Kramer Focus 111S

I BOUGHT THE OLDER VERSION OF THIS FOCUS 111S. STRAT STYLE. IT IS METALLIC MAROON WITH THE BLACK PICK GUARD AND PICKUP COVERS. CHROME DOME KNOBS WITH 5 WAY SWITCHING AND TWO TONE ONE VOL. KNOB.
TUNERS WERE SWITCHED OUT BEFORE I GOT IT.

THIS IS THE OLDER VERSION WITH THE JK991..... SERIAL NUMBERS. NO IDEA HOW OLD IT REALLY IS. BUT FOR IT'S AGE IT IS IN GREAT CONDITION STILL !! SMOOTH SILENT SWITCHING AND KNOB MOVEMENTS.

THE ACTION IS FAST TOO. CONCIDERING IT HAS A FATTER NECK THAN THE SQUIERS. IT REALLY FILLS THE HAND IN GOOD.
ROSEWOOD FRETBOARD, BODY TYPE ?

THE SOUND IS THE BEST I HAVE HEARD FROM A CHEEPER GUITAR. WAY BETTER THAN THE SQUIER !! SQUIERS ARE THIN AND NOISEY !! THIS KRAMER IS DEEPER AND BASSIER SOUNDING WITH LOTS OF SMOOTH SOUNDS !!
GREAT FOR PLAYING SLOW SONGS. WHEN YOU NEED A QUIETER SOUND.

WORKS VERY WELL WITH MY DISTORTION, REVERB, TREMOLO AND CHORUS. WITH A DELAY PEDAL ON IT IT REALLY TAKES YOU TO SOME GREAT PLACES !!

I USE THIS GUITAR FOR MY MAIN ONE NOW !! WHEEEE : D

WELL THE ACTION IS GREAT FOR ME, THE STRINGS ARE SET KINDA LOW. THIS THING STAYS IN TUNE GREAT TOO ! NOT A HEAVY GUITAR EITHER,NOT A FEATHER, BUT JUST RIGHT.

FROM THE LOOKS OF IT WHEN I GOT IT ... IT WAS TOSSED AROUND QUITE A BIT ! THIS THING STILL HOLDS UP GREAT !! ALL THE DINGS AND DENTS JUST ADDED ROAD WORTHINESS CHARM TO IT.

I FIND IT TO BE VERY DEPENDABLE. WHEN POLISHED UP, IT GLEEMS FANTASTIC WITH TI'S METAL FLAKE MADNESS ! THE NECK LOOKS LIKE IT WILL LAST ANOTHER 100 YEARS HA, HA, HA : D

WELL, NONE. I'M IT'S SOUL SUPPORT SERVICE TEAM NOW.

I WOULD BUY ANOTHER ONE IF THIS ONE EVER LEFT MY SIDE. I BOUGHT IT USED, AND RECOMMEND IT ANYONE LOOKING FOR A SOLID WORKHORSE !!
IT'S GREAT TO TAKE ALONG AND NOT WORRY ABOUT GETTING IT DIRTY LIKE YOUR NEW $$$ ONE !

THIS 111S GUITAR NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH THE NEWER VERSIONS !!
THE OLDER ONES ARE WAY BETTER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is a Kramer Focus 111S model. It was likely made in 2002 or 2003 when I bought it. According to the headstock, it originates from Indonesia.

It's your standard Strat-style guitar: three single-coil pickups, 21 frets, a volume pot, two tone pots, and a three-way selector switch. Being an extremely cheap factory job, the guitar is made of plywood (a nato/alder mix, according to the website). The finish is black with an orange burst, that looks fine and is well-done, but looks kind of muted next to a genuine Stratocaster with a burst-style finish. The bridge is a vintage-style fulcrum tremolo, which is surprisingly usable with the proper setup.

It has Kramer factory tuners that are sporadically reliable, but should probably be replaced if you're going to be taking the stage with this guitar. Ditto for the nut. The neck is has a thin profile that sits comfortably in your hand, and decently big frets. The strap buttons work fine, as long as your strap doesn't suck.

