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!

Come on, it?s a Strat copy. What could you possibly need to know? Maple neck, rosewood board, and a plywood body. That?s about it.

I bought this guitar simply as a vehicle on which to mount a Roland GK-2A synth pickup and create a dedicated synth guitar. Still, I couldn?t resist pugging it in. It?s actually very resonant, much to my surprise. Not much to say here ? the bridge pickup is very hot compared to the others. The neck and middle pickups and combinations thereof produced mostly traditional Strat-ish sounds ? except that although it was very bright and trebly, it lacked spankiness and quack like the real thing. Despite being resonant, there is no doubt that the plywood body hinders tone generation ? it sounds like a plywood guitar. BUT, very very good for the whopping $70 I paid for it. Overall, not a tone machine of course but full of very useable and nice sounds.

: I?m stupefied. I paid $70 for a guitar and got: no sharp fret ends, nicely polished and leveled frets, a perfectly straight neck with no buzzes and good action, a perfect black finish, and decent quality hardware. Nice bridge saddles. What the hell is going on here? It?s not perfect, though ? the lower-horn pickguard hole was drilled just a hair too far inward, creating a small hump in the pickguard there. Some gloss finish slop was on the nut, and the fingerboard was slightly rough under my fingers due to some kind of compound left on the board ? 5 minutes with some 000 steel wool and lemon oil took care of that and it was smooth as could be. Overall very impressive though. Like getting a Corolla for Yugo money.

Super-thick finish and decent hardware. I doubt any problems will crop up if it's properly maintained. Strat-style guitars are notoriously tough.

Haven?t needed it. No idea, although if I got zero support with a $70 guitar I wouldn?t be surprised and couldn?t hold that against them.

I've been playing for too damn long, and own gobs of high-end gear. I suppose it does a good job of holding my Roland synth pickup. It also does it with quality that is pretty much unbelievable for the price. Plays great with no issues. I?d buy one of these in place of a Squier any day. Would be an excellent low-dollar way to get into playing without suffering the headaches of a poor-quality instrument.

Korean Made - 2003
Neck: Hard Maple
Neck Profile: Slim-Taper
Construction: Bolt-On
Body: Laminated Nato / Alder
Neck Pickup: Single-Coil
Middle Pickup: Single-Coil
Bridge Pickup: Single-Coil
Controls: 5-Way Pickup Selector
One Master Volume
Two Tones
Bridge: Vintage Style Tremolo
Machine Heads: Covered
Nut: PVC
Nut Width: 1.68"
Frets: 21 - Nickel/Steel
Headstock: Straight String Pull
Flat - String Tree between "E" and "B"
Fingerboard: 21 fret, Rosewood
F/B Radius: 12"
Scale Length: 25.5"
F/B Inlay: PVC Dots
Mine is a Vintage Sunburst finish

My music style is N/A, as I am just learning to play and this is my 1st guitar.
I'm using a Vox Pathfinder 15R which has built in tremelo and reverb, also have an echo and flange pedal to fool around with at a later time.
Pickup settings #2 and #4 are extremely quiet, with #1-#3-#5 only a slight sign of a hum.
This guitar produces exception full, bright, crisp sound. It's simply amazing for the price.
I really don't have any dislikes for the guitar that they shipped me. Simply put, it's "all good".

Set-up was very good right out of the box. I did lower the action a bit, but the intonation was right on the money.
Pickups seem to be adjusted perfectly, as is the bridge.
No factory or shipping flaws whatsoever. Once again, amazing for the remarkable low price. A buddy of mine who has played for 35 yrs looked it over upon arrival, and commented that it had the straightest neck he had ever seen. Beautiful sunburst finish too, and the frets / fretboard (rosewood) are fantastic.

This guitar will never see live playing with me, nor any other for that matter. I won't be playing in a band. BUT, I do believe that it would do just fine under those conditions.
Good sturdy hardware which is all visually appealing, the finish is dynomite, and I've yet to knock it out of tune other than playing with the action. Vibrato always seems to return to perfect tune.

I've never had to deal with customer support, but I will say that it shipped across country to me and arrived fast and in great shape.
For it's price, I'm not worried about a warranty.

Playing for only 1 month so far, and loving it. A Great guitar for a beginner OR a great cheap backup for a seasoned player. It blew away the low end fender strats for cost, sound, feel, features, cost ....
If stolen, I would indeed buy another just like it for the sake of having a good solid body guitar. I am planning on ordering a second guitar shorty to have a hollow body with humbuckers (Johnson JH-100), but that is entirely different beast and more costly (about $220).

Made in China, probably 2003. Others have provided the features, so I don't have to. Finish on my guitar is a mettalic Lake Placid Blue. I think it will contrast better with a white pickguard rather than the black one that comes on the guitar.
I paid extra for a leather strap and a TKL case, all in all about $160 including shipping. Not bad eh? That amount barely covers the cost of a Squier Affinity in most guitar stores.

I really much prefer the Gibson humbucker sound than the tinny, quacky Strat single-coil sound. I like the distorted crunchy sound of humbuckers with the Crunch setting of my Peavey Triumph. Occasionally I smooth it down for nice chunky jazzy bluesy chords. However, I do have the occasional urge to play this type of guitar. This guitar's single coils are actually quite powerful, sound like boosted Fender pickups and are louder than a Squier Affinity's. Very bright, sharp edge to it, specially on the bridge. Unfortunately it only makes one sound. The tone pots are useless, instead of gradually changing the sound, the move from bright to dull at about 8. It's a cheap enough guitar that I can play with it and change the pickups without any regret. I separately purchased the booster pack from Musicyo (2 dual rails and one quadrail) and will try it on this guitar, which other folks have reviewed as having only one sound: overdriven crunch.

The neck is wiiiide and thin, while my preference is a medium width neck with a little more "C" shape to it. The back of the neck and the rosewood fretboard were dry which some lemon oil made a lot nicer to play. The neck is slightly wider at the joint than the body (about 1/10 inch), and the gap between neck and body looks slightly wider than other Strat-clones. Maybe I'll pour some wood glue down there, might it improve the resonance of the plywood body? The tuners are not the best quality (some strings frequently out of tune), and the bridge saddles need a little adjusting. Action height is good, no string buzzing at all. Using the supplied cable, the guitar "crackled and popped" which could be because of the cable ends, or maybe it is the socket itself.
The back cover plate for some reason has two long cutout "windows". I can't figure out the reason for that. The tremolo pull uses only three supplied springs. I have not used the tremolo yet.

I've owned the guitar for five days, so I don't know about its durability. It's a cheap plywood guitar, what do you expect?
Let me say though that American companies have transferred enough "guitar technology" to the Chinese manufacturers that the quality is acceptable for such low prices, in fact value for money is really high. I speculate that Gibson pays these makers about US$40 for each guitar. Shipping from China, taxes, inventory overhead, etc. make up another $20 of the cost. If I critized this guitar I would actually be rude!

No idea, never dealt with them.

I've played simple rock songs on (You Really Got Me, Wild Thing, Mustang Sally, etc)and off for the last 30 years. I can play some blues. I am strictly an amateur who plays for his own pleasure and nobody else's. I play in my basement and don't let anyone else hear me sing or play, that's how bad. I prefer to play this through either the Peavey Triumph valve amp at clean setting or a Crate 20W solid state with slight overdrive. It's a nice addition to my little collection of other cheap guitars. None cost more than $400. Perfect for when I want to play the quack/cluck thing. Do I like it? Buyer's Remorse: I actually wish I had saved up a little more to buy one of Kramer's Korean made super-Strat types. I would have been happier.

I will not bore you with the details again.

The pickups hum like a swarm of killer bees, but I've never been a fan of single coils. Positions 2 and 4 are much quiter though, so I use those.

The sound/tone is slightly better than I expected. It sounds even better when masked by up to 20 effects pedals.

Having read all of the other customer reviews, I wasn't sure whether I was going to receive a pleasant surprise or a total shambles.

I received the latter. The worst set up and finish I have ever seen in the history of the entire world.

The action was very high and the saddles were not in correct ratio to the fingerbord radius/string height. Intonation was also way out and the trem was screwed right down. Pickups were very close to the strings.

The finish on the body is not too bad (vintage white), apart from a couple of cracks near the neck pocket.

The neck finish is terrible! bits of dust in the (uneven and sagging) finish. They must have coated the neck while standing next to a sandpit on a windy day!

Some parts of the neck have no coating at all, with the bare wood showing. It's quite rough to the touch. I could excuse this as a one off, but I bought 2 other guitars form musicyo.com at the same time (Vanguard & Striker) and BOTH had the same problem - to a lesser degree.

Surprisingly, there wasn't any fret buzz, even when set quite low. However, The nut slots were poorly cut, causing the G and B srings to 'rattle' when played open. I managed to remedy this with some graphite/pencil lead shavings in the slots.

Gibson/Kramer should be ashamed of themselves. Quite simply - a disgrace.

I wouldn't want to gig this - I'd be too embarrased. I'll probably just use it for experimenting.

I received the guitar/s within 48 hours of ordering, which is pretty damn good as I'm in the UK. Having said that, it's FedEx that do the deliveries, not Musicyo, so they can have an eight because their shipping rates are excellent.

Despite the total slagging I have just given this guitar, The fact remains that it cost only #43.67 ($69.99 at the time).

If you can tolerate a poor finish and know how to correctly set up your guitar/iron out minor faults, then you will have an instrument that is playable and doesn't sound too bad.

Finally, I have to mention that I am deeply suspicious about some of the rave reviews of Kramer/musicyo guitars. There is a possibility that some of the reveiws are written by musicyo staff to increase the overall scores. (I'm not stating this as fact, so please don't edit this bit out)

I would be happy for any genuine customers who are pleased with their instrument to email me and restore my faith, as the prices are so tempting that I may consider further purchases.

Made in China 2001, 21 frets, laminated body, Maple neck with rosewood fingerboard, ceramic magnet single coil strat pickups and controls with a 5 way selector, strat style body with silver metallic paint, synchronous tremolo. Supplied with allen wrenches for the bridge saddles and truss rod.

I play a variety of styles through an Ampeg Gemini II and a Kramer K-15R when I don't feel like firing up the Ampeg. The Kramer Focus has the usual kind of single coil noise when the selector switch is in positions 1, 3 and 5 and noise cancellation in positions 2 and 4. I really like the sound of the type of strat pickups that are in this guitar. I think they sound better than the ones in a Squier Strat that I have.

I wasn't expecting this guitar to be set up very well and once I got a chance to check it out I found I was right - it wasn't set up very well right out of the box. In fact it was almost unplayable. The tremolo attachment screws were turned down far enough that the tremolo didn't pivot and the saddles were adjusted too low on a few strings. The neck is ok except it wasn't radiused properly at the heel on the treble side. It is actually a little high in that area causing the saddles for the first three strings to be raised higher than they should need to be. I found that one of neck attachment screws was broken and needed to be replaced. The paint on the body is a nice color but is rather thin in some areas around the edges, so you can kind of tell the body is made of laminated plywood. If I was a beginner and didn't know how to adjust a strat style guitar for playability, I would have been pretty disappointed with this one. The tuners seemed unreliable to me so I replaced them with Grover Rotomatics. The original string trees were the round button type and had some rather sharp edges where they came into contact with the strings. I replaced them with GraphTech string trees.

