Kramer Focus 111S

I bought this one from MusicYo this year. I believe it was made in Korea, 21 frets, standard Stratocaster dual-tone, single-volume, five-way-switch configuration, three single coil standard Strat-style pickups, single round string tree on the non-angled headstock, an interesting 'improved' Strat bridge that strikes me as a compromise between the heavy, rock-solid American Standard saddles and the typical cheap-Strat-copy saddles -- it feels more stable to me than my Squier Strat, marginally less so than my American Standard Strat.


On the minus side, the tuners feel light but have held up beautifully despite this; I've noticed no slippage or other tuner-related problems, so my experience so far is that they're good ones if a bit light. I still would have liked ot see heavier, sturdier ones that inspired a greater degree of confidence, though -- even if they end up holding up fine, they LOOK like they won't, and that by itself is less than ideal. The pickguard is a fairly ugly single-ply black plastic thing that would have benefitted tremendously from being a three-ply, but at least it's a Fender 11-hole standard and easily replaced. The nut is also a flimsy-looking thing, though again, I've put it through a bit of scrutiny and it's held up to it fine. I imagine it too is solid and will continue to work nicely, but it looks flimsy and again, even that can be enough to plant a worry in a player's mind. One last negative point -- the fretboard appears to be lightly finished with something not terribly friendly, and when I started playing it, I found its surface scratchy and uncomfortable. Over time playing and a few lemon-oil polishings later, though, the fretboard has 'warmed' and lost this quality.

The thing I'm most impressed by, about this guitar, is undoubtedly the neck, though. It's a VERY comfortable shallow D-to-V-shaped maple neck with a rosewood fretboard, and I find it fantastically easy to play. I have broad hands with turning-radius issues when I get up high on the neck, and I find this guitar much more comfortable to play -- I can jump from a chord near the nut to a barre up around the tenth fret without feeling like I'm going to be sore later.

The guitar came with a nylon strap, extra tremolo spring, a cheap but usable patch cable, allen wrenches, and a tremolo arm (which I don't personally use). The strap and cable are superfluous but I imagine useful to the beginning player -- neither are great quality but as freebies go, it's very thoughtful of MusicYo to include them.

Rated on a totally level, quality-only playing field, I'd give it a seven-plus -- it's not lacking anything but it's not really 'tricked out' either. On the other hand, comparing it to other under-$500 Strats out there (including Fender's), I'm bumping it up to a nine. I own one for myself and have bought, set up, and played five others for friends, and I know I didn't just get lucky...these guitars are a fine piece of work, doubly so for the price point. I've seen some truly ungodly-terrible Squiers, Fender MIM Strats, Yamaha Pacificas, and other Strat-copies (and, in fairness, some perfectly fine ones too), but every Focus I've seen has been consistantly good.

And let's face it -- the areas in which it lacks features are all part of the basic Strat package -- I see them more as stylistic 'givens' than limitations. Sure, it'd be nice to have a locking double-fulcrum tremolo like a Steinberger, locking machine heads, straplocks, and invisible but easy-to-use coil phase/pickup selector/series-parallel switch bank, and while we're dreaming, a masterfully flamed out tiger maple top lovingly dye-injected while the tree was still living for years by hand, bookmatched and engraved with a masterfully intricate scrimshaw bas-relief of a New England winter night, with ebony fretboard and a perfect representation of the night sky in microscopic abalone inlays.

...okay, stop snickering. This point is, it's a Strat. A seventy-buck Strat,

I've played mine through an Electar Tube 10, a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, a Vox Pathfinder, a Vox AC30 reissue, an old Peavey Audition, a POD, a Fender Mini-Twin, a Korg Pandora with headphones, a Behringer tube preamp...I think I've put it through its paces. I've done the same with the ones I've worked on. Here's what I've noticed from hours of jamming^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hdiligent testing:

The pickups are quite nice -- a good balance of 'generic' good tone and just a hint of flavor and character. They're more 'generic' (or 'flat' if you prefer) than the classic 'Strat sound,' but I find that a good thing, and feel it makes them more tonally versatile. A little 'hotter' than a typical MIM Strat, and I personally feel its 'sweet spot' tonally is with pickups raised a bit more than stock for a subtly thicker, 'saturated' tone.