I'll give it an 8. It has plenty of features, and since I'm not a big feature guy, any more than what this guitar has would be overkill. That said, it does not have my ideal features, which would knock any guitar down a couple of points in my book.

I play hard rock/heavy metal. If this is your thing, you're probably going to want to make some modifications (as I did), but out of the box, it is usable. The single-coil pickups are of surprisingly high quality for the price, but the sound and feel that they yield while distorted isn't ideal. That said, they sound absolutely beautiful for cleaner sounds. Learn to play "Sultans Of Swing" and have a field day with them.

This guitar does feed back a lot while distorted. Judicious use of the volume pot, and keeping your strings from resonating freely, is absolutely imperative onstage. A noise gate would be a wise investment as well. Its tone is very bright, and not as thin as you might expect for a guitar made of cheap wood and single-coil pickups.

One thing I was really surprised by (and this was a gamble, since I bought this online and thus could not try it before hand) was the natural resonance on this guitar. With an appropriate setup and a fresh change of strings, the unplugged tone of the guitar easily beat out many much higher-end models I have tried. I would not expect such high quality tone out of plywood and cheap metal. This is a quality that most (nay, all) guitars in the $100-$500 price range do not have... and this doesn't even cost $100!

The sound gets an 8. It may not do what I want it to do, but it does what it was built to do very well. And it gets a favorable tilt for having the sound of a guitar many times its price. You'll probably not be blown away, but you may just be impressed.

The setup from the factory was pretty much as you'd expect: haphazard, crap strings, and whatnot. The pickups were fine, and the build of the instrument itself was actually fine. I didn't notice any significant flaws, which honestly came as a surprise for (again) a cheap foreign guitar. From some of the horror stories I've heard about buying online, and buying from Musicyo, I think I must have lucked out. This is a pretty fine guitar for the cheap price.

That said, like most budget guitars, there is no perfect setup. You will probably uncover some string buzz at some point along the neck. However, it isn't pervasive enough to hurt the overall sound of the guitar. It is still very playable. And by the way, with the proper tweaking, as well as a replacement nut and locking tuners, you can get some pretty good mileage out of the trem bar. It's at least as stable as the bar on a decent Fender.

As I've mentioned several times, the parts are pretty low-grade, but the only major hardware issues I had were the cheapness of the selector switch (replace it!) and the potentiometers, which really drop off around the 50% mark and suck the treble right out (replace them!). These parts are pretty inexpensive, and Kramer could get away with charging maybe 15 or 20 dollars more for the guitars if they'd just put some decent knobs in. $100 may not be $80, but it's still pretty damn cheap.

I'll call this one a seven. Mostly good, with a few glaring issues.

I've gigged with this guitar and traveled with it many times. It can and will withstand live playing. Just keep an eye on the hardware, and bring a backup with you. I've never had a problem with the parts, but the possibility is always there.

One thing I would like to mention is, be sure that the wiring is soldered into place securely. I've had the wires detach from the input jack twice. Check the solder! You do not want this to hapen during a gig (fortunately for me, it's only happened offstage, at home).

Gig with it. Play the hell out of it. You'll be fine, as long as you have a backup handy (conventional wisdom for ANY guitar, not just this one). I give it an 8. Aside from the wiring coming loose, which is a big enough problem to take off a couple of points, it's good to go.

Kramer's customer support rules. A 10, easily. Email them a question and they'll probably get an answer to you--written by a living, breathing human being--on the same day.

My overall rating for this guitar is an 8. I'm tempted to give it a high 7, but the ultra-low budget price is a deciding factor. It can easily compete with most guitars that cost more than three times as much. I'd buy it again. Hell, I HAVE bought it again. I've modded my original, and I decided that I wanted a second one that I would leave stock.

I've mentioned two things in this review that I'd like to expand upon before I send this in. One: I'm not a big features guy. In fact, I generally prefer my guitars to be as bare-bones as possible. Two: I have made several changes to my original Kramer Focus, even though I liked the stock version enough to buy another one. To this end, I'll detail what I did to my first Kramer, and how it fares with the new modifications.