I don't think the parts used on this guitar are inferior in any way that would effect reliability with the exceptions of the tuners and string trees.

I didn't deal with Musicyo on any of the defects this guitar had.

I've been playing for close to thirty years and have owned a couple different Fender Strato's and various Gibsons. My knowledge of strato construction and setup came in very handy as far as this guitar is concerned. Since it was a inexpensive guitar and in rather sad shape when I got it, I decided rather than go through the hassle of sending it back and all, that I would try to make it playable and use it as a platform for experimentation. Once I got it setup to be playable I found I actually liked the sound of the pickups and that the guitar had good sustain characteristics! I also liked the appearance - the silver metallic paint with black high gloss plastic and the chrome dome knobs. I shielded and star grounded the electronics per the instructions found on the guitarnuts website and tried some other modifications. These improved the sound so much that I really love the quality of tone and the strato-sound I get out of this thing. I wish I had these pickups in a Squier Strat that I have! The weight of the laminated body must contribute to the really nice sustain it has. And that is the reason I've decided to sell my modified Kramer - it's too heavy and it kills my shoulder after a half hour or so! But I will miss it's sound and looks.
I wouldn't discourage anyone, beginner or experienced from trying out a Kramer Focus 111S. You may get one that plays just fine out of the box and the modifications I made to mine aren't really necessary - as I said mine sounded good to me before I made them. I would be prepared, if you are a beginner or someone on a tight budget, to exchange one that is defective if needed or to have an experienced player or tech you can rely on evaluate the thing and tell you if adjustments need to be made, etc. I think they're definitely worth the price if you get one thats good or just looking for something to experiment with.

The Kramer Focus 111S guitars that I have are near excact copies of a Fender "Squier" Strat and are much better. The Bodies are solid and heavy so you know they means business. The necks are slim and feel nice. The shape of them is exactly like a strat so they are super comfortable. I own two of these guitars. One is Sunburst with a Rosewood fingerboard and the other is White with an American Flag pickguard and a Maple fingerboard. There is nothing missing as far as features are concered, so I'll give them both a 9.

Both my Focus strats can make just about any sound that I need. I can play anything from the Smoothest Jazz to Van Halen on these bad boys. The Rosewood fingerboard gives my Sunburst Focus smooth tone(I like to play on that one when I practice at home.) While The Maple fingerboard makes my white one sound extra "crisp" which is great for playing with my band because the sound really "Cuts" through.

The factroy set-up was fine but like everybody I adjusted the action to suit my stlye. The strings that came on these guitars were not as good as the Dean Markley 10's I always use. Change those strings!!! The Pickups were set just right for me and I really like the nice frets on these guitars compared to the wimpy frets on the Squier strats which are really bad. Of course I cant say that my Kramers play as well as a $1000 U.S.A. made Fender Stratocaster but they still rock the house every night!

Every part of my two Focus Kramers have been totaly strong and reliable. I really play alot on these two (especially the Sunburst one) and I have had no problems yet.

They both work fine so I've never had to deal with customer support, and that's the way I like it!

These are realy cool guitars. The best part about them is that they sound good compared to other Strat copies and they have'nt had any electronic problems or anything like that. That's really what it's all about for me!

BASICLY, WHAT YOU EXPECT IN A STRAT CLONE: 3 SINGLE COIL PICKUPS,5 WAY SWITCH, VOLUME & TONE CONTROLS. INTERESTINGLY, THE GUITAR COMES WITH TELECASTER TYPE KNOBS, WHICH I KIND OF LIKE, EVEN THOUGH I RARELY USE THEM.
I'VE REPLACED THE BRIDGE PICKUP WITH A CARVIN AP11, AND REPLACED THE PICKGUARD WITH A BLACK PEARLOID ONE FROM WARMOUTH.
I ALSO REPLACED THE TUNERS WITH NO NAME REPLACEMENTS FROM MARS.
FOR $69. YOU DON'T GET A LOT OF BELLS & WHISTLES.
THE BODY, AS FAR AS I KNOW IS NATO LAMINATE. THE NECK IS MAPLE, AND IS THE BEST PART OF THE GUITAR. IT HAS A ROSEWOOD 21 FRET BOARD WITH DOT INLAYS. THE GUITAR CAME WITH 2 ALLEN WRENCHES...1 FIT THE TRUSS ROD, THE OTHER DIDN'T FIT ANYTHING!, AND A MOLDED PLASTIC CORD WHICH WAS NOISEY AND WAS DISPOSED OF IMEDIATLEY.

I PLAY BLUES, ROCK,, FUNK, FUSION AND FOOL AROUND WITH SOME JAZZ.
I USE A CRATE GT80 AMP WITH A DIGITECH GENESIS 1 THROUGH THE EFFECTS LOOP, OR JUST THE GENESIS 1 DIRECTLY INTO THE BOARD.
I'VE PLAYED OFF AND ON FOR 34 YEARS. AT ONE POINT I HAD TO SELL MOST OF MY GEAR. WHEN I BOUGHT THIS GUITAR, IT WAS JUST TO SEE WHAT $69. COULD POSSIBLY GET ME.I REALLY WANTED A STRAT TYPE GUITAR TO PLAY WITH.
I FOUND THE SOUND TO BE A BIT NOISEY IN THE 1, 3, &5 POSITIONS, MUCH LIKE YOU'D EXPECT FROM A VINTAGE INSTRUMENT.THE PICKUPS SEEMED TO HAVE MORE OUTPUT THAN MY '66 STRAT, THOUGH, WHICH PRETTY MUCH MADE UP FOR THE HUM.
IN THE 2 & 4 POSITIONS, THE HUM WENT AWAY AND YOU CAN GET SOME NICE CLEAN KNOPFLER TYPE SOUNDS.
THE BALLANCE WAS PRETTY NICE IN ALL 5 POSITIONS, THOUGH, AND YOU CAN GET A NICE VARIETY OF TONES FOR JUST ABOUT ANY STYLE OF MUSIC.

MINE IS CANDY APPLE RED. THE FINISH IS VERY NICE, EVEN AFTER ALMOST 3 YEARS OF PLAYING IT. I ADJUSTED THE TRUSS ROD AND BRIDGE AND INSTALLED DIADARIO 10'S AND COULDN'T BELIEVE HOW FAST THIS THING PLAYS. I HAVEN'T USED THE TREM BAR, SINCE I'M AFRAID TO USE A TREM BAR ON ANY CHEAP GUITAR.
THE FRETS WERE NICE. MUCH BETTER IN EVERY REGARD THAN MY DAUGHTER'S SQUIRE AND I EVEN LIKE THE ACTION AND SOUND BETTER THAN MY 2002 STANDARD STRAT WHICH WAS ABOUT 4 TIMES THE PRICE OF THE KRAMER.
AS STATED ABOVE, THE BRIDGE PICKUP WAS REPLACED.THIS WAS BECAUSE THE ADJUSTMENT SCREW WAS STRIPPED. THE OTHER 2 WERE FINE. THE TUNERS WERE NOT TOO BAD, BUT I GOT A GOOD DEAL ON THE NEW ONES WHEN THE LOCAL MARS CLOSED, AND THEY WERE A SLIGHT UPGRADE FOR ONLY $10. THE PICKGUARD WAS REPLACED FOR COSMETIC REASONS, AND LOOKS DAMN NICE! THE SWITCH AND POTS ARE NOT THE BEST QUALITY AND MAY ALSO NEED REPLACING DOWN THE ROAD.BUT THEY STILL WORK FINE. THEY JUST HAVE A CHEAP FEEL TO THEM.I HAVEN'T HAD ANY PROBLEMS WITH THE STRAP BUTTONS, BUT I USE THIS GUITAR SITTING DOWN MOST OF THE TIME.DON'T FORGET THIS IS A $69. GUITAR. EVEN WITH SHIPPING AND THE UPGRADES I'VE ONLY SPENT ABOUT $160.

I'VE PLAYED IT FOR ALMOST 3 YEARS AND I STILL LOVE IT.THE NECK IS BETTER AND MORE STABLE THAN MY STANDARD FENDER STRAT AND TELES WHICH ARE BOTH NEWER.EVERYTHING STILL LOOKS, SOUNDS AND PLAYS BEAUTIFULLY. I USE THIS GUITAR FOR DAILY PRACTICING, RECORDING AND SIT DOWN SESSIONS WITH MY FELLOW SENIOR CITIZENS AND MY DAUGHTER. SHE ALSO USES IT ALMOST DAILY SINCE IT'S SO MUCH NICER THAN HER SQUIRE.I'VE GOTTEN MY MONEY'S WORTH OUT OF THIS THING SEVERAL TIMES OVER.I WOULDN'T USE ANY INSTRUMENT ON A GIG WITHOUT A BACKUP. AND I HAVEN'T REALLY USED THE STRAP BUTTONS MUCH.BUT I REALLY ENJOY PLAYING THIS GUITAR AND I DON'T CARE WHO KNOWS IT!

I ORDERED IT FROM MUSICYO.COM. I GOT IT IN LESS THAN A WEEK. AND I HAVEN'T HAD TO CONTACT THEM OR KRAMER ABOUT ANY PROBLEMS.

I'VE BEEN PLAYING SINCE 1969.I PRESANTLY OWN A FENDER STANDARD STRAT, FENDER STANDARD TELE, TAKAMINE SANTE FE, IBANEZ TCY15, GUILD S300D, AND A SIGMA ACOUSTIC, A CRATE GT80 AMP, PEAVEY R15, DIGITECH GENESIS 1,DANELECTRO, DUNLAP AND BOSS PEDALS.
THIS IS THE GUITAR THAT I PLAY THE MOST OF THE LOT. IT WORKS WELL WITH ALL MY OTHER GEAR, RECORDS WELL, AND PLAYS LIKE A BITCH WHETHER I'M PLAYING BLUES, FUSION, OR METAL.FOR THE PRICE, IT'S AMAZING.

Mine are the 3 single coil configuration. Same features as everyone else has mentioned. Alder/nato laminate body, 21-frets, maple neck, rosewood fretboard, 5-way switch, etc. Basically they are Fender Strat copies, made in Korea by Samick I believe. Pretty simple in the features department, but it does what an electric guitar is designed to do.

I can't imagine a style of music you could not play on these things given a good amp setup or amp simulator. I cover everything from punk to thrash to blues and some classical (using a BOSS Acoustic Simulator) with just this one type of guitar...and the sounds are top notch. I run it through a Line 6 POD to an 60W Nady PA for electric sounds and through the BOSS pedal to the PA for acoustic sounds. The single coils give the usual single-coil noise in the 1-3-5 positions, but I only use them in the 2-4 positions, so that cancels out any hum.