The bridge pickup is very bright, almost sharp -- nicely cutting for solos with a bit of drive, but a bit shrill to be useful clean in my opinion. This was a bit of a disappointment at first -- it's less usable "out of box" than the bridge pickup of a MIM Strat, or a Squier. On the other hand, adding a tone control to the bridge pickup brought back plenty of usable middle ground sound. This is not difficult at all -- if you're comfortable with a soldering pen, it's a $1 modification (a single capacitor added to the circuit), and VERY simple. (I'm sure many guitar shops would do it for you for a small fee, too.) I did this, and found that rolling back the tone to 7/8 yielded a much more usable bridge tone, and rolling back even further produced some interestingly subtle tones that I'm not sure I'd ever use, but are cool nonetheless.

The neck pickup is strong, especially when raised a little -- be careful, though, as it's prone to becoming boomy on the low E if raised too much. I actually lowered mine a little to find a sublime Knopfler-style rhythm sound, and liked the result a lot. Even lowered, though, it's a bit heavy-handed for a Strat, and I found it melted into crunch much easier and more elegantly than a MIM Strat.

The true surprise winner of the pickup contest, however, was the middle pickup. I've never liked middle pickups before...I don't tend to use them at all. And yet, this one had an extremely pleasant tone that I found immediately useful in playing -- very bell-like, ringing tone that lent new depth to solid-state drive, and took the guitar's tone through tubes to a new dimension. Take a song you'd normally play through the bridge pickup, and just for kicks, try raising the middle pickup a tiny bit and play it with the knife switch on three...and hear it sing. Through my Boss CE-5 it adds a warmth and lushness to the otherwise fairly cool chorus I've never heard elsewhere. Pumped through a TS-9 into my Hot Rod...stand back.

The 2 and 4 positions are...thank you very much, Doc Yo...wired correctly, and have that gorgeous 'quack' that makes Strats so fun to play. I find the 'duck in my Kramer' to be much more expressive than the ones in my Strats -- I can coax some very eloquent quacks by adjusting my picking strength and angle, ranging from a deep but not murky 'cluck' to a very midrangy 'quack.' I don't personally feel the MIM's or the Squiers do this nearly as well, but of course, your mileage may vary.

It is indeed noisy, however, out of the box. Setting the switch at 1, 3 and 5 produce considerable hum in my (admittedly less than ideal) home studio. I wouldn't say it's noisier than its other under-$500 brethren, but it's no better, either. On the other hand, a good, solid shielding job will minimize that -- in my case, re-insulating the output jack wires and foil-shielding the control cavity improved it greatly. Positions 2 and 4 are quite quiet, however.

Another problem with the Focus (and most Strat copies) is that through certain amps, rolling back volume deadens tone, losing some high frequencies from the signal. I notice this through the HRD and mildly through the

This guitar was a tight, solid piece of work straight out of the box. I'm especially impressed by the snugness of the neck joint, which is significantly tighter (and better surfaced for even joining) than most Fender Strats I've looked at (American Standard, MIM or otherwise). The setup was very 'neutral,' comfortably medium action, intonation set well and pickups a little lower than usual to compensate for their being slightly hotter than typical Fender single coils.

The only notable disappointment of mine was discovering those Godawful 8-gauge strings on it. I like a loose, easy bend too, but they were VERY tinny and prone to buzzing. In fact, one friend of mine thought the frets were bad, because of the buzz. (A minor truss rod adjustment and new strings fixed it.) A set of nice 9's or 10's would have really improved the Focus' out-of-box experience.

I immediately took the action down a bit, raised pickups, restrung with 9's and reset the intonation, did a few minor 'stock' modifications to the wiring (like the added capacitor/resistor to the volume pot and the shielding, plus added a 'neck on' switch to add new pickup combinations), and of course played it heavily, and feel I added a good deal of value to it -- but in fairness, it was pretty great out o fbox all by itself.

I haven't been playing mine for long enough to truly be sure, but I've been a player for fifteen years now, and seen quite a few shoddy guitars -- this one looks like it'll hold up.

MusicYo is an internet-only company -- support through them is entirely conducted through email, but I've never asked a question that wasn't answered in 48 business hours, and in an educated, complete, helpful manner. I've heard nothing but positive comments even from folks who sent things back to them.

The warranty is quite short -- 30 day money-back guarantee -- which would definitely give me pause about buying any high-priced gear from them -- but for their niche market (good stuff, rock-bottom price), how can you go wrong? I paid $74 and have easily gotten four times that in value -- and with a few modifications, more still. If something broke or 'went bad,' I'd fix it or replace it. I wouldn't expect the same degree of kid-glove treatment I'd expect if I commissioned a Gibson Custom Shop guitar. But even so, I've yet to hear a bad MusicYo experience story firsthand.

The bottom line is, this is a damn good Strat copy that would simply be a good and worthy competitor overall, if not for its ridiculously low price point -- which capapults it a few leagues above the competition.