In its current state, my Focus has a replacement nut (normal plastic, like on most guitars), Schaller locking tuners, and a Seymour Duncan Hot Rails (awesome pickup, great brown sound with moderate gain) in the bridge. I have removed both the middle and the neck pickups, as well as two of the three knobs and the selector switch. All that's left is the bridge pickup, which runs straight to the volume pot, then to the jack.

For the volume, I put in an Ernie Ball replacement part that I got for under $10, and it makes a world of difference. The Hot Rails cleans up well now, without the drop-off and horrible treble loss. The pot resides under the last knob on the guitar, towards the edge of the body. I removed the closer knobs, since I have a bad habit of rubbing the closest knob with the side of my hand when I play, which messes my volume up.

Since my aim with this particular guitar is obviously to get things as simple as possible, I also took off the trem bar and installed all five strings in the tremolo cavity. In this stage, I'd definitely give the guitar a high 9. The only reason it doesn't get a 10 is because the wood and metal parts are still low-grade, and will probably break down on me one day.

So, the stock model gets an 8. My version gets a high 9. Since the version you're reading this review for is obviously the stock version, the overall rating will ultimately be 8.

This is one of the new Kramer focus 111s made in China. The body is made of laminated wood. I think it's nato and alder plywood used on the body. It's a basic no frills strat copy with 3 single coils and 21 frets. It has the basic strat layout of 2 tone and one volune control. The neck is one solid piece of lower grade maple with some economy rosewood used for the fretboard. It has a strat style tremelo that works o.k.

I have owned a couple other plywood guitars before this Kramer and they both sounded bright and punchy. This Kramer focus is more subdued in both tone and volume. It's just not as loud as my other 2 plywood body guitars. The guitar is better suited for rythem playing and less suitable for lead playing because of it's overall thin tone. I don't know about upgrading these pickups. It would like putting expensive tires on a cheap import automobile.

Well it looks like a 100 dollar guitar. In no way, shape or form could this guitar be at the same quality level as a made in Mexico Fender guitar. It just has a much cheaper look to it. The surf green paint is nicely done. The paint job is the best aspect of the guitar. The nut was cut a bit sloppy but it seems fine. A couple spots on the rosewood fretboard where the frets end needed a bit of wood filler. The neck itself seems a bit buzzy on the lower strings even after a truss rod adjustment. The chrome on the guitar looks decent as do the chromed volume and tone knobs. The strings looked tarnished and so did the frets. The frets were not polished or dressed. I taped the rosewood fingerboard with electricians tape and lightly sanded the frets with 800 grit sandpaper to remove most of the oxidation. The frets look a bit better now.

I'm sure this would make a good rythem guitar in a band situation.

This guitar was purchased during the musicyo.com December sale. The regular focus was on sale for 59 dollars and my deluxe was 10 dollars more. The surf green color that I chose sold out very fast. Actually the only reason I purchased the guitar was because of the color. This is a more vintage sounding instrument because of it's thin tone. I find this guitar lacks sustain and volume. I don't think this guitars tone and sound is good enough to warrant putting expensive pickup replacements in it. The Kramer Focus 111s is best suited as a beginners guitar or as cheap knock around guitar for a more experienced player.

im not gonnna repeat everything everyone else has said but here are the basics

1 volume and tone tone knobs
made in indonesia
21 fret
5 way selector
strat style guitar
comes with a few little wrenchs to do adjustments
3 single coil pickups

ive been playing for 2 years so i dont know really
but i think it sounds really good especially for the price 80 bucks
i play a little of everything and i think it sounds pretty good combined with the right pedals
the only problam is that it buzzes almost like its hitting metal

see now i like the vintage sunburst finish on it i think its awsome and im happy to say its a tough guitar because i have accedentally dropped it a few times with very little damage

i think it would withstand some live playing. i wouldn't recommend it though. id be a good spare or backup
the finish lasts really well
*now i found that the strap buttoms were loose but there is a very easy way to fix it. take the strap button out and put a tooth pick in the hole and cut the toothpick at the top of the hole so it dosen't stick out and then screw in your strap button with the toothpick inside

i have never had do deal with it

ive been playing 2 years.
i have a vamp 3 amps and some other odds and ends.
i would not buy another one just because i can afford a better guitar now
i wish it had better pickups
its stays tuned well for a very long time