Clean sounds are magnificent. I use the emulation of the Mark IIc+ clean channel for my clean sounds, and I get some of the most beautiful tones. The single coils really shine on clean settings (no surprise here), but what really made my jaw drop was that...

With the bridge and middle pickups together, you get a real thick chunky sound using the Rectified/Insane amp models. I can totally clone Petrucci, Hetfield, Hammet, Dimebag, even Dino from Fear Factory sounds with the Insane mode - with single coil pickups!!! Total shocker!

Rich/Full sound or bright...believe it or not, both! Maybe it's just the versatility of the POD. I guess it's true...the type of amp you're using is the biggest determining factor of your sound. For the sake of comparison though, if you plugged it in to a cranked Marshall stack and then plugged in a Les Paul (or similar humbucker guitar), the Kramer would be less distorted and brighter. The thing is, it's easy to make this guitar into an overdriven beast (POD, decent distortion box), but it's very hard (or impossible if you have a high gain amp) to get good clean sounds from a humbucker guitar.

As far as sound goes, I have 3 Kramer Focuses, and they all sound identical. No need to change amp settings in the middle of a gig. If you break a string on one, grab another, and you're set.

Finally, the people who are saying this guitar doesn't sound good either got a lemon, don't have decent amplification, or just can't play very well. I hate to admit it, but these guitars sound better than my Carvin (which cost about 10 times as much as one Focus)!

The setup on arrival was very playable. I just had to tune, plug in, and I was jamming in no time. I did lower the action, but that's just my personal preference. It was completely playable on arrival though. No flaws whatsoever.

These things seem built like a tank. I guess time and use will tell though. The hardware seems really sturdy, but the tuners seem kind of cheap. Easy and not to expensive to change. I'd definitely trust this instrument without a backup, but I don't trust myself to not break a string, so I'll always use a backup (another Kramer Focus of course)!

I e-mailed them and got a reply the same day. They ship hella fast. I ordered on a Thursday, got the guitars the following Monday. The warranty is either 30 or 60 days, but I know I won't need it. These guitars are built to last.

I've been playing for about 8 or 9 years, mostly just playing along to cds and figuring out tunes from rock bands that I like. I've owned and sold an Ibanez RG, Parker P-40, Epiphone Les Paul, and Line 6 Spider. Now I have the Kramers, a Carvin, a POD, a BOSS Acoustic Sim Pedal, a PA, Fender Champ, and a Mesa/Boogie Subway Rocket. I think I might sell the Carvin now (the only thing it does better than the Kramers is acoustic sounds, and that's only because of the piezo bridge - the coil splitting for single coil magnetic sounds is a joke!). I'd totally buy the Kramer(s) again if any of them were stolen. I love the sounds out of these guitars and the versatility when combined with the POD and BOSS Acoustic Simulator. The only things I wish they had were better tuners and piezo bridges, but for 80 bucks an axe, that's just pushing it.

I'm really picky when it comes to guitar tone. That's why I've tried so much gear. When I plugged in and got the settings right on the POD, I knew my search was over. Amazing that $80 guitars can outshine $1000+ guitars.

2002 model. I believe they're made in china. 5-way pickup, maple neck and fret on the old glory model and maple neck w/ resewood fret on the sunburst. closed tuners, tremelo bar. I bought a sunburst finish (the cheapest Kramer!) and an old glory model w/ flag pickguard. YOu can check out the description at musicyo.com.

When I first read these reviews, I thought the people that were submitting them must have been employees.
But let me tell you, I have been playing 2 1/2 years now. I have a MIM fender telecaster, a DeArmond set neck, a couple of washburn solid top acoustics, and a Ibanez strat. I hardly use my tele now, as I love these Kramers!!! I think I will sell my fender because I'd rather play the Kramers and there's no sense in keeping the tele around just because it's a Fender. The necks on the Kramers are so comfortable- more comfortable than any other guitar I own or have ever played.
Okay, the pickups are wired pretty hot- but I kinda like it. someday I may replace the pickups and the tuning gears- although it does stay in tuned pretty well. I play it everyday for a couple of hours and I may have to adjust the tuning maybe twice a week. Yes, it's a cheap guitar, but it's so much fun to play that I'd buy a third! But I need a third one like I need a hole in my head. But I was so impressed with the value that I will undoubtedly buy a Kramer acoustic 12 string before this christmas!! You've got to try one of the focus electrics! For 80 bucks you just can't go wrong. Even the tremelo (whammy) works relatively well and doesn't throw the guitar out of tune unless you really yank on it.

Maybe I'll sell the tele and buy the acoustic 12 string even sooner.

I like the sounds. It rocks! I thought the pots were good too. Cheap pots drop out between 0-3 and 7-10, but these you can hear gradual increase in volume even at 0-3 and 7-10.

the sunburst was ready right out of the box!- except for minor tuning. The old glory needed some slight saddle adjustment, but not too much. The nut is cheap (PVC) but the notches seemed to be cut good and the strings fit good. the finish is surprisingly good, too.

Well, I wouldn't gig without a backup, but that's just me. Although I have owned these 2 Kramers for over 7 months and haven't had a single problem. Someday I will probably change tuners and then maybe the nut and pickup, but it could be quite a while before I do that. So far they are fine.

Haven't had any problems. 1 yr warranty. the usual thing. I think musicyo is pretty good to deal with.

If it was stolen I would definately get another one. I just love them!

1999 Indonesian strat copy, 21 frets, 2 tone pots, one volume pot, 5 say selector switch, 3 single coil pickups, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, alder solid body (I've done my research. These Indonesian ones were the only good ones Gibson made. Since then they've turned out crappier Korean and Chinese guitars), gloss black finish, black pickguard, black pickup covers, chrome hardware, strat style trem, regular no name tuners. Really it's just a strat with a different name and better looking head.

I play a punk influenced grunge/hard rock style and it fits perfectly. Under distortion (Danelectro Fab Tone) the bridge pickup is able to cut through anything, the rhythm able to chunk away, and the middle is a happy medium of the two. Clean I like the rhythm pickup and the rhythm/middle blend because it's nicely deep and rich (for a strat. I know regular Gibsons are better at the thing, but I've yet to hear a strat beat the thickness of this guitar). I've played some Fender and Squier strats and this one sonically beats them out in every way. Better sustain, chunkier, more subtle, everything. The only sonic problem is a difficulty in making artificial harmonics scream like I can with a humbucking guitar, but that's just another single vs hum difference. So in relation to the mainstream Fender strat, I'm giving it a 10.

I got this guitar as a gift from another guitarist, so I don't know what condition it was in when it was fresh from the factory. Now it's perfectly set up (really an easy job to do) as far as action and intonation are concerned. I have the action set pretty low and I still get no fret buzz, even on the higher strings. The finish is perfect, nice and black and perfectly even. And as much as people before have complained about the tuners, I have never had a problem with them. The neck is flatter and thinner than any other guitar I've played and most basses I've played (only thinner one was an old Fender Bullet Bass). The nut is the only flaw I've seen on this, but it doesn't affect performance at all. It's not level, so it holds the higher strings (like high E, B, and G) closer to the fingerboard then the lower strings. Kind of helps performance actually, I'm surprised nobody has done such a thing on purpose before. But because it wasn't on purpose I'm marking it down a point.

I'm sure this guitar would withstand live playing. The hardware is solid, the finish thick, the strap buttons unmovable. All in all, it's a dependable guitar. I still wouldn't use it to gig without a backup, but that's mostly because my strap...

I've been playing for over two years and this is the guitar that's gotten me through it all. It's a great guitar and I'm puzzled as to why Gibson/Kramer shifted ops to Korea and China and started making the crappy new ones. If it were lost or stolen then god help whoever lost or stole it from me, I'll be coming down the warpath. I'd definately get another one, but I'd have to hunt pretty hard for it. No way I'd get a crappy new one though. It's worth the effort spent looking for a 1999 Indonesian Kramer Focus 111S

2000 Kramer Focus 111S, basically a strat copy. Mine is a wine red color with black pickguard. The finish looks great and has no flaws- that is the only impressive thing about this guitar. There are three very noisy single coil pickups. The tuners like the pickups are very cheap.

This guitar sounds very bad. I use a Fender Princeton 65 anp. I also have a Fender fat strat that sounds like it is from the other side of the universe compared to this Kribson. The pickups are very noisy. They sound like tin cans being kicked down the street by some snot nose kid who is mad at the world. The only way I can stand to play this guitar is with a ton of distorion. Forget trying to play anything clean.

The set up from Music Yo was pathetic. The action was so high you could run hurdles over each string.

You would have to be stupid for wanting to use this guitar for gigging, unless you wanted a cheap guitar to break onstage.

Music Yo says these guitars are made to rock hard.

I have been playing for ten years. I wanted a cheap guitar I could travel with. I am too embarassed to travel with this guitar. If someone was stupid enough to steal this guitar, they would have to be very hard up for drug money. I would try to sell this guitar on ebay, but I am too ashamed to let anyone know that I own it and I would never forgive myself for pushing this piece of crap off on someone. Gibson should be ashamed of themselves for having a company under their empire that pushes these crappy guitars off on people. AVOID THIS GUITAR!

2002 Kramer VT111S, strat-style nato alder body, medium baseball-bat hard maple neck, medium-width rosewood fretboard, medium-jumbo frets (21) tremolo bridge, s/s/s and strat-style control arrangement, tele-style control knobs, covered tuners (not cast), solid-color dark red with black single-ply pickguard, made in Korea and shipped with cheapo cord, trem bar, and third tremolo spring.

Hot winds for a kid rocker. Pickups sound very good throughout the range. Lows don't get too muddy, but generally a guitar designed for a thrasher.

Most impressive here. Guitar was delivered in flawless condition, action was set low with no fret-buzz, and intonation was dead-on. Had this guitar delivered to me so I could set it up for the son of a friend, and found that nothing was needed. Frets are excellent, though the strings feel cheap and should probably be changed. Tuners are cheap, but they seem to keep things in tune. The neck fits tightly in the pocket. All screws were tight.

The switches and pots feel very good, selector switch has a smooth positive feel and pots turn smoothly and surely.

Ordered online and it was delivered 3 business days later. 90-day return policy for any reason. Defective merchandise deal covers shipping as well.