What else is available in the sub-$100 price range? Rogue has an offering in that range (two, actually, one with a humbucker in the bridge) that I haven't seen in person, that might be comparable, though seeing as they're made by the Squier factory ("Rogue by Squier") my guess is they're comparable to a Squier Affinity Strat. Synsonics (a Mattel company) produces a series of barely-more-than-toys like the Terminator for about $69, but they're hardly worthy of being called guitars (any more than a child's push-pedal stroller car is a 'vehicle'). You have to get up closer to the $250-300 price point before any meaningful competition emerges, and even then, I think the Kramer Focus holds its own among that tier.

Given the price point as a consideration -- this is a truly fantastic guitar. A serious guitar of appreciable quality for a very low cost. This is an instrument my teenage daughters could easily consider a realistic goal to save up for, and it truly is an instrument, not a toy. I'm a moderately experienced player who's wanted a knockaround Strat for ages, and never felt like one was in his reach -- a used one already has character I'd want to preserve, a worthy new one would cost too much to justify as a knockabout guitar, and the slew of bad Strat copies out there were so poor in quality I might never manage to make a decent instrument of it without paying far too much. The Focus fit the bill perfectly. I'm trying new wiring modifications, trying out some of my theories about how various parameters affect tone, and still, I've got a guitar I love to play throughout it all.

I truly feel this guitar would be a good buy at five times the price...and at its current price, no player has an excuse not to own one. This is truly a ten.

I love mine. So will you.

Made in korea 21 fret 3 coil pickjups with 2 tone and 1 volume control

It sounds just as good as a $300 guitar.plays really good without an amp.

finish is real nice mine is a candy apple red

it will last if treated nicely

the copany is very helpful and helped me

Its a great guitar paid $80 for it while others charge over $150 for the same thing.

Made in Korea, under Gibson. $70!!! 22 Frets, 3 single coils. Tobacco sunburst (very nice!), black pickgaurd. I believe it's made out of basswood, sort of heavy (I was expecting it to be as light as my friend's Rogue Squier). Worst feature is the tuners (no suprise). Fulcrum-style tremolo. Came with strap, extra tremolo spring, and cord. Strings were 8's, which were too light for the guitar, and do not mesh well with the tuners, and it goes out of tune frequently. 2 tone and 1 volume, tone knobs don't do that much. Can't beat the price, though.

Came with 8's, but will be changed out. Sounds quite nice, but the Strat sound screams when the single coil pickup type is selected on my Digitech RP200 (see me review). Can get a very, very nice tone from SRV to Great White. Bridge pickup is nice, neck pickup is too dark and muddy. Pickups will be changed out with DiMarzio Virtual Vintage Heavy Blues in the near future. Tones aren't bright at all, but adequate. But for the price, best bang for the buck!

Tobacco (Vintage Sunburst) finish is flawless. Nice clear coat on the paint. Flamed neck looks awesome. Setup was perfect (for my taste), but strings could be a thicker gauge, such as 9's. Knobs are perfect, although the pots don't have much action to them. Tuners are bottom of the line, could definately use locking tuners since a tremolo is employed. Otherwise, perfect!

I belie this guitar would stand a live gig with a real Fender Floyd Rose tremolo and with locking tuners. Everything seems like they'd last quite a while. This is my 3rd guitar, and the setup and initial impression is better than my previous 2. I'm skeptical about using it without a backup, though, only because of the tremolo and tuners.

Deals only by email, no complaints. Took only 4 business days to get to my house!! That's impressive.

I've been playing for over 3 years now. I own a DeArmond M50, a Fernandes (which is going through a complete rebuild), a Peavey Blazer 158 "stacked" on a Marshall G30CRD, with a Boss Metal Zone and a Digitech RP200. I play mostly 80's metal (George Lynch style) and heavey blues. I'd definately get another one if it were stolen, you just can't beat the price!!

Let's get something straight right off the bat-- ratings are not based on the $75 price, but rather against the sub $250 market that these guys compete against.

Korean made Y2K strat-style with a nato-alder (I think that's Korean for "a-step-above-naugahyde") body, you know the drill. It's not like MusicYo is giving you a lot of options here... at this price, it's built for modifications. This one's in Lake Placid Blue, and the paint job's not too shabby... equal to a Mex Fender. Rosewood's your only option and it's actually a better version than the Mex Fender. The tuners, as most have noted, are the first thing to replace-- otherwise it's that black pickguard.

I do wish they'd set this thing up with the third spring in the trem cavity rather than in the bag, but playable out of the box.

