Kramer FR404S/N

Kramer Baretta FR 404S/N non-reverse headstock fitted with Grover Mini machine heads. Korean made in early 2003.

Superstrat bodystyling. Back of headstock has a nice allen-wrench holder for 2 wrenches; the locking nut & string locks, and a wrench for the intonation posts on the tremolo.

24 frets, 25.5" neck through construction of Rosewood fingerboard on a Maple neck and Alder body wings.

2 passive Gibson Desgined "Quad Rail" Humbuckers, Locking Trem. 1 Volume pot, 1 Tone pot with push/pull for coil tap leaving the neck coils of each pickup when engaged. Cracked (crackle) white & black finish. All hardware is Black finish.

Comes with the wrenches mentioned on the back of the headstock and an allen wrench for the truss rod.

Now I've added a set of Schaller security strap locks, a replacement Locking nut and replaced the trem with an original Floyd Rose. See more about this in the "Reliability/Durability" section.

For the price $320, you cant shake a stick at the construction. Apart from a tooling mistake on the treble side of the finberboard right by the neck pickup (after the 24th fret) it's very well put together.

To replace this guitar with one of the same materials & construction would be around $1,000+ today.

This guitar's neck through construction, body materials and electronics are clearly suited for the rock & metal styles, although I've got very passable fusion and jazz tones from this instrument.

I use it with a Line 6 POD and go straight to the board/desk. I sounds very thick and powerful. As each of these Quad Rail humbuckers are 4 seperate coils wound together, even when you split to the neck coils, it's still fully humbucking. This is very useful for live work where clean chords are needed and you don't want hum!

Indeed it's for this reason that I've not changed the pickups. I know others who've put in Duncans or DiMarzios into their Kramer's, but if I were to do that I'd lose this formidable no-hum-even-when-split- feature. I've found it useful to split without the hum, even though I'd want more 'identity' from the tone. If I'd change the bridge unit, it would probably be to a Seymour Duncan Full Shread, but when split it hums.

6 sounds are offered via the 3-way toggle (mounted between the 2 pots) as all the sounds change a lot when the pickups are tapped.

The set up was poor. Buying a non-custom shop guitar is ALWAYS like this though. I've been setting up instruments professionaly for 9 years & I've never seen a perfectly set-up instrument that's not a custom.

It has to be like this as a pro. set-up costs a lot and isn't feasable for large scale manufacture and mass shipping.

Don't think you know what a pro. set-up is unless you've played a top custom instrument, hand set-up by a pro. technician. It should include a fret-dress and very minute details.

As such, I set up the instrument, which came with a string guage I didn't want (10-46) and re-floated the bridge for 9's, adjusted action, neck relief, pickup height and intonation. Once all this was done it played very well indeed.

The finish is excellent! Whether or not you're a fan of the 80's crackle finishes, they are excellent for covering up scratches and dings; as they work like camouflage, distracting the eye from uniform curves.

The finish is very well applied, white first, then the black. While the black paint isn't dry they put on the sealer, and the sealer dries more quickly than the black paint, "cracking" the black paint as it contracts, revealing the white underneath. As such, the finish is totally unique for each instrument.

All contols worked well with no rust or loose frets. The nut was not high quality. The string retainer blocks (squares) didn't fit exactly. As such when you lock the retainers down onto the strings they turned with the allen wrench areound in the nut. This didn't hold the string locked properly and as such I changed the nut to a W.D. "R42 2" locking nut. Now the nut works fine.

The guitar's very solid indeed, with the construction keeping everything very well together. I use it live and for teaching. It's my primary guitar now.

The licensed Locking trem was a problem. I use the trem A LOT! It's a very integral part of my style. Within 1 year the knife-edge on the tremolo baseplate was wearing down on the bass-side. As such the bridge was not returning to pitch correctly. It was catching on the blunt/flat part of the knife-edge and needed banging-down to put it back to sit straight.

This is a common problem with cheaper materials. The steel is just soft pressed steel and wears under all that tension. I updated the bridge to a real Floyd Rose, which interestingly, is made by Schaller in Germany. Their steel is very high quality and has been tempered to hold it's sharp knife edges for a long time.

I talked about the nut proviously - that was replaced. I also highly reccomend the Schaller Security strap-locks that I put on. They really solve all strap problems in the very best way. I recommend them to anybody! A very pro. addition for a very reasonable price.

Now that I've updated the hardware I'd give this a 9 or 10. But when I bought it I'd give it a 6.

Top support. MusicYo customer service is very good - all done via e-mail. The warranty is for 1 year. If you need to ship it back it's on your own payment.

I've only good things to say for their service.

I've been playing for 13 years and own many guitars.

If lost, I would buy something very similar again. I love the construction and very comfortable heel join and the sustain of the neck through. I don't like the lack of tonal personality of the pickups but they are very good indeed. Very rounded & 'studio' sounding. Also I would not want the cheap hardwre problems discussed.

But it may be cheaper to get a guitar like this and upgrade it yourself, than getting a guitar with an original Floyd Rose, and top hardware from the factory. I'd give it 7.5 overall, but there's not a .5, so I've put in 7.