Pretty much your standard double cutaway strat copy: thrtee single coil pickups; floating termelo system; sealed tuners; one volume, two tone controls...5 way selector switch

I play classic rock--everything from the Fifties to the Seventies...Anything a Strat would be good for, this Focus is good for...Surf, etc...The bridge pickup is hot--the other two are adequate

I bought the guitar from Music Yo! When it arrived, I expected to have to adjust the truss, set pickups, etc. In fact, it arrived set up nicely. Frets were well dressed, action nice and low, neck straight..The wood doesn't seem to be of the very highest quality, but it is more than serviceable...

SInce this guitar arrived yesterday, I cannot say, but it seems solid enough. I like the fact that the volume and tone controls are metal versus plastic...Strap buttons seem a bit shaky, but so waht? If they come out, super glue them in wioth a matchstick...

I have purchased two of these guitars. The sloid color finish (surf green) is cool. The "sunburst" leaves a lot to be desired. It is more like orange surrounded by a black ring..

Clueless here

I have been playing since 1958! This is the best guitar deal I have seen! No it isn't as souped up as my American-made Fender Strat. But it cost $89 and not $890!!! What a great value! A very playable instrument I would have no problem gigging with(I'd keep an eye on the strap buittons though). My main rig is a Fender Bandmaster amp and the aforementioned Strat. I also have a Les Paul Custom. If my American Strat is the standard (a 10), this guitar is easily an 8--at a fraction of the cost.

Music Yo! took my order on a Monday. On Thursday, the guitar was in my hands. They are in Tennessee. I am in Illinois. And no, I don't work for Music Yo! I work at a college.

If you are a parent looking for a cool, serviceable, yet inexpensive guitar, this is it! Look no more! You will not find more bang for the buck. There are a lot of crappy Strat copies out there for about the same price. They are junk!!! BUY A KRAMER FOCUS 111S. I don't care if its from China or Kalamazoo! This is a helluva good deal!

See the other reviews. The neck is amazing for the price.

Ok, this is my first and only guitar, however I have been playing for over a year now and have played a lot of other peoples guitars. By no means is this the best guitar I have played, almost all the guitars I have played excelled this one, with the exception being the Encore strat copy. However, those guitars were all far more expensive than this one.

For the price, this guitar sounds really good. I play metal and punk, it works pretty well for both styles, I use the neck pu for metal and the bridge for punk. The other pickup configurations sound only slightly different to the neck pickup so not very useful really.

The tone knobs actually work and I can hear a difference if i twiddle with them, unfortunately the volume is not very responsive and you get no output unless you turn it up over halfway, it does the job though.

The bridge pickup gives a bright clear sound while the other configurations sound heavy and bassy. I play through a Laney 30W all valve combo.

Nothing about this guitars sound is perfect, but its alright and it doesnt sound bad in any way. So for the price its bloody excellent.

Only major dislike is that with my 30w all valve (all valve meaning its about 3 times as loud as its power rating, so really its 90w solid state)I cant turn the volume on my amp up beyond 2 on the distortion channel without getting loads of feedback. Grrr, im gonna get a pedal to remove the feedback, im pretty sure they exist.

So, pretty mediocre but very good value. Ill give it a 7.

When I got it, it was reasonably well set up, no major problems but I lowered the action anyway.

The neck is well fitted and there are no flaws in the finish except there is no varnish in the neck hole where you adjust the truss rod, but nobody looks in there anyway and i havent had to adjust the truss rod.

The finish is quite good, no flaws, its meant to be lake placid blue but in most light it looks green, im not really bothered. The neck is smooth and the frets are nicely done with no sharp edges.