I bought this thing as a guitar to stash at my in-laws place so I didn't have to deal with the airlines losing my Fender strat, so I didn't come in with high expectations (at $75, who's expecting quality?) That said, I brought my POD on the plane and hooked up to the POD, it sounds quite nice. First surprise-- the pickups didn't generate the 60-cycle hum as much as the ones on my Fender. They don't have the same tone, but they didn't make me want to throw the guitar off the mountain, either. I played a variety of stuff through it-- Hendrix, SRV, some Tiny Grimes jazz licks, some Christian praise & worship type stuff, and it didn't sound out of place. Sound isn't as bright as I'd like, but no major complaints.

Set up very well out of the box, but still, I'd love to put the $40 into a pro setup and see how it plays then-- polish the frets a little more, lower the action just a tad and bring the trem bar flush with the body.

The tuners are somewhat loose. I'd replace them.

The bridge was a pleasant surprise. Like a cross between the vintage Fender saddles and the newer style you see on the American Standard line.

Again, I'm in California a couple of weeks a year, and it doesn't take major adjustments to play this one straight out of the box, even though I'm switching from .010's at home to .009's here.

Would I play live with it? It's a matter of time before I have to out there, but I wouldn't worry about it.

It seems solid enough, and everything was put together by highly trained monkeys, as opposed to the drunken ones Squier uses, to pick a sub-$250 manufacturer at random for slander and libel.

In regular usage? It would be the backup (or at least used for open tunings)-- in fact, I'm considering a second for that purpose back at home.

Internet only support. As far as shipping, the guitar was two business days behind original ETA, but they e-mailed me early in the process and it ended up beating the revised ETA by a day as well.

I never did find out what the warranty is... I think shipping it back would probably cost more than it's worth!

I've been playing nearly 15 years, and I play out 2-3 times a week for church, plus rehearsals. I'd use this thing on stage in a pinch or for alternate tunings, but obviously, my Fender Strat gets top billing.

Look, it's a playable guitar, and let's look at your entry-level options-- Squier? Shoot yourself first. Epiphone PeeWee class (also about $60-80)? A toy. Low end Ibanez? A better instrument for $100 more. If you're buying for your kid, get the Kramer, for yourself, get the Ibanez. Ditto for a Danelectro.

I'll probably get a second for home, if nothing else, to make a clean switch in the event I snap a string on stage. Besides, I end up giving a lot of initial guitar lessons to kids in the church youth group and it would make an inexpensive loaner.

And again... it was only $75. ($70 if you'll take black.)

I just got a Kramer Focus 111S in the mail today. I ordered it
a week ago, but they didn't send it out until Monday, since it
was Thanksgiving, so I think they must have shipped it out Monday
morning! It came well protected in a box inside another box.
it has 21 frets, made in Indonesia, rosewood neck, with 3 strat-
style pickups. I read that the body is not exactly top-quality
wood! Some kind of plywood junk veneer. Frets are medium, I think.
Has 5-way selector switch. Sunburst color. Wammy bar is
6 screw vintage style tremolo. 3 tele volume, tone knobs.
Came with allen wrenches and cheesy guitar cord and 1 page
instruction manual for adjusting action.

This review is based on playing this guitar for 1 hour today after
it arrived in the mail. I realize the strings are the worst strings
ever manufactured, but wanted to give you my initial impression of
the stock guitar before any adjustments.
I have gone through a bunch of guitars over the past 38 years of
playing and my main axe is a Fender Big Apple strat which blows
away this Kramer, but is over 10 times as expensive!
I plugged the guitar into my Marshall Artist into a 2 12" 1936
cabinet and it sounded like shit with the bad strings! Actually,
when I adjusted the tone controls (took off some treble) on the
amp and guitar, I could get a strat-like tone that is kind of
irritating, but authentic enough for $69.00. I suspect that when
I change the strings, it will sound MUCH better, but it will not
sound like a fine instrument just yet, if ever. The pickups don't
distort enough compared to other Fender strats and strat copies,
but they are adequate for goofing around and doing some limited
recording. The pickups have weird, uneven frequencies - part of
this is that I need to adjust the height of the pickups, the action
a little etc... That might improve the sound some. But, overall
the quality of the pickups is slightly better than a cheapo
Squire Strat. I wonder whether Music Yo could have just put 1
great pickup on this guitar instead of 3 suck-ass ones?
Suppose the pickups cost 10 bucks each. I would rather see one
30 dollar pickup, which would be a stock Fender or equivalent pickup.
Another idea is to offer different grade pickups for this axe. But,
I guess the cost is kept way down by using the same low grade
pickups. It is weird, though - the pickups DO sound like a cool
parody of a strat! It is just that they are nasty sounding, too!