As a hobby, I buy and sell guitars, hence my being asked to find something for under $100 for a friend. After researching everything, I recommended the Kramer Focus VT 111S. I was astounded by the quality, feel, set-up and playability at this price. I particularly like the neck, the thick slab of un-stained rosewood on the fretboard, the range of the pickups, and the quality of the switches. An unbelievable value that put my hoity-toity guitar opinions to shame. If you are looking for a new guitar under 3 or 4 hundred dollars, I don't think you will do much better. I've been playing for 30 years, have owned dozens of guitars, and I was very impressed by this one. There is better solid-body gear out there, but nothing I've seen anywhere near this price.

i really dont know where to begin because this guitar falls on its ass in every area.

im too lazy to write all the lame featuers here, read the ones from other people's reviews there are plenty to choose from. one note: mine is vintage sunburst

I play bass and this was my first guitar, and I was very excited to get it. once I got the replacement (see below) I thought this was the best guitar since the invention of pickups, but after iplayed it for a while I realize it sounds very thin and nasal, on all modes except the neck position. the neck sounds somewhat decent, earning this guitar a 2 instead of 1. i like jazz and some other random stuff (311, Pink Floyd) and this really didnt suit my styles, but it doesnt really sound good for ANY style anyway. I think the people that wrote those positive reviews were so excited about getting a guitar that they said this thing was good! haha i laugh at them.

it arrived and the neck looked like it had been cut from some weird ass tree because it was all bowed and I adjusted the trussrod but it wouldnt stay for more than 5 minutes so i had it replaced. when the new one came i adjusted the bridge and suprisingly the action wasnt too bad. i didnt like the longer scale for bending or hammers and such for some reason. the finish was horrible. its a yellow area with a very poor excuse for a fade into black around the edges. (its not sunburst, more like orange/yellow with a black stripe around the edge)

the second one i got was suprisingly durable. i throw it around but would NOT use it in a gig.

they replaced it and were very nice about it but i dont like the fact that they dont have a phone number so ill give it a 7

ive been playing guitar for about 2 years now and im ready to move on, actually ive been ready for a while but now i can affort it. im goin for an epiphone dot because it is more specific to my styles. if this was stolen i would laugh at the guy that stole it then i would thank him.

As said before, this is a very straightforward strat copy. The only things which are different are the metal tone/vol knobs and the slightly different headstock. Otherwise a strat.

Just you fairly typically unlistenable shriek in the bridge pickups, but then again sometimes I like a nice bit of unlistenable shriek. Neck and bridge are okay, but they tend to go from okay to muddy as hell at a turn of the knob without much warning. Not a patch on my the Rezomatics in my Burns, but then this is a very cheap guitar. For the price, the sound is okay. I was looking for that cheap sound when I bought this guitar, however, so it's great for that!

The action was fine, not a low as I'd like it for fretting, but I've set this up for slide. The finish was a nice metallic blue with no flaws. The fretboard and neck feel kinda horrible, not at all smooth but I guess they're wear in. No buzzing or anything like that. For the price, a very good job.

It seems pretty solid, although I'm not sure about the trem system.

The customer service people responded to my email within a few hours, and answered my query; but that was before a sale, not after!

For this price, I can't help but recommend this guitar to someone looking for a cheap guitar for whatever reason. It's as good as a cheap Ibanez or Yamaha and a damn site better than the crap Fender put out these days. They may have been hit and miss in the past, but it looks to me like they're building everything in Korea now, so I'd hope the quality should be reliable!

2001, plywood, Chinese, Strat wannabe.
3 cheesy pickups and junk hardware. Very poor quality tuners.

Very noisy on all settings except one. Very brittle sounding p/ups.

This guitar was set-up? HA!
Very poor fretwork too.

Faggiddaboutit!

Musicyo is the absolute worst for customer service. I learned my lesson not once or twice, but three times! I know, shame on me...

2001 model, made in CHINA, plywood body strat type guitar. came with mismatched whammy bar.

very noisy and cheap single coil pickups. bright like glass breaking.

the action was VERY high right outta the box. the guitar was damaged from being loose in the packing box, and the body was dented near the lower side. the strings buzzed when played open, and i read that that is because of low nut slots (probably). that is probably why the action was adjusted so high by Musicyo.

live playing? i don't think this guitar will be taken out of the house, or even played! i will take parts from it and try them on a decent $100 strat copy i have.

Musicyo.com has horrible customer service, ask anyone. they only have an email address, no phone or anything. i wrote them 3 emails, complaining about the action, and the damage to the guitar, and got no response. i guess once they get your money, you can go straight to hell, until you're ready to buy again, then maybe they will talk to you. what warranty? if they don't respond to email, what can you do? they have no address or phone number, so you're out of luck. i am going to try to file a better business bureau report on them, if i can figure out which state to file it with!

i've been playing for 7 years and have owned about 10 guitars before buying this nightmare. do yourself a favor and avoid Musicyo and these strat copies like the plague!
spend a little less and get a 'shredder', i'm sure they play better!

2001 model. BEWARE, these are all made in CHINA now, and I'm not sure what we did to piss them off so bad, but they are trying to destroy America with crappy guitars.
Strat clone, same features as all the others, crappy covered tuners on these MUSICYO ones though.

The sound wouldn't be bad if you could here the strings through all the fretting out and buzzing. The nut slots were not filed well, and when I received the guitar the action was set about 1/4" above the fretboard.
Nice Paul Bunyon set up. The Chinese really hate us.

This has a nice paint job, makes a pretty wall hanging.
The only nice thing was the fret ends didn't shred skin, everything else was screwy.

Chinese junk!

MUSICYO.COM absolutely will not answer emails. No phone #, so you are screwed.

I have bought many Kramers in the past, Focus, Baretta, etc. The quality has gone down sharply, and setup from the factory isn't being done. MUSICYO refuses to package the guitars securely in the inner boxes, so they are almost always scuffed or damaged on receipt.
Do not do business with them, they don't really care about you, just your credit card. Don't bother them either, they don't have time for your problems.

Korean-made, 2000 Model ubiquitous Strat clone, S/S/S, lake placid metallic blue finish - very nicely done, vintage strat trem, 5 position switch. Body wood? Beats me. Big chrome Tele knobs. Cheap but usable tuners.

I have a pretty ugly, noisy, amp with a 12" speaker that has a hole punched through it. It sounds bad but I'll bet the guitar would sound fine through a decent amp.

Fit and finish are fine. It is surprising how a guitar could be made for such a price. Finish on body is flawless. Neck has a very fine satin finish. Fret ends well done: looks like the work was done on some kind of machine. Bridge and string placement are spot on.Neck was adjusted about right with correct relief. String height a bit high, was lowered, acceptable buzz (my opinion.) Intonation was a bit off, was adjusted. Problems: Nut was made for specific string gauge and was cut too deep which will cause problems with string binding which will result in an out of tune condition when using tremolo. It Will be replaced. Frets do have a bit of roughness on the higher positions, Needs a bit more finishing. Major design problem with big chrome tele knobs: the vibrato arm hits the knobs, fixed by replacing with strat style knobs.

The guitar seems solid. I think the finish on the back of the neck may wear fast.

No need.

I wanted a guitar that would be a learning tool in guitar set-up and adjustment, with a major goal of making a vintage strat tremolo stay in tune. I have read that it can be done! I have an extra neck for this guitar so the plan is to scallop the fretboard. Well give it a try, anyway. This guitar will fit my requirement perfectly as it is well made with standard strat parts at great price. Pick one of these up if you are interested in learning about working on strats. The rating for this category is for guitars costing about 2 to 3 times the price of this Kramer's 80 bucks as I shudder to think what any other new $80 guitar would be like...

Made in china 2001 strat style guitar 3 single coil pickups metallic red body with a maple neck and a 21 fret rosewood fretboard,cheap tuners(no problems yet)came with a cable and tools very well packed

I got this thing as a cheap guitar to drag around and beat up on instead of hurting my gibson lp and fender strats now i play it more than the fenders this is a unbelievably great beginners guitar and will hold its own with seasoned guitarists(like myself)as well

This cheapo guitar sounds as good as if not better than my 2 much more expensive fender standard strats no matter which amp i play it thru it sounds good.i play it thru a marshall vs65 ,a rogue 30r,and a dod grunge 15w somtimes i use my digital rp200 effects box as well the sound varies from bright to fairly thick for a strat the pickups are louder/hotter than my fenders i play everything from jazz to all out screaming deth metal/punk and everything in between this guitar does exceptionally well

Action was a little high but quite playable out of the box(after tune up)but i as with all my guitars conditioned the fretboard,changed strings,reset the neck and adjusted the bridge to my liking(very low action)without fret buzz.there is no noticable flaws in this guitar however the fretboard was very dry upon arrival i conditioned it with lemon oil and it is very nice(not gibson quality)but as nice as a fender standard the neck is very fast and feels good,it has very good hardware for an 80.00 guitar no need to change anything except the 0.9 strings the neck woodgrain and fretboard quality are exceptional for a guitar this price but the tuners are really cheap but have give no problem it stays in tune fairly well unless you use the tremolo bar a lot

This guitar is rock solid from the ground up to the hardware i would not hesitate to use it live without a backup the sound doesnt break up like my fenders when being played loud!Kramers are indeed made to rock hard i will be buying all of the kramer line eventually one at a time these are great guitars at low prices=about time!

they have always responded to my emails be it a day or two later

I have been playing over 20 yrs i own way to much gear to type it all in here
if it were stolen i would buy another one within an hour

I do highly reccomend this guitar as a great guitar for newbies but dont be fooled it is also a great guitar for exp players as well it feels good,sounds good and is priced good compares easily and easily outperforms 300 to 400 dollar strats,epi,jacksons and ibanez guitars believe me i have them all! try one yourself for 70 buck you have nothin 2 lose!:)

Already mentioned. I won't mention it.

This Focus sonds good. However my friend ordered one, and it sounded like shit. Depends on how it was made I guess. Anyway, I play this through a Peavey Rage 108 and a Fender Stage 100. I've also played on a Fender Roc-Pro 1000. Sound is great, and the hum is tolerable.

Like I said, mine was perfect. My friends looks like it's gonna fall apart.

This will withstand live playin. I take good care of my guitars. The only way i would gig without a back-up would be if i couldn't break strings. I happen to do this often since I play Punk Rock.

It took me a month to get this. I origianlly ordered Lake Placid blue, and they ran out the day I ordered. Long story short, I emailed them and asked to change mine to vintage sunburst, they did, however it took a while for them to ship the guitar. However I ordered strings and got them quickly.

If it wasnt for bad service, this rating would be higher. There's nothing more frustrating then waiting a month to get a guitar.

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.

Strat Copy - Same features as the rest of the reviews here

It has a nice "strat" sound that's great for blues. I mainly play it through a Peavey Classic 30 (nice little tube amp). The pickups are fairly noisy (as one would expect from your average low end single coil pickup). The pickups sound better then mexi-strats I've played. I'll probably replace the pickups eventually (probably lace sensors). Very nice unplugged sound also. The stock strings sound terrible, change them immediately. Mine is strung up with fender ss bullets (11s).

Worthless setup from factory. I had to do a complete setup (I expected I would). Some of the body paint found it's way onto the back of the neck (very light, small spot). It's purely a cosmetic flaw, if the guitar were $800 it would bother me, for $69 it doesn't.
The finish on the body is perfect, looks great. The neck joint fits perfect. The rest of the guitar seems routed, and aligned very well also. The pickguard is pretty crappy. The tuners are very low end, but they work fine. The guitar seems to hold it's tune as well as any I've had. I blocked the trem.

