Welcome to the Kramer Forum

Bought this locally, selling point for me was that it was a 2 humbuckers guitar with 'vintage' Dimarzio Super Distortion pickups. To me the bridge pickup doesn't seem to be vintage, but the neck sure does look vintage. I might swap both around and put the vintage one on the bridge as I use the bridge pickup more and prefer vintage pickups as they are older and therefore better.

Was setting it up yesterday and certain aspects of this guitar I don't understand like side dots that have come off(that's a first for me), and paint and screw hole imperfections on a Japanese guitar? I actually suspect this to be the product of the Neptune guys on a Friday afternoon... Moreover, the neck is the exact same as 83 Pacer Imps - same back profile, same 'nut sticking out cause shelf too small' syndrome, same inlays- but fretboard sanded to a flatter 15" radius, just like the Pacer Carreras of the time. Don't know what wood the body is, so I'm just gonna say it's poplar. Similar to a Pacer Special body with a different style output jack and control cavity. To me this is basically a 83 Pacer Imp with one less tone control, flatter radius fingerboard and matching headstock. My kind of guitar.

I specifically asked the previous owner if there were any scratches or dings on the back of the neck that you can feel when you play, and he said none whatsoever. And when I get it, all I see and feel are scratches and dings. Tell me, is it really that difficult to not ding up the back of guitar necks? Now I'd have to sand the crap off, even if it means the amber tint fades away. But this guitar is currently useless because this fellow swapped out the OFR for a Ping Floyd(Is Ping a Chinese woman?) that looks like a Gotoh with the knife edge on the bass side straight and the other side round. I was gonna give this Floyd a shot cause it looks cool but when I push the trem down it stays down(from a slightly floating position), I push it up and it stays up... I soon realized that the baseplate was too wide for the route and the arm housing was pushing against the wood. So this craptastic 'Ping Pong' Floyd has got to go.

All in all, I'm very happy with this purchase because I'm confident that once I put in a good Floyd this thing will play great. The color I absolutely love... it's my fourth candy apple red guitar but this one is the darkest of them. It's real dark, I wanna call it dark cherry... super sexy. But most importantly this thing sounds killer... Dimarzio Super Distortions, man... I got another set of vintage Dimarzio pickups coming my way but I might need to get another guitar for those.

I'm currently looking for a chrome Floyd Rose for this so please feel free to hit me up if you got the hookup. Thanks, and keep on stringin bros!

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Oh my god, look what the cat dragged in... Livin' my life, sin after sin. Night rolls up and I do it again... Oh my god, look what the cat dragged in.

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Oh my god, look what the cat dragged in... Livin' my life, sin after sin. Night rolls up and I do it again... Oh my god, look what the cat dragged in.

It's got one of those weird for Kramer triangle control covers, Don't see too often.

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But let's face it, someone buys a Kramer b/c it has a Floyd.

Those Gotoh copies aren't bad at all from what I remember... pickups look nice too. Only the frets look like they could need replacement soon, or maybe it's just the cam angle?

I need to amend this statement as it might confuse people... I mentioned a Pacer Special body because a majority of Pacer Specials only have two holes for two potentiometers, just like this guitar. But I forgot to take into account that a Pacer Special only has one pickup as opposed to two. So this Focus body is 'similar to a Pacer Special body with a different style output jack and control cavity route, and an additional neck pickup route'. Or more simply, it's 'a Pacer Imperial body with a different style output jack and control cavity route, and one less potentiometer hole drilled'.

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Oh my god, look what the cat dragged in... Livin' my life, sin after sin. Night rolls up and I do it again... Oh my god, look what the cat dragged in.

Yeah I know nothing about the Focus line so I had no idea that the triangle cavity was rare. Was looking on Ebay and the two Holy Grail headstock Focus 1000s listed by AXN have this same route. These guitars with this route seem to be the early models...

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Oh my god, look what the cat dragged in... Livin' my life, sin after sin. Night rolls up and I do it again... Oh my god, look what the cat dragged in.

The fit of the string lock screws was so tight it was ridiculous, don't know if some lubricant will make it better, but once I found out that the baseplate of this bridge is too big for the route I had to give up on this bridge. Maybe it'll be of use to me someday.

Frets are worn in certain spots but still have life to them, they are taller than pictures indicate as well. I like these frets, a bit taller than what's on my other Kramers. Got to measure them when I feel like it as they feel really good. These are re-fretted frets by the way, I'd venture that the original frets are like those on the 83 Pacers.

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Oh my god, look what the cat dragged in... Livin' my life, sin after sin. Night rolls up and I do it again... Oh my god, look what the cat dragged in.

I will add that I believe this is the only 2K I've seen with this style of cover.

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But let's face it, someone buys a Kramer b/c it has a Floyd.

And this is the only Focus 2K I've seen with this type of cover as well as I've only seen pictures of around 5 Focus 2000s in my life.

Nah I've seen more than that, at least one or two more , but never really paid attention to the control cavity cover shape, I'll definitely be on the lookout from now on.

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Oh my god, look what the cat dragged in... Livin' my life, sin after sin. Night rolls up and I do it again... Oh my god, look what the cat dragged in.

My Focii are all pointys, but the side dot markers are doing the same with a couple of mine. I just picked up a used focus neck and it is flat missing 3 dots. My plan is to mix up some glow in the dark epoxy and do up all those side dot markers. Lots of options there as you can use some liquid that sets up or with some dexterity, use solid material.
I am drawn to the candy apple red as it was the color of my first Kramer. (That is the head stock color of the recent neck find)
Great guitar you found and good luck with sorting out the bridge.

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I don't usually find a use for this smiley , but I like so there you have it.
Steve B.