This is the highlight of the guitar! The action is great! Whoever
set this guitar up (which must have been done in a hurry by the
way they churn these Kramers out) is a genius, since the guitar
is extremely easy to play. I need to adjust the pickups
to get the tone to be more even on the strings and
fine tune the bridge adjustments, but it is a 70-80% finished set-up!
I read some of these reviews for the Focus which said the setup
was way too high. In my case, I got lucky, I guess.
The guitar finish is very cool looking, though it is more black than
sunburst. I like the more traditional sunburst. Because I think
there is a thin layer of high-quality wood on top of the plywood,
the guitar is MUCH nicer looking than some of the cheapo Fenders I
have played.
One minor problem is that there are splotches of paint on small
areas of the guitar. It looks quite amateurish, but I guess for
$69.00, you can't complain. Also, from a short distance away, it
looks like a PRS! :-)
Of course, once you get in the $225.00 range on any
brand guitar, the finish becomes as nice or nicer than the focus.
But, for $69.00, it is incredible! The rosewood neck is very
smooth and easy on the fingers. I am suprised it was polished. I
would like to see that on more expensive Fenders or Gibsons, in
some cases! One big flaw is the tuning pegs - they make the cheapo
Dan Electro reissue guitars good in this matter. These are the
worst pieces of shit tuning pegs I have ever seen! You look at them,
they go out of tune! The nut is so-so - could have been cut
a little more evenly. The pickup selector is nice. One of the tone
controls does not work on the bridge pickup, but works every where
else. I am scared to mail the guitar back and get a guitar with
a worse neck or something else screwed up. The tremolo is a hunk
of shit and barely does anything, but I will put the additional
spring in and see if it has more "oompf"!.

Except for the tuning pegs, this guitar is solid as hell. It would
stand up to any gig and it would be cool to play a gig with it and
spill beer on it and drop it and just beat the shit out of this,
since it is such a low price. Maybe I could get it looking like
Stevie Ray's or Rory Gallaghers? :-) The strap buttons are fine,
but I would NOT use this as my primary guitar for a gig until I
change the pickups and tuning pegs. Used as a backup would be fine
when everybody is drunk at 1:00am in the morning.

They have a great web page (musicyo.com) and mailed it right away
to me. They did not exaggerate the quality.

I have been playing for 38 years and own a few guitars, including
a Big Apple strat and another cheesy strat copy - a rare Stage Guitar,
from Arlington Texas, put together with Japanese parts. The
Stage guitar is a little better than this guitar - cost me
$130.00, but the body is far inferior on the Stage Strat copy than
the Kramer Focus. The Stage has a nasty vibration where the
Focus sounds great, acoustically, when you have it unplugged.
(make a cheap acoustic guitar!). I have a Marshall Amp and some
small garbage practice amps like a Peavey Rage. If it were stolen,
I would get another Kramer of a different type or a Dan Electro.
The Dan Electro is a little better, but it cost 60-100% more, at
least! I love the neck on this guitar and the finish but hate
the tuning pegs, the sound I am real lukewarm on and the tremolo
sucks. The bridge is fairly good and I think if I did what others
have said about this guitar and upgraded the tuning pegs, pickups,
and perhaps the bridge (a high-quality tremolo), it would be a
fantastic guitar! I compared this guitar to the cheap Yamaha and
Fender strat copies that cost under $175.00. This guitar BLOWS
them away in the action and finish! I think the Dan Electro is
the biggest competitor to this guitar and of course, used
off-brand guitars and I read about "Team" guitars - great strat and
Les Paul copies, supposedly. Again, I wish this guitar was
made so you could order higher-quality parts at a more expensive
price - for example - $30 more for better tuning pegs and $80 more
for a few decent pickups.

2000 model. Standard Strat feature. 21 Frets, 1 Vol, 2 Tone, 6 screw fulcrum tremolo etc... Basically an inexpensive (actually dirt cheap) strat copy. Nothing special except Tele style knobs and a solid metal button string tree.

It has a typical strat sound, but the bridge pickup sounded a bit thin. It may be the pickup so I'm gonna try different pickups. Unplugged, it sounds great. Good sustain, and clear ringing sound. Typical single coil noise for each pickup alone, 2nd and 4th position is hum cancelling so it's pretty quiet. I expected a single coil strat sound, and that's what I got. Just don't expect a warm Les Paul sound out of this, and if you want that, buy a Les Paul. Except for the bridge pickup sounding a little thin, it sounds fine.