I don't gig, so I'm pretty easy on my guitars, but it seems as sturdy as any fender I've picked up.

email only, no warranty that I know of

My scale (ignoring price considerations)
squire strat = 4
average mexi strat = 6
kramer focus = 7
average american strat = 8
average custom shop strat = 9-10

If I consider price, the kramer wins hands down. Buy the kramer, replace the pickups, you've got custom shop sound at a mexican standard price.

Strat copy

I had read all the reviews of this guitar at harmony central and decided for 69 bucks what the heck. I have a Heritage 140cm witch is a beautiful guitar in both sight and sound. But you just can't get a Strat sound from it. When I first pluged the focus in and started tuning it I thought this sounds like crap. I imeditatly restrung it with Dean Markleys lt top hvy botom. World of difference. I was pluged into a tech21 trademarc 10 witch IMHO is one great amp. The sounds I was able to dial in pleased me a lot. This guitar sounds damn good. I then tried it with my Fender SF champ with the torres tweed mod and jensen alinco 5 speaker nice sound. I then tried it with my Fender 59 bassman RI no complants. This guitar will make a great sound pallete to contrast with my Heritage in my home recordings.

The action fit and finish was all more than acceptiable. I only had to set intonation. I allso rebent the trem bar to come close to an old fender bar I had lying around that wouldn't fit because of the thread dia. This made the trem bar more comfortable to me. I would prefer a thicker neck. But I like the width and radius.

I've gigged with worse guitars. Only time will tell on this one. Thats the reason for the 7.

who cares at 69$

I been playing the guitar close to 40 years and have owned and played scores of guitars. The last Strat I had was a 1980 standard strat and that didn't turn me on. This quitar gives me as much or more joy than in the 60's when you could find a good sounding and playing guitar in a pawn shop for 75 bucks. I know 75$ in 1960 was lot more money than 69$ in 2k. I plan on buying another 111s just to keep in The 1/2 step low tuning of Stevie Ray Vaughn. Great value and good sound.

Ok I just got my Focus and I love it for the price. It's a 21 fret semi-solid top, and has 3 pickups and a whammy bar. The only thigs I dislike is it needed adjustment right out of the box.

Well the pickups suck but they work. I guess for the price they are great but they do buzz.

This Rox it is a beautiful guitar, Perfect finish, great Rosewood fretboard.

Well I wouldn't use this live but it look durable and the only thing I see that could go out are the Machine Heads.

They are great MUSICYO.COM ROX

Great... For what I paid!

Let me start of by saying this... BEWARE. The guitar has 3 single coil pickups and is a semi-hallow body electric. It has an adjustable truss rod and a 5 tone switch and 2 tone adjustment knobs. I got it in sunburst color. Its the cheapest guitar you can buy at $69.00 and you get what you pay for. Its some form of strat body style with a 21 fret neck. Only place you can get it is musicyo.com, which I dont recommend anyone ever visiting (but if you must, go ahead).

My first guitar had major electrical feedback. I unwrapped it, tweaked the settings to what I discovered sounded best, and found taht it buzzed like the dickens. It was so annoying that I sent it back and swore the electronics werent installed right. My second guitar didnt even make it as far as removing the plastic scratch protection stickers... read on.

It does not come set up at all. Both times I had to perform major adjustments to the truss rod. In the case of my second guitar, the truss rod adjustment was broken and I had to send it back also (I gave up after #2). Action was surprisingly good for the 1st one, it just sounded like shiznit.

HAHA, no. These are about as durable as,well, anything that comes out of my anus. Both were not functioning properly right out of the box. The finish was good but what does that matter if you cant play it. Switch was flimsy. Hardware will most definitely fail. If anything, use it for fire fuel. I'd rate it a 0 but harmony-central doesnt go that low. I'm giving it a 1 because its the lowest I can go.

Company excelled in getting back to me quickly and listening to me rant about their terrible product. They paid for return shipping and replacement shipping of my guitars, but it shouldnt have been that way in the first place. I would give them a 7 or 8 for customer support but I dont want it to bring up the average score of this guitar.

Like I said... Monkey Excrement

This is a update to my other reveiw.I can't beleive it!I went in a local hock shop and they had one of these guitars for $35.00!!I got them down to $20.00!!!!LOL!!!I got it,It's is the same as my other one with the stuck pig pickups.But,some dummy put a SD distortion in the bridge position!!The pickup was worth the price of the whole guitar!!LOL!!!It was a steal!!These things sell so cheap u can get them used for nothing!I took the pickup out,put a cheesy one in, and now I will sell this crapo guitar to someone and make some CASHO!!!LOL!!!Ohh yea,My buddy still has the one I sold him for $50.00 that he burned.It still plays!!Now it just sounds better!!LOL!!

The stock pickups on this one squeal like a stuck pig too!LOL!!!

It Looks great!!

If you play this live your stupid!The pickup don't take distortion well like they claim to.Play good trusty guitars live,not $20.00 ones!

I practicly stole this guitar for $20.00!You can't go wrong that CHEAP!

This is a Strat. Actually, it's even an upgraded Strat, depending on your point of view -- this has higher output pickups than a Mexi Fender Standard and many other $300 Strats, flatter radius (12" versus 9.5" on the moderns and 7.25" on the reissues), taller (medium jumbo) frets, a thicker Tele-type neck profile, comes in at least one cooler color than the current Fender line (Lake Placid Blue) and includes black, not white, plastic parts. Three single coils, five position switch, master volume, tone-neck and tone-middle. A Strat. And the best deal in a new guitar on the planet by miles and miles, provided you want a Strat. Does the whole gamut except thrash/hard rock for which Strats tend to be too weak and noisy. This $69 guitar actually does a better Zakk Wylde impression (through a Boss compressor and Metal Zone) than any of my four Fenders except the Blackmore model. The pickups in a couple of those Fenders cost more than double this whole guitar including shipping!

I play all kinds of stuff (Zeppelin, Who, Beatles, Iron Maiden, Hendrix) and any good Strat covers 85-90% of it. A semi-hollow guitar has a fundamentally different tone and so does a Les Paul. But if I could only have one electric it would be some sort of Strat...and, shockingly, this thing for $69 compares favorably with guitars costing literally ten times as much. At $200 this guitar would be a little less perfect, at $500 still less so. At $69 it goes to 11.

Astounding for the price. Then again, Samick (or whoever in Korea) is capable of really first-rate work, and Gibson/Musicyo spec'd these things right: zero options, make them very well. Little features like felt washers on the strap buttons compare with Fenders etc costing upwards of $300, which is the price point our friends at Musicyo claim they are competing with. They are! Several $350+ Fender use the same crappy but functional tuners as on this. My only personal complaint is the Tele-type knobs (which are actually more expensive, sourcing wise, than Strat knobs). They look nice but get in my way and I want Tele knobs on a Tele and Strat knobs on a Strat. I have tons of parts sitting around so I put on Fender black knobs, which you can buy for $6 at Sam Ash or Guitar Center if you want them. No finish/construction flaws at all, although the action was high and the strings were crap. Not a problem. Within ten minutes I put on Boomers (9-42), tweaked the neck a little, lowered the saddles a little and I've been happy since, about four months now. There are Les Pauls, US Fenders, and a superb Fender ProTone with upgrades right next to my Focus, and I play the Focus more than half of the time now. Again, for the money, about a 20.

It's a Strat, meaning hard to destroy, and a well-made one at that. I dropped it a few times on purpose. I banged the headstock into a shelf while doing Townshend-esque jumps to amuse myself, not on purpose. So far, so good. And the beautiful thing is, if I really f*ck this axe up, I can just do the full monty Pete Townshend on it and then set the pieces on fire like Jimi Hendrix, and order another one. This thing cost less than dinner with my fiancee did the other night, know what I mean? On a certain level, knowing you can destroy your instrument without it impacting your life frees you to be more creative or expressive. I definitely play this guitar with more abandon than ones which cost $800.

No phone number -- meaning no frustrating long waits to talk to morons who won't help you. No physical address (c/o Gibson). Email response is good, and the shopping/order system on the site is absolutely first rate. Warranty schwarranty, there probably is one, but do you care. See my comments above.

The whole MusicYo concept is fantastic, and even better, it works. Gibson has done a lot of exceptionally stupid things in the last few years, but going into a j.v. with these guys to sell new and reissued Kramer and Steinberger gear at shockingly low prices direct, was a stroke of genius. They're expanding their line. They do have guitars for $400 (even if someone else would charge $750 or $900 for them). But the Focus 111S was the "concept" that launched the company -- a solid guitar for beginners, tinkerers, and even experienced players looking for a backup axe, beach axe, or axe to smash on the pavement in their new video. Whatever, at this price point there is simply not enough that can be said about the value prop here. I may buy a couple more of these things just to make sure they keep making them, and keep selling them at $69. The only option, by the way, is color -- currently there are four. I got blue. With the black parts on it it looks a lot like the Ernie Ball Steve Morse model. My suggestion to "Doc Yo" is to offer the guitar as a Focus 222S -- with Duncan or Kramer hot rails humbuckers in all three positions instead (and a master tap switch). Make that one $99 just like the Pacer and you'll sell a billion of them. Including one or two to me. That's what I'd like to play today...

Inexpensive "Strat" Copy. $69!!!!!
Laminated Nato Poplar body. Sunburst Finish. Cheap tuners are the instrument's worst feature. Nice rosewood fretboard with very good fret work, as good as my Fender Squier. Pickups sound awesome with a compressor and my Marshall Valvestate 2x12 amp. I will replace them with Fender Tex-Mex's because I play SRV stuff alot. However, the stock pickups do an ok job as is.

As noted above I play SRV Texas Blues. The Focus does ok with this style if you replace the thin stock strings with some heavy wire. I use the heaviest GHS BOOMERS available. They are probably too much for the cheap tuners to deal with for long, but they sound great.

Action was very high as shipped. It comes with wrenches for adjusting action, and in 5 minutes I had it perfectly low for the heavy strings I use. No buzzes. Aside from the cheap tuners the materials and hardware are unbelievably good for this price. The pickguard is a little dull (even with the protective plastic removed). I will probably replace it with a black pearl Fender pickguard if it fits.

The Tuners will probably be the first things to go. Other than that it looks very sturdy, and should last fowever. Finish is great.

N/A They have that?

THIS IS THE DEAL OF THE CENTURY. Even if you end up putting new tuners and pickups on it, you'll end up with a superior "STRAT" for under $300. Can't beat that.

Copy of a fender strat,made in korea for gibson and sold direct by musicyo.It has a plywood body with 3 sc pickups and wang bar.and a maple neck with jumbo frets.Its has a sunburst finish.It was just a cheap srat knock off but its supposed to be a great hard rock guitar.

I play hard rock and some thrash.MusicYo sayed in the ad these guitars would sound great for HARD ROCK,They Don't,the pickups sucked,they sounded tinny and thin and squiel like a stuck pig with heavy distortion.Stock pickups on a squire sound better.A guy that reveiwed it for them sayed the pickups sounded great and had a lot of good range,They must have paid him off to write that.If you want a good hard rock sound the pickups just don't cut it and for the price upgrades are stupid.You get what u pay for in this department.

