 laying around and the damn thing would go out of tune everytime I would divebomb and use the whammy bar every now and then. Overall, the sound on this guitar is very versatile and you would like it no matter what style of music you play.

The guitar is Jet black with all chrome hardware and a non-reverse headstock with a super strat body. As far as the setup, hmm, well out of the factory the setup wasn't done too good. The action was set too low and the pickups were too high. It also needed a truss rod adjustment but after I made the necessary adjustments, the guitar sounded great. I thouroughly inspected the guitar for any flaws, chips in the paint, etc... and could find not one single thing wrong. I would give it a 10 but since the setup was so bad from the factory, I will give it a 9.

I am not in a band, but I can say with confidence this guitar would withstand live playing since I play pretty hard for hours and hours without any problems. The hardware on it is top notch. The strap buttons seem like any other strap buttons. The guitar is dependable. If I was in a band and had a gig I wouldn't take it without a back up. The fact is, I wouldn't take any guitar no matter whether its a $50 guitar or a $5000 without a backup.

I haven't had any problems, but I have heard Musicyo has good customer support and I also had a few questions before I placed my order and they responded the very next day, so I give them a 10 on that.

I have been playing for about 3 years now, and let me tell you right now $600 for this guitar is an absolute steal. I also own a mexican Fender Classic 50's strat, an Ibanez RG470, and a Jackson Soloist SL1 and this ranks right up there with the Soloist. Honestly I don't know why Jackson charges so much for thier Soloist guitars. The only main difference between the 2 is the Soloist has different SD's and an Ebony fretboard, everything else is pretty much the same, with the exception of the graphic on the Soloist. I don't know about the other guy who reviewed this, I'm sure he just got a bad guitar, because mines looks and sounds perfect.

2001 Korean, 24 fret, Alder, Neck through body, Gotoh tuners, floyd-rose tremello, rosewood fretboard, seymour duncan pickups.

Sounds OK, using with a zoom gfx8. I don't have enough experience to compare with other guitars.

This guitar would be cool if it were not built like a complete piece of CRAP! The paint started flaking off 2 days after I bought it. Obviously not sanded well with visible lines where the neck and body come together. The biggest unacceptable flaw was where the tremello claw was screwed to the body. Obviously somebody made a mistake when putting in one of the screws, so rather than remove the screw and try again, they just cut the screw, sanded it down and put another screw right next to it at a crooked angle. Seems like the guys building these things are instructed to build as fast as possible with no regard for quality workmanship.

I went through 4 D Strings in a week. Which all broke at the same spot, right at the point where the string leaves the floyd rose. I have no idea if this problem is common or not. the other strings were fine.

The finish was complete utter crap. This guitar will go from black to "natural" in about two months. The painter was probably told to use as little paint as necessary. It just has to look good enough until the 30 day return policy had expired.

I sent a few emails and got no reponse. I guess after they get your money, your emails are ignored. I'm very pissed at MusicYo, I fell for their marketing scam that said they keep the costs down by selling direct. Well, they also keep the costs down by making low quality guitars in a Korean sweat shop.

Everyone told me to buy American. Everyone said the Korean built stuff was crap. I didn't believe them, and I was wrong. This is an obvious case of putting a bunch of name brand components on a piece of crap guitar and building it in the cheapest sweat shop in Korea. The guitar has been returned to MusicYO and hopefully they will keep their word and give me my money back.