The construction of this guitar was really excellent!!! The finish was flawless, neck pocket was really tight (more on that later), and the frets were smooth (no sharp edges) and well seated. Only thing I can fault is the material of the frets which looked kind of cheap, and they weren't polished very well. Oh well, you can't expect everything for this price... Setup was pretty good, but then you can't expect any guitar company to setup the guitar to suit everybody. I mean, every player's setup will be different depending on their taste, choice of strings, type of music they play etc... As it came, the guitar was playable.

This guitar will last forever. All the strat copies do. Only thing that concerns me are the tuners which ARE cheap, and I'll probably replace them. Only problem is good set of tuning pegs will cost about half as much as the guitar. Maybe I should just buy another one and just swap the guitar when it goes out of tune...

As everyone will know by now, they only have e-mail support and personally, I like their e-mail system better than getting on the phone and put on hold forever. I've contacted them about 5 times so far, and they always replied back within a day. That's more than good enough for me. Also, you just can't expect low price and phone support at the same time. Simple economics here.
Also, when the guitar was shipped to me, I've found a crack on the neck, and they sent me a new neck in 3 days, shipping already paid!!! You can't ask for a better support than that on a $69 guitar!!

One thing to note is that these guitars seems to be assembled from parts of different specification. One of my friend bought the same guitar, and his guitar came with a very round and thick neck. Mine was really slim compared to his. The replacement neck that I got for the cracked neck had a different fret wire (original was small, new one was medium jumbo) and better fretboard wood, but with the same neck profile as the original neck. So what you'll get may depend on what batch of guitar you order. I kind of wish I get the thick neck on my next order for the slow blues playing. :)

I've been playing for 14 yrs, and I went thru a lot of guitars (Fender MIM Tele, Ibanez RG270, Epiphone & Gibson Les Paul, Jackson Rhoads etc..) I currently own a 80's Squire Strat and an Aria PE-100, and I play them thru POD and Carvin XV112. I'm 100% satisfied with this guitar, and I definitely would buy this again if it were stolen. As matter of fact I'll probably buy a couple more and set it up with alternate tunings, different string gauges etc... Only beef I have with musicyo is that they are located in Tennessee so the shipping time (7 days) and cost is pretty high, but I also got charged with the sales tax even though I live in California. This may have to do with CA law, so maybe I shouldn't complain to musicyo, but it still sucks. Total cost for the guitar w/tax & shipping came out to be $95.
As it is, this guitar is probably a 7 - cheap tuners & laminated wood, but for the money, it's a 10!!! This is a great guitar for a beginner, and an excellent project guitar and a backup guitar for the experienced.
So far, I changed the volume/tone knobs with black strat knobs and changed the nut with a graphite nut. I'll probably change the tuners and the bridge pickup (BTW, the bridge pickup is routed for a humbucker under the pickguard so I'll probably change it to a humbucker), and this guitar will be good enought to use as a main axe!!! I wish they offer this guitar as a kit form at a lower price so I can do some wild things with it.

I'm really happy with musicyo and I won't hesitate to do business with them again. As matter of fact, I already bought an electar 10 tube amp, and just placed an order for a steinberger guitar.

Their concept of on-line only sales/e-mail only support/dirt cheap price works great for me!!!

Your run-of-the-mill Strat copy. laminated body, single ply pickguard
3 singles and standard electronics

The body resonates like a dream unplugged. I first plugged it in with
the stock pickups. They were suprisingly powerful, and had remarkably very little hum... (I later foundthat thiswas due to good sheilding with copper tape around the coils.) They did, however sound very flat, and life less,and they exhibited a very faint squeal in the notch positions, as to what caused this, I'm not too sure. I replaced the bridge p/u with a Semour Duncan Classic Stack. I replaced the neck and middle p/us with Carvin S60s The Bridge position now sound phenominal and the neck/mid noth position has a great sparkling acoustic-like tone, but the other positions on the guitar are practically useless, they're way too bright, and have no dynamic control. I wired the five-way (which I replaced with a beefier Fender five-way) to split the Classic Stack in the 4th position, but this still made no improvement to that switch position. This is my first experience with the Carvin pickups, so I don't know whether to blame the guitar or the pickups. I was however impressed with these same pickups on a friend's Carvin Bolt guitar.