The guitar looked great when I got it.The finish and looks are the best part of these guitars.I had to work on the action and setup.The tone knob died a month after I got it and the selector was loud.I took it to the shop and had the messed up tone replaced.The tuners kept slipping so I had to put the pair off my old broke cruse on it.I summed The bad electric parts to the price of the guitar.You can't get good stuff on a cheapo.

The guitar is not made for live playing.Its a first/beginnar guitar.It proaboly would not last long under heavy use.I wold not use it for a backup,The pickups cant cut it.

What????

I now have a custom strat with Dimarrzio pickups.I sold it to my buddy for $50.00 and I got the best end of the deal!He did a Hendrix on it with lighter fluid and it was the coolist damn thing i ever saw!!!!If you are a real beginner grt this guitar.But dont waste you money on upgrades!

2000 Kramer focus, Korean built, strat style guitar, sold on musicyo.com for a great price. 21 frets. Laminated nato/alder body. 5 way switch, 1 volume and 2 tones controlls. S/S/S pickup config. Not sure of the make and model of the pickups. Candy Apple Red finish(looks awesome). vintage stly tremolo(don't use it too much.) Tuners seem kind of cheap, but work very well. Came with a cable and some wrenches, and an extra spring. I give it an 8 because it has great featurs, but only as many as strat style guitars, and the tuners seem kind of cheap.

Without pedals the and with the amp I run it through, it has a wide variety of sounds. I play hard rock, clasic rock, alternative, metal, softer stuff, folk rock, and many more style, and I have found I can make this guitar work for most of what I play. I can get some distortion, and very clean sounds, without pedals. The Pickups definatly aren't the best but work, although I think I may replace them for some new ones. But out of the box it's pretty good, and not plugged in it sounds almost as good as my accoustic. I give it an 8, not perfect but not bad.

The guitar I got had pretty good "action." The pickup hieght was ok. The finish was awesome, once my dumb self realized that there was a think protctive plastic cover over the pickguard that looked ugly when it came. Once I figured it out and removed it the pickguard was beutifull. The liner worked! The Candy Apple red was cool, and I am definatley happy I chose that one. Over all it looked and felt beutifull when I got it, and musicyo.com definatly packed it safely and well. I give this one a 10.

The guitar seems to be built extremely solid. The only thing that I can see may not last are the tuners. Other tan that it seems to be well put together. The finish is excelent an, in my opinion, will last. If someone happened to sut the guitar in half with a chainsaw, I would have to buy another, and for the price it can't be beat. I have to give it a 9. There are a couple quetionable points but I will surely use it in a gig, but you never do a gig without a backup.

Customer support seems excelent. I only had one question so far, and the responded immediatly. Don't mind having to use e-mail, I like it better than a phone. I give it a 10, hopefully I won't have to use it, but if I do I belive they will respond quickly. Also the guitar came on time, can't beat that.

Great price, Good features, Great service, Good sound, Great quality, what more can you ask. I would surely buy this guitar again if it were lost of stolen. Definatly a great guitar, at an unbeatable price. Have to give it a 10.

This is an update to my previous recent review...

I played a TexMex Fender Strat (selling for $299, list is is over $400) and guess what? I'm glad I bought the Kramer! It played as well as the Fender. The Fender pickups were smootherm but were totally devoid the "quack" you get with the Kramer on positions 2 and 4. I could not believe my ears, so I tried tweaking the amp in vain. I could not get the characteristic Strat "quack" form the real article (Fender MIM version).

I felt all the more vindicated with my $69 Kramer. Even so, I dropped my kramer Strat off for new SD pickups in the neck and bridge, leaving the middle (very strong and also reverse wound to the SD's) pickup alone. I wanted pickups with bit more punch and volume, though the stock pickups were decent.

Full size Kramer strat copy (now a division of Gibson). Made in Korea. 21 frets, 3 stock single coil pickups (passive), 5-position switch, 1 master volume and 2 tone knobs. Rosewood fingerboard. Bolt-on maple neck. Laminate body with candy-apple red finish and single-ply black pickguard. Tremolo bridge. Chrome hardware. Came with a cable and some allen wrenches. Has dome-knobs that don't fit with the 'strat' look, and the tremolo is pretty mediocre. Still gets the job done, though, and it looks nice.

Played it back to back with a friend's Squier stratocaster (approx. $350) and couldn't tell them apart tonally. Could be the same brand stock pickups, for all I know.

I play a variety of music, but usually come back to heavy alternative rock. I wanted something with 3 singles for a little more twang in my recordings, but didn't want to spend a lot(I have a mid-80s Les Paul that I was using for all my guitar tracks before I received my Focus. LPs are awesome, but I can't get a strat-like sound out of those humbuckers with a 3-way toggle).

I use a Line 6 POD and a Boss GT-3 when I do hard-disk recording, and the Focus sounds just fine. I played it through a Roland JC-120 once and it sounded a little hissy, though.

Positions 2 and 4 are supposed to be hum-canceling. I can't hear the difference.

Again, the tremolo was pretty weak, but I never use it anyway.

Action was a little high out of the factory, but easily adjusted. Pick ups were adjusted well. Finish looks real solid (poly maybe?). No discernible flaws. Single-ply pickguard is a little cheesy looking. Easily replaced.

I wouldn't use it for a gig, mostly for fear of guitar snobs looking down on my choice of gear. Seems solid, though. A lot more solid than it should be for $69, in fact. Wouldn't start slamming it on the stage, or anything, but I wouldn't do that even if it was made of solid granite. You gotta be nice to the stage, man.

I emailed MusicYo.com and they replied within the hour. There's no phone support, but they seem to be on the ball getting back to your online queries.

30-day from invoice date satisfaction guarantee (full refund minus shipping/exchange). Haven't looked into the warranty details. Hard to be too concerned for $69.

I've been playing on and off (sadly, mostly off) for 7 years on my Les Paul. I got into doing hard-disk recording this year, and like it better than the band environment, mostly because I don't need to carry my stuff around, and people don't throw beer bottles at you in your home studio (although, I found my cat staring at me in the doorway next to an empty Heineken the other day, and it's making me nervous).
I'm still in college and din't have a lot to spend, but I wanted a strat-style guitar to spice up my recordings. I looked at some eBay auctions, the Fender Squier Stratocaster, and the Ibanez GRX line, but they were all beyond my ideal price range of 'nothing', so I looked into some used guitars, but the cool ones were still too expensive. I ended up looking at some VERY generic guitars that played with all the nuance of a freight train before eventually happening upon MusicYo.com.

I saw the Kramer Focus 111s for $69 and thought it was another garbage axe, but decided to look it up here at Harmony Central, where it received a pretty decent score. I decided to go ahead and order one and it surpassed my expectations. If you buy it just for parts, it's still a good deal. Kramer went under in 1990, but Gibson bought them, and this is the fruit of that union. It even says on the box, 'a division of Gibson Musical Instruments.' This information might ease the heart of those wary of cheap and obscure guitar brands.

A good starter guitar, very comparable to the Squier Standard Stratocaster in every way, and it's about a fifth of the price. The Squier has a better tremolo, and it says 'Squier by Fender' on the headstock, but who cares? It's $69. Get a low paying temp job for a day and it's practically free.

I'd replace it if it were lost or stolen, unless I'd already upgraded to something that kicks. Might get one anyway to use as a refinishing project.

ULTIMATELY:
Guitar snobs won't like it, and if you're in the market for a real strat it really can't be a $1000 Fender or G&L for you, but it's great for starving artists, and cheap bastards like myself. I'm giving it an overall '10'; not because it rivals other '10' guitars like Parkers or Paul Reed Smiths, but because it's a lot better than it should be, and the price is unbeatable.

1999 Strat copy. Made in Korea (per label on back of headstock). 3 single coil pickups, no-name (but decent quality) 6-in-line tuners, 5 position blade pickup switch (neck, middle, bridge, middle-neck, bridge-middle), rock maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, "vintage" tremelo (that means the way the used to do it - it's not as Floyd Rose or any of the newer designs), 21 medium-jumbo frets, plastic nut, 3 telecaster metal knobs for volume and tone. bolt-on neck.

You get the real Strat sound on single note solos from bright to dark - mostly bright. Chords are ehhh attributable to the cheap pickups. there is not much distinction between strings and, IMO, the bass strings are a bit muddy. No surprise as this is the same complaint I had for my other 2 Korean made guitars, prompting me replace the pcikups with Seymour Duncans. I am leaning towards replacing these pickups, but at $220 for a set of Fralins or whatever, the pickups would be worth WAY more than the gutiar. In any case, I got way more than I expected for $69, considering the only Strat replacement pickups I can buy 3-in-a-set for less than $69 are from Mighty Mite.
The pickups measure 5.3KOhms each which is quite a bit less than the 8.5Kohms and higher found on humbuckers.

On a tube amp, these pickups don't overdrive the amp as well as humbuckers. On a clean amp, the guitar sounds very good - bright and jangly. All in all a good-for-the-money blues or R&R guitar. Jazz tones 'aint there witht he stock pickups, though.

Very good fit and finish! Candy Apple Red laquer was perfect - no scratches, bubbles, or mars. Smooth fret ends, snug bolt-on neck, low action (2/32" at the 17th fret on both E strings), no fret buzzing, very good intonation, not off by more than 5-7 cents at the worse and when it is off, it is usually 3 cents or less. The only weird things were: (1) loss of signal strength when pickup selector selects 2 pickups, (2) bridge situated straight(not angled as in most other gutiars), meaning there is not much room for adjustment of intonation on the bass side if I were to go with a heavier gauge of strings.

The first one I got from MusicYo had a crack in the body at the neck pocket. In MusicYo's defense, the crack was invisible unless you turned the guitar upside down. I sent it back ($6) and had a new one within a week, shipped at their expense. The warranty is 30 days money-bakc.

I have 3 other guitars - a flattop and 2 archtops. I wanted a solidbody to learn some blues (already play a little jazz blues, but wanted to learn blues blues). Wanted a Strat,b tu did not want to spend anything. Had given up hope until I saw these things on Musicyo for $69. Yes, I do want to swap out pickups, but I've got to be less choosy. I can't make this Strat clone match my jazz archtop. in fact, I don't really want to. Excellent value; can't be beat for the price!

This is a brand new Kramer Focus from musicyo. It's made in Korea. It's got 22 fets with a laminated, plywood body. It's got the standard strat controls, body shape, etc. Nothing new here. I got a Candy Apple Red one that looks great. Fror $69, I can't believe how well it looks and plays. The finish is metallic and the neck is satin finish so it feels nice. The tuners are your basic covered ones but they hold tune. It came with a cheapo cord, allen wrench, and instructions.

To my ear, it sounds just like a mexican strat. The pickups may be a little hotter but other than that, I can't tell the difference. I thought the pickups would squeel like a stuck pig for $69 but I was wrong. They sound good.