Hehe. Hmm, if I had any sense, I wouldnt gig with a #70 guitar, but I have gigged once with this and it stood up to it fine.

The hardware is all fine except the plastic bit on the end of the pickup selector falls of occasionally, but i just clip it back on and its fine. Ive seen it happen with more expensive guitars than this.

The strap buttons are solid, its all gravy. Tremelo is kind of stiff, it feels like it might break if youre not careful. To test this theory I gave it some real rough treatment and its fine, stiff but durable.

Never contacted them and I probably never will even if it breaks. At #70 id rather try and fix it myself, at least if i mess it up its no big deal. This is the sort of guitar i wouldnt mind fiddling around with, changing pickups etc.

Its good for the money. If you're broke, buy it. If you can afford a little more get something a bit better, but NOT AN ENCORE!!! If it were stolen or lost id be a little bit pissed off cos i havent got another guitar, but I wouldnt buy it again, id get something better. Its a great guitar if you're just starting to learn, especially as the neck is as good as some #200 + guitars ive played. By no means a bad guitar, but not very good either. Its the guitar embodiment of "O.K." its like a car which gets you from A to B, only in a guitar form. Great value though, my friend is impressed because the neck is nicer than his guitar's and it was cheaper.

(BTW, I've had this guitar about 2 years now so I'm VERY familiar with it)
decal says "Made in Indonesia"
21 frets
three single coil pickups
1 volume & 2 tone controls
5 way selector
Black finish
Rosewood fretboard

Like another reviewer, I also bought this guitar primarily as a vehicle upon which to mount my GK-2A hex pickup. But I was pleasantly surprised by the out-of-the-box tone of the guitar. Frankly, I thought the sound of all three stock pickups were great--and I've spent more money just buying pickups alone for other guitars--including the $230 I just spent buy Fralins for my stock Fender Nashville Tele. I don't feel a need to change the pickups in this guitar--to my ears, they have a great traditional strat tone

Here again, I was pleasantly surprised. There were no appreciable flaws in the finish of the model I received. I did adjust the action a little--I like very low action. I also adjusted the saddles a little to tweak the intonation but it wasn't off too much really. The neck is outstanding--as good as any I've played. Frets are nicely dressed--no rough edges anywhere. I did install a tremelo-stabilizer kit although I'm not really sure it needed it as it held tune very well even without it.

I have to knock it a little here--but hey, *it's a $70 guitar!!!* The pots are crap. The selector is poor quality--they won't hold up for long under stage use. A $25 wiring kit from Stew-Mac solves the problem and is very much worth the cost and effort. If you've never worked on a guitar before--here's your perfect low-risk chance to learn. After all, your total investment in the thing would still be under $100. If you screw it up--make a clock out of it and give it away for Christmas! ;-) One note of caution: a standard 5-way selector will not fit without about another 3/16" or so of additional routing in the cavity which must be done very carefully in order not to bust through the back of the guitar (I used a Dremel with a cutting blade and just fudged it). The stock unit contains a square box-enclosed under-sized switch. The tone knobs are knurled metal, but press on types with plastic inserts--no set screw retainer.

never needed it

I've been playing guitar on and off since 1967. I've owned tons of guitars--I won't bore you with the list but the most expensive guitars I ever owned were an original 1973 Les Paul Custom and a 1982 Fender "the Strat." I've never been rich enough to afford a real high-end custom shop type guitar so I can't compare to those, but this guitar is *well* worth $70 considering its performance at a fraction of the cost for standard "name" brand guitars.

If you're a parent trying to buy a guitar for a beginning student--you can't go wrong with this. If you're a teenager on a tight budget trying to start your first band--this is a great choice. If you're a semi-pro with a 'Paul looking for a cheap way to get that Strat sound into your line-up or just have a backup guitar (or place to park your GK-2A), this is a good choice--if you can do the mods. If you're a full-time pro, what are you doing here reading this about a $70 guitar? ;-)


Except for the fact that it has my GK-2A pickup on it--if this guitar were stolen, I would consider that the poor sap must be really desperate for a guitar, wish him the best of luck with his karma, and go buy another one--'cause at these prices, it wouldn't be worth raising my blood pressure over it.