Unbelievable, the finish is flawless. The thickness of the body is greater than what I had expected for a $69 guitar. There are felt washers on the strap buttons, the bridge saddles and string tree are stamped, rather than the classic Fender design of 'bent' pieces of metal. The guitar included an extra spring for the tremolo, which I immediately installed, as I'm not a big fan of Fender style trems.
I think the knobs look cool, so I will probably be leaving them.
The five-way was very cheaply built... in my opinion maybe the weakest link in the whole guitar other than the tuners. The potentiometers were a surprise, however. They're big, beefy pots, They are however 500k jobs, and may attribute to the excessive brightness of the guitar. I will eventually try 250k pots in their place. All in all, a very well built guitar for the money. A bit of set-up was required out of the box, the bridge saddles were not set correctly, the neck needed a little relief - and the allen wrenches required to do this work are included! The frets are medium jumbos, which is a big surprise, as standard frets would have helped keep the
cost of these guitars down. There may be a slight problem with the fretboard geometry, even with the guitar perfectly intonated, the intonation gets a little deviant past about the 14th fret, but most beginners won'tgo that far up the fretboard anyway. And this is marketed to be a 'beginners' guitar.

Being that this guitar is modeled after a Strat, I suspect that it will hold up very well. The only thing that worries me are the tuners
They work well enough for now, but will probably need to be replaced
some where down the road.

Other than dealing with the company through e-mail there isn't any customer support. ordering the guitar was a breeze, and I will probably be ordering much more from musicyo.com in the future.

You can't beat this piece of wood for the price. I ordered the guitar just for the heck of it, maybe to use for a ritualistic sacrifice on stage. But this guitar has really surprised me, the action is better than two 'real' Fenders that I own, if only I couldget the sound dialed in, It could replace my main gigging axe. I've been playing the guitar for seven years, I have owned a ton of gear, I currently own four electrics, a 'real' Tele and a 'real' Strat, and this guitar is one ofthe best values out there.

2000 Korean-made
21 frets
strat-copy
s/s/s pickup config
cherry red finish
6 bolt vintage-style tremolo
jumbo frets

I play heavy metal and rock. It sounds good, as a beginner guitar. However, the tremolo is a piece of shit. It has a rich sound...most of the time. The s/s/s pickup config doesnt give it much warmth, and it hums a lot.

I just picked it up and played it, and it sounded just fine. The routing was pretty scrappy in the back.

The first day i got it, I had some minor problems. The cable slot slipped out and I had to take off the pickguard to get it out. Like I said before, the tremolo is shit. I broke part of the screw-in thingy on the first day. I got it in March, and the volume control was loose by September.

I've been playing it for 6 months, and it is as solid as a rock. I wish it had a humbucker to cut down the hum, and am thinking of installing it. Compared to a squire, it kicks ass. If it were stolen, I would probably save my money for a new bass (Ibanez Soundgear 485 like Fieldy). ...Thats pretty much it

2000 Kramer Focus made in Korea. 21 frets; laminated body; 3 single coil pickups; 1 volume, 2 tone controls & 5 way selector; maple kneck with rosewood fingerboard; Lake Placid blue finish; strat style body; clasic 6 screw mount tremolo tailpiece; die cast tuners, 25.5" scale thin kneck; comes with alen wrenches extra tremolo spring and cheapo 6'instrument cable.

I play a variety of musical styles which includes Christian Praise & Worship, 60s Rock, Blues, Country, Folk Rock, and Cream/Hendrix style Hard Rock. I play through a Crate GX212 amp and occasionally use a Cry Baby wah-wah. This guitar has a classic strat sound. Bright with that 60 cylce hum. There is plenty of quack in the in between (2&4)positions. Each position is different and useable. I play using the neck pickup most of the time because I prefer a rounder, bluesy tone. Because the pickups are single coil, they are noisy at high gain levels.

I was impressed by the fit and finish. The Lake Placid blue finish is beautiful with no flaws. Has proved to be very durable so far. The action was set a little higher than a lot of players prefer. There is a chipped out area next to one of the frets (strickly a cosmetic problem that is barely noticeable). Other than that, the fret board is beautiful. The rosewood has some character with lighter streaks running the length of the neck. There is also a slight cosmetic flaw on the nut. For the price, this is a well put together guitar, though. It is sturdy and tighly fitted and plays and sounds like something costing three times the price.

I play live with it twice a week. I have a back-up, but have only used it once when I broke a string. The hardware is ok. The tuners are stiff, but do the job, the trem unit seems solid - it's not a Floyd Rose, though so don't expect to do any radical dive bombing and stay perfectly in tune. I ended up putting in the extra spring and adjusting it so it was flat against the body (i.e. it only dive bombs, but can't be pulled back). I now stays in better tune with aggressive use and has better sustain.

Haven't had any need to use it. Only warranty is 30 days money back which is Federal regulation for online marketing anyway. I did like the immediate order confirmation and UPS tracking.