The guitar came set-up OK. I prefer a little lower action so I adjusted the saddles and the neck. The intonation was about right on when I got it but I think it came with 9's. I changed to 10's and so that probably effected the action and intonation a little. After my set up, it played fine. The workmanship was equal to or better than imported Fender Strats.

I've been playing it for about 4 weeks on gigs and it seems to be holding up well. I'm pretty hard on guitars so I'm surprized. The band I'm in is pretty hard core. We've always wanted to do the ole' smash-a-roony thing with our guitars. The only problem is... what do you do the next gig without an instrument? For $69, I may have an answer. Just kidding... this guitar is too good too smash.

I ordered the guitar from musicyo.com and got it in 3 days. No problems yet so I don't really know.

I've been playing for about 8 years. I also own an Epi LP and a Gibson SG. I play through a Peavey 5150 amp. I don't really like th thin sound of strats for what I play but for $69 I couldn't resist. It turned out to be a good decision.

The reason I didn't put a rating on the features is because this is a straight-ahead Strat copy, with neither more nor fewer features than any other Strat copy or than any genuine traditional Strat. This one is made in Taiwan, with the traditional S/S/S pickups, 5-way blade switch, one volume and two tone controls, and floating tremlo (the traditional bridge that is attached to the body with six screws rather than the two larger screws as used today on American Standard Strats). The only other difference between this and other Strat copies is that this one uses Tele knobs. I like that look, but they get in the way of playing and of the tremlo arm, so I replaced them with traditional Strat knobs which cost me about 8 bucks. The Focus 111S has a hard maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, and 21 medium-jumbo frets. The neck radius is 12" -- in other words, quite flat, so it's great for string-bending; its shape is thin, but not super-thin. The body is laminated Nato / Alder. Kramer guitars, by the way, are now a division of Gibson, although you won't find any mention of that on the Gibson website. The box my Kramer came in, though, clearly stated that it was a Gibson product.

This will take some explaining. First, I play through a Line 6 Flextone XL, which is a 100-watt combo with two 12-inch speakers that emulates the sound of 8 famous amps. It's a fantastic amp, but I've noticed that it's a little dark-sounding overall, and doesn't match the bright, clean sound of the Fender amps it emulates. Since my '61 Epiphone uses P-90 pickups, the whole sound was too mellow, so I started looking for a Strat. I spent hours in shops playing everything from Fender's Mexican-made Standard Strats to Fender's American Standard and deluxe axes (with noiseless pickups) to Ibanez's low-end Strat copy, all through a Flextone. I was impressed with Fender's high-end models, but didn't like the high price. Although I wasn't wild about it, I finally bought an Ibanez Strat copy for about $200; it seemed to deliver the best combination of tone and quality for the money. I was, however, suspicious from the beginning. The build quality seemed odd; the pole pieces didn't even line up under the strings. I played it for a month. Problems quickly arose: a touch of the whammy bar threw it radically out of tune, and there seemed to be no way to prevent the problem. The pickups sounded okay until I reached the higher registers, where several notes emitted a very bizarre sound through my Flextone: the notes sounded as if they were run through a ring modulator; even though only one note was struck, it was detuned with itself: a honking, warbling, horrible screech that anyone--not just a guitar player--would cringe at hearing. I took the Ibanez back and continued my search. As soon as I plugged in the Focus, I was amazed. The tones from each pickup were spanky, punchy, and with a lot of nuance. It's almost as if they are slightly exaggerated versions of the Strat sound. The neck pickup has that very hollow sound; the neck/mid is bell-like; all the other settings sound like what you've heard on records where people play Strats. Remembering what the real Strats at the music store sounded like, I can only say this guitar sounds more like a Strat than a Strat does! How can that be? My only guess is that the pickups are closer to the vintage pickups on Strats; it's as if Fender decided that the modern Strat needed a rounder sound that was more versitle. I checked this out by comparing the Focus with a friend's 1980s Japanese Fender Squire Strat, both played through my Flextone at the same setting. His Squire Strat did, indeed, sound much rounder, but as a consequnce, had much less character: switching to different pickup combos changed the sound very little compared to how much it changed on the Focus. This must be why other people on this site have described the pickups as thin sounding. Well they certainly are compared to a humbucker or to a modern Strat, but for me, through my amp, they offer a sound that I'm just knocked out by. I've been able to nail that tell-tale Strat sound I hear on many albums exactly, right down to the treble squawk. To sum up, this guitar's sound is great for clean country or motown licks, Stevie Ray-style blues, and other traditional Strat sounds, even up to grunge. With the Flextone's help, I was also able to get a very smooth Santana overdrive sound, but this is mostly due to the amp. This guitar, though, wouldn't be good for metal or thrash; the pickups are too low-output; too brittle; to bright. The sustain, by the way, is terrific, perhaps due to the fact that the body is heavy (noticably heavier than a modern Squire Strat), and also perhaps due to the bridge, which has very solid and heavy chrome-plated inserts. Needless to say, this $69 guitar completely blew away the $200 Ibanez Strat copy I first purchased.

I chose a sunburst finish. The finish itself is absolutely beautiful; thick, durable polyurathane I'd guess, with not a flaw on it. I downgraded the score, though, because it's a weird sunburst: black edges surrounding a solid yellow-orange (rather than a brown or cherry) interior. There is no wood grain to speak of, so the cool part of a sunburst finish, where you get to see the wood, is wasted. Because I like the guitar so much, though, the look is growing on me. I knocked off a point for that. The pick guard is black single ply, so I knocked off another point for that (although I like the black look). And it came with Tele knobs (which as I said, get in the way of playing) and inexpensive tuners, so another point gone for that. Except for these demerits, everything else is amazingly good, I kid you not. the bridge is heavy, chrome-plated, with solid block saddles, and the inner workings of the floating tremlo are solid as well. Even the stap buttons are beautifully chrome-plated, heavy and solid, and screwed into the body with a felt washer for protection. The switches are smooth, and the tuners, although cheap, work fine. Now for the neck: it's REALLY well-finishd, with a satin finish on the back that feels fast and smooth. The fret edges, which are usually raw and sharp on Strat copies, are smooth. The whole neck, and consequently the playability, are just really excellent. As it came from the factory, the action was fine. However, I wanted to see how good I could get it, so I pulled out my copy of "Guitar Player Repair Guide" by Dan Erlewin (a great book) and set to work. I adjusted the truss rod to get the relief in the neck to almost zero (Dan's recommendation), adjusted the bridge saddles to the radius, lowered the action, and set the intonation (it needed almost no adjustment). I followed Dan's tips on setting up the tremlo, and used the extra spring that came with the guitar, for a total of four springs holding the claw. And now the guitar plays as well as any Strat I've ever played, and I used to own a vintage '60s Strat. It stays in tune after using the whammy, nothing buzzes at all, no spots where a bent note deadens out. It's just really great. One thing I should mention is that following Dan's recommendation again, I did not lower the action as low as I could get it because I bend strings a lot and because I just don't like the feel or sound that low; this is typical of blues players according to Dan, who's measured lots of famous guitars. You may be able to get the action lower. The point is, it's a well-made guitar, and you can set it up as well as any well-made guitar. As I said earlier, Kramer is a divison of Gibson. I don't know why the quality is so good; my guess is that Gibson sets the design and specificaitons, and then has a Taiwanese company actually make the product. By the way, the "made in Taiwan" label is just a sticky strip on the back of the headstock which is easy to peel off, which is nice. Something about having a guitar that says "made in Taiwan" seems tacky, so it's nice that you can remove it

I am certain this guitar would take a lot of punishment; that's not unusual for a Strat or Strat copy. What is unusual is the quality of the hardware; the bridge in particular. It looks and feels as if it will last for a long time. The only weak point might be the frets: my friend with the 80s Squire Strat said that by the color of the frets they might be softer than usual. I won't know, of course, until a few years down the road.

I bought this guitar from www.musicyo.com, and didn't have to deal with them at all except to order the guitar. It arrived in five days, well packed, and fully protected. Shipping and tax was a little over $25, so the total price was just a bit under $100.

I've been playing guitar for more than thirty years, ten or so of which was as a semi-professional; I own a 1961 Epiphone, a Squire P-Bass, and several acoustics, and over the years I've also owned a vintage 1960s Strat and an early Duo-Sonic, and of course have played hundreds of other guitars owned by friends. So I know guitars pretty well. And this guitar amazes me. Not only would I replace it if it were stolen, I've been trying to think of some reason to buy another one just to have it. Perhaps one to keep in an alternate tuning, set up with higher action for slide. Let me emphasize that I've never seen a value like this: $69? I don't know how they do it. Before I bought this guitar, I was planning to save up for a Fender American Standard Strat. Believe it or not, this guitar compares very favorably with that $800 axe. Sure, there are big differences: an American Standard has better wood, far better sunburst look, better tuners, more sophisticated electronics (the Delta Tone system) and pickups with a fuller, more versitile tone. But if you're talking about playability and vintage Strat tone, this guitar--believe it or not--is as good if not better (in certain applications) that a modern Strat. If I bought a real Fender Strat tomorrow, I'd still keep this Focus for its great traditional Strat sound.

Made in Korea. Just for the record I don't believe in giving 9's or 10's unless the category truly deserves it. I see too much of that in database reviews. All you need to know about this guitar's features is that it's yet another cheap strat copy (three singles, vol, 2 tone, etc). The body is 'hardwood' which is some type of laminate, and the hardware is medium grade factory-machined stuff. The fretwork wasn't too bad, which surprised me- no sharp edges. The neck has a beefy profile and is finished without any noticeable bumps or rough spots. I got mine with a nice plush lined gig bag that cost only $20 (a great buy). It came with two allen wrenches and one of those cheap patch cords. The only thing on this guitar that screams 'cheap' are the tuning machines. They are the covered chrome gears that have a poor ratio and slip easily. They'll need to be replaced.

It sounds like a cheap strat copy with cheap import single coil pickups. Some minor ground hum (tolerable) and of course the 60 cycle hum of single coils. The overall tone is pretty thin but that (and everything else about this guitar) is typical for low line strat copies. I bought it to play in my church orchestra so I only use the clean channel with chorus. It sounds okay.

This guitar did not have any noticeable flaws. The paint job (mine is lake placid blue) is surprisingly good. In comparison to other strat copies made by Cort, Lotus, Karera, Jay Turser, etc,etc the construction of this one is just a notch above. There was one problem however: When I first plugged the guitar in it hummed loudly and barely passed any signal. I took the pickguard off and found that the negative leads from the pickups weren't grounded to the back of the volume pot. Easy fix.

This guitar does seem pretty solid overall. I had a rokaxe strat copy that felt (and weighed) like it was made out of balsa. I've never heard of anyone "wearing out" a guitar by playing it live or wearing down the finish unless the guitar is a couple decades old. I use it at church with no problems and no backup.

I emailed musicyo (they have no phone) about the electronics problem and they never got back to me. Hence the rating.