No Need to Rehash what others have indicated other than mine said made in China. It's your standard strat copy with the same typical features.

I have owned other strat copies (Squire made by Fen???). And this $60 treasure far surpasses it in every catagory. This guitar suits my style of playing from country, blues to classic rock and see no reason why it would not perform in other styles as well with the right equipment. Again my rating reflects the bias of the price tag and that it is not a American Fender Strat with a price tag over $1800.

I ordered the vintage Sunburst finish which I really like and which was absolutely perfect--NO FLAWS ANYWHERE!!!! The setup from factory was OK, but not to my liking. The action was too low especially between frets 1&2. This was an easy fix. I just used the allen wrench it came with and adjusted the neck slightly and no more fret buzz. For a $60 price tag I am in shock with the quality of this guitar so my rating will reflect that.

Everything seems to be made solid and was built with durability in mind. I don't gig and expect this guitar will outlast me.

Haven't had a reason to deal with them. They have a very helpful website and the shipping was incredible bar none!! So my rating is based on only that fact.

LOST??? I think not, come on be real. However, if it were stolen I would be dissapointed, but could understand why someone might want to steal it. It's a great guitar for the money and looks and sounds like your more expensive guitars costing hundreds more. In fact, for $60 I think I stole it! What d'ya think?

2001 Korean Strat Copy. Pretty standard, I'm not going to bore you with the the same features everyone else wrote.

I play everything from Eagles to Metallica. This guitar sounds great. I did purchase the optional pickup guard with two single coil quadrails and a humbucker. Trust me, this is the way to go. For $60 this upgrade made all the difference in the world. I liked the sound before, but after the upgrade the difference was unbelievable. If I had known how much better it would sound, I would have bought the upgrade three years ago. Definitely worthwhile. It also stops the slight humming noise the old electronics produced.

The finish is excellent. Mine is lake placid blue and now has a white pickguard instead of the blackone that came on it. It looks great and has held up superbly. After three years i still don't have a scratch on it and I play it almost everyday. Granted, I play it in my home and I take very good care of it. I bought a case for $80 and this has proved a very worthwhile investment.

The factory setup was great. I did lower the strings a bit and a couple of them buzz a bit but only because I like them really low. It does not come through the amp at all and is only noticeable when playing without the amp. The neck is straight and the tremolo works fine although I don't use it very much. The guitar stays in tune quite well but I would like to upgrade the tuners someday.

I don't know about live playing but I don't see why it wouldn't hold up. The hardware should last a long time. I've got three years under my belt and it's all perfect. The finish is still perfect as well.

I've only used them once and it was for the electar 65R amp that i bought. They were very helpful and sent me a new amp within days.

I love this guitar. I have a Yamaha acoustic and I am currently looking into a PRS Tremonti SE but for the money this is a great guitar. I have been playing on and off for about 18 years and I would definitely buy another if it were stolen.

The same. Made in china. Love the neck, its really easy to play.

I use this with a Marshall ms-4. It sounds quite nice, just as good as my friend's Fender Squier.

It sounds surprisingly nice without an amp, just like my old acoustic actually. So im gonna give this a 8 for being so nice without an amp.

Well I must say i'm very impressed here. The whole thing was put together very well, it certainly feels solid without being heavy. The neck is perfectly straight. The only flaws i noticed were a slight misalignment on one of the pickups and they had missed a spot inside a bolt hole when varnishing but it is far from obvious.

Hell yeah! Feels really solid, its a pleasure to play it. Feels like it will last 40 years. The tremelo arm works nicely. Everything was well put together. 10/10

Dunno, havent dealt with them, and dont think i will ever need to.

Not perfect of course but for a measly $70!!! What a bargain, you get such a well made, nice sounding, easy to play guitar for such a low low price. Value for money: 2 thumbs way way up!