I've been playing for about 27 years. I own a Yamaha FG402 accoustic, a Kansas (Gibson 335 copy), a Cry Baby wah-wah, a Boss phaser, a crate GX 212 amp. I really enjoy playing this guitar. In fact, since I got it, my other two have been collecting dust. The neck is fast and very comfortable. The sound is bright and articulate. It is just one of those guitars that is a blast to play. Everyone I have let play it is impressed by it. It is the best $69 guitar I've ever seen. It compares favorably to anything I've seen under $200. It is not a PRS or $1200 Fender Amercian Strat, but for the price it is an unbelievable value. It is an excellent starter guitar for a beginer. Something that plays easy and that they won't have to replace after they learn how to play. It is also a decent guitar for an experienced player who doesn't want to spend alot and would make an excelent back-up guitar. I was so impressed by the quality and value of it, I just ordered a Kramer Striker FR422SD.

This is a follow up review to my original review on 05/27/00, so I won't recount features. I'll just mention the mods I did.

In my previous review, I ended with saying that I really wanted to swap out the pickups, but that I did not want to be so choosy. Well, I did swap them out, having been spoiled by my use of Seymour Duncan pups in my other Korean archtops.

So, here's what I did:

1. Pickup replacements:
- Bill Lawrence S280 humbucker in single coil size in the neck.
- Seymour Duncan SSL-1 vintage-type single coil in the middle.
- Seymour Duncan SSL-5 (screamin' pup) in the bridge
2. Tuners relaced with USA Grover mini-rotomatics
3. All Tele-style knobs replaced with Fender Strat parts
4. cheap 5-way switch replaced with Fender 5-way switch
5. strings replaced with D'addario XL110's
6. Blocked the tremelo to improve tunability (kept the trem arm installed for looks)

With the new pups, the tones are EXCELLENT, blowing away any Fender MIM Strat - period! It can only be compared to a higher end Fender USA Strat at this point. Positions 2/4 give authentic Strat quack and jangle that differentiates a Strat from other electric guitars.

The BLS280 neck pup allows me to get serviceable jazz tones and round, sweet blues tones. This pup is excellent for comping.

The SDSSL-1 middle pup sounds great for blues leads - if I could actually play any, that is. It cuts through, but without high-end treble-itis. From what I hear, many Strat players don't use the middle pup by itself, but this thing is great all by itself.

The SDSSL-5 pup in the bridge is really only good when used for overdriven R&R as it's tone is a little tto sharp for the stuff I play. But when used with an overdriven tube amp - watch out!

Tuning has improved greatly with the Grover tuners. The blocked tremelo allows it to stay in tune, too, even after lots of string bending.

The last mod that I am contemplating is swapping out the single ply black pickguard for a Fender tri-ply, white or pearl replacement - just to add the final, finishing touch. The only thing keeping me from doing that is time.

Even with all the mods I've made, I have not had to adjust the neck - which is strange considering how much adjustment my Epi archtop needed to get good action. As some of you may know, it is not possible to remove 100% of fret buzzing unless you are willing to suffer high or uneven action. Most minimum buzzing will play itself out over time and that is what has occured with this guitar.

The stock, mostly plastic 5-way switch was not very reliable when after my cousin yanked it back and forth (somewhat violently) a few times. I switched to a Fender 5-way switch which is mostly metal and is much, much more rugged. I recommend doing this mod whether you need it or not. Everything else has held up great - tone/vol pots, fingerboard, frets, inlays, neck, body, bridge, saddles, etc. I'd have given it a 10, if not for the 5-way switch.

Non-existent after 30 days. So make sure you check it out thoroughly before your 30 day warranty expires. My 5-way switch went south 45 days after I bought it. I emailed them, but they never responded.

I have never found Strats to be beautiful guitars, preferring the curves and workmanship of archtops to most solid bodies. I mean, Strats (and LP's) have got to be the most copied guitar in the world. Every high-end maker does 'em - PRS, Tom what's-his-name, and others. And every junky maker doe's em - Hondo, Aria, etc, etc. There is no distinction with a Strat like you might get with a rockabilly archtop.

That said, I must say that my modified Kramer Strat has really grown on me in terms of playability and tone. It's so easy to play and the tone is just so versatile that it is hard for me to put it down. My son absolutely loves the way it looks - candy apple red body, white knobs, black guard. Comparing it to my other guitars, he says it looks like a "real" rock guitar - whatever that is :)

With my mods, I give it a "10" because it is now a pro level guitar, costing a whole lot less than it's competition.

As astock gutiar form the factory for $69.95, I'd give it a 10, too. you just can't beat the price. but as a stock guitar, I wouldn't gig with it unitl I mod'd it as I have done.