This is where the guitar shines. A 'real' electric guitar for $69 new is unheard of. After I bought the gigbag and added shipping it came out to $105. Most strat copies comparable to this one are tagged at music stores for $199 w/o case. It's probably the best deal out there. I'd buy it again in a second. In fact, if I taught lessons I'd recommend it for students wanted to begin on guitar. I'm aactually bass player with two five strings and a lousy four that I refinished myself. For guitars I have some acoustics and a Jay Turser SG knockoff. (Hey, I like cheap guitars) As far as gear goes I have the typical couple of amps and a four track tape machine.

Strat with triple single-coils with two tones, a five way selector, and a volume.

Acoustically, it sounds quite nice, so a little pickup and electronics rearranging and you'll be able to get some very nice sounds. However, the pickups and electronics that come with are pretty good. It's a little muddy in my opinion, but absolutely perfect for a Fear Factory sound. A little extra EQ-ing, though, and you can get some nice bright highs. It's a little noisy, but with single-coils, that's inevitable. Some alumininum foil and a string ground should reduce it to practically zero. I haven't had time to do that yet.

I would prefer a slightly higher action, but I am a violent player. I really can't complain.

The thing's pretty heavy, and it feels like you could use it as hammer should it come down to that. I wouldn't recommend it though, as it might ruin the finish. I don't gig, so I can't tell you for sure, but this thing's not going to break unless you SERIOUSLY mistreat it. Just a recommendation: don't pull a Kobain until AFTER a gig, and you'll be fine.

Haven't used it. That's a good sign, though.

I'm a miser, so I needed a cheap, good guitar. After fiddling around with a few $70-$100 bargain binners, I gave up hope of meeting my $100 budget. My friend had a $350 guitar that sucked, and that didn't make me feel any better.
But this thing intruded upon my consciousness, and I must say, I'm VERY pleased. It's cheap, it sounds good, it's sturdy, and it's versatile. I couldn't have asked for more. Should someone smash my guitar and then ask me to buy the guitar of my choice, I'd probably buy this one again.
And really: have you ever seen more than two brand-new guitars for this price? Didn't think so.

1999 Korean Strat copy, 21 frets, Nato-ply solidbody - strat shaped, 3 singlecoils with 2 tones and a volume knob(horrible tele chrome knobs), 3way selector, maple neck, Black finish, Vintage Strat tremolo Bridge, cheapo tuners, nice jumbo frets, came with two hex wrenches,a cable, and the tremolo arm.
Its basicaly a strat with tele knobs - gotta change those, they work well but look horrible!

I was pleasently surprised when I strummed it un plugged after the first time i tuned it. It had a nice bright full accoustic sound - this did not translate electricaly however. Its a strat with cheap thin pickups. It does not sound quite like a jap or even a mexi strat but its better than I expected. Single coils are extremely noisy - I play it through a crate gx15r. It has the basic start sounds - the treble is a little harsh, the bottom end is loose and the mid range ill defined. A little time spent fiddling on the tone and volume of both the guitar and the amp gets some nice tones though. The downside is that you have to drastiacally mess with the settings when you switch from clean to distortion to get decent tones. You have to back off on the tone knobs or the treble will cut your head off - it mellows out nicely if you roll down the tone a bit. It'll feedback uncontrollably if the gain and volume are too high. U can do real cool Bush and Nirvana impressions though. For the price - its pretty good. I plan to put hotrails in there, its gonna kick but after that. I think Kramer should bring out a focus with dual rail humbuckers - they already make those pickups for the Striker422 so why not put them in a focus - if they could do that and keep the price down - they could make a killing - I would buy a dozen.

The guitar had no flaws right out of the box - though I didnt like the action much - too high(thats easily fixed though). The strings it came with were horrible - I think they were the reason behind its bad sound, and they completely ate through an earnie ball pick and the frets(the strings were soon replaced with earnie ball slinkies). The finish is perfect - I like the fact that everything is black(except those goddarned knobs) the guitar looks really cool straped on. The neck is fitted well and the bridge is routed well(the tremolo is extremely stiff - Thats Ok - im gonna block that anyways). The neck is a little chubby and has absolutely no radius - its very flat. The back of the neck is naturally finished - it has a nice and smooth feel. The fretting is good and I like the large fret wire( they should have polished the frets a little more though). My only gripe is the nut - cheap, plastic and poorely cut. Im thinking of getting a graphite nut. The tuning machines on the other hand work extremely well(even though they look cheap) - it has not gone out of tune in a week - I checked with the tuner and the strings are still on pitch.

It feels very solid. All the hardware seems solid and works well. The finish is also nice - will last. The strap buttons are Averge. I really do not see anyone gigging with this baby. This ones for kicking around the apartment and practicing. I may use it to gig once i get the hotrails in it(and nice black strat knobs!).

Customer support is through internet only. The whole purchasing process was effortless and a pleasure. They respond to emails promptly. It comes with a 30 day warranty.

I bought this guitar and the crate to practice on. They serve the purpose well and I am very pleased with the guitar. Its amazing the fact that it costs 70$!!!! Compared to all other starter guitar - this has the best value. Its the best deal out there. Ive been playing for 5 years and own a 77 LP custom with EMGs and a Mesa Boogie with a marshal 4x15 cab. this does not come near the soung I get with my setup with the band - but its cool cuz I can beat up on it and not give a shit. If stolen id buy another instead of eating out for a weekend. I wish it came with rail pickups and black strat knobs - cant have it all though.

Descent features ima beginner but i research alot. It really could have use the Rose floyd tremolo then the vintage. My dads tremolo on his fender is nothing compared to the one on the kramer. The single coils i fooled arround with and got a good tone with them over a great guitar go buy one. Also the sunburst is one of the best ive seen better than the one on the 800 dollar fender my dad has.

Better than a Squier, Fender or anything trust me. It has a great rock tune for the offspring songs i play i play it through an electar 30 w which is a great amp i love it and it kicks total ass. But the sound can be clean or distorted whatever you wish.

Better than anything ive seen around the Sunburst finish is like a great blend i love it. I want to get the lake placid blue which is better just be careful with the neck the chip easily and when reselling or repairing its kinda embarrassing.

Unlike My cheapo grando piece of junk Synsonics pro series aka string breaker, it actually holds up for the 69 bucks i paid for it i mean the neck is good for a bolt on unlike the other cheap bolt ons ive seen. I love the slide through necks on other kramers but the bolto on is very good. I dont gig but i plan to do a talent show for school and i have a Rogue bass backing me up which sounds great 2 gether. Sounds good no blisters.

Musicyo is a very good company i asked them about my single coils and they told me everything i needed to know about them so its pretty good. Gibson does not acknowledge them on their website which is stupid because the kramer line is their best better than epiphone.

Great my dads guitar is a piece to this please go get one if your a beginner. If it was stolen i would go get another one but with dimarzo pickups. My dad wouldnt let me get it at first but then i convinced him to he likes it. His fender is a piece to this. I look forward to getting a striker/beretta. For 69 bucks its a steal. Its not a music man for 2000 bucks or whatever its a better guitar for the price. WTG Kramer

A Stratocaster. 21 frets, nato/alder body, 3 Strat single coils lake placid blue finish body, satin clear neck, rosewood fingerboard, vintage Strat tremolo,perfect.

A really good sound, just great for a stratocaster guitar.each pick sounds wonderful, of course the amp is a good way to notice that.

Perfect . its really wondergul the set-up was great since i opened the box,everything is really great i can ask any more on this guitar its really better than a fender stratocaster cos i have one and i like more this one.

Yes this guitar its really great for live playing, its really well made , its seems really great to last , its great for a backup guitar too i love it.

I have been playing for about 5 years and i own other guitars and this is perfect believe me .its better than a fender stratocaster, and i cant ask anymore on this guitar.

A sorta-Strat clone. 21 jumbo frets, nato/alder body, 3 Strat single coils (ceramic mags), vintage sunburst finish body, satin clear neck, rosewood fingerboard, old-style well made 6-screw Strat trem, stamped tuners in cases.

Not a bad sound for ceramic pickups, just a bit too sterile. But, the unplugged tone was killer - this body resonated nicely!

VERY WELL made. Quality construction. Impressed me to no end. NO flaws, everything fit together extremely well. As good, if not better, than any box-stock Fender or Gibson.

VERY well built, this ax is gig-worthy right outta the box.

No warranty but a rock-solid 30 day money back guarantee.

Been playing for over 4 decades and have had tons of guitars and amps. I bought the Focus just to see WHAT it was all about. I was stunned at what arrived in only 3 days. With a bit of setup (action and intonation), it would hold it's own with the higher-priced guitars. Just an unreal price for a truly great guitar - no lie.
Being the tinker that I am, I made the following changes: swapped the tuners for a set of sealed 16:1 Gotohs (requires 25/64" keyhole drilling); replaced the PVC nut with one of bone; changed the strings from .009's to .010's; pulled the chrome Tele knobs in favor of a black Strat set; blocked up the trem (I'm not a whammy fan); swapped out the pickups for a set of vintage VS4 AlNiCo's; wired the bridge p/u volume directly to what was the last tone control (now I can get that bridge/neck Tele tone). Now I've got a truly Great Strat that'll run with the pack - anyday!
I can't figure out HOW MusicYo can offer this guitar for a measely $69 - so go get one b4 they're all gone!!!

1999, Made in Korea. 21 Frets, Laminated "Nato/Alder" body, 3 single coil pickups. Maple neck, and fretboard. It has a black on tan sunburst finish. Jumbo frets, average tuners, Strat body style with a "vintage" tremolo system. It came with a cable, 2 wrenches, and an extra spring for the tremolo.

Well...the pickups aren't the greatest, but they definately don't sound bad, just a little on the "thin" side. I play a little bit of everything, and nothing has sounded absolutely perfect, or not right at all. It seems to have a pretty versatile sound. When I ordered the guitar, the plan was to get new pickups because I thought they would be awful, I probably still will replace them eventually, but they are far better than expected.

Out of the box, this guitar had great action! I didn't do any adjusting at all. The intonation was just slightly off, only took a minute to get it set in there. It seems like a very well put together guitar, the finish looks fantastic, no flaws that I can find.

Well...I've only had this guitar a few days, but seems pretty sturdy, all except for the strap locks look kind of wea. It seems like it will take a pretty good beating, the one and only thing that would prevent me from gigging without a backup is the strap locks, if I got a new set of those I would do it though.

The company is strictly an online company, but the service was very fast! I ordered the guitar on a Monday morning, recieved it on Wednesday. They have a 30 day guarantee if you don't like the guitar, but no warranty. I'm not going to rate this category based on the fact that I haven't had to deal with them after the sale as of yet.

I've been playing off and on for about 5 years, just really started getting serious over the last year or so though, so I would still rate myself as a beginner. I own 2 other guitars, a nice Ibanez GAX70, and a crappy Univox Hi-Flier, compared with those guitars, this guitar is just as good...if not better quality than my Ibanez. If this guitar was stolen, I'd order 2 more! For the price of this guitar, you really can't beat it! No...it's not an American Standard Strat, but it's not $700 either! In my opinion, you aren't going to find many guitars this nice at anywhere near $69!