I gave one to my nephew that looks exactly like the one in this video. Same color, specs, everything. He still has it and it still looks and sounds great.
This is a great video man, I’m thinking of picking up one of the new “Focus” models and doing a history segment on the old ones. This will be a great info source for when I do.
Hey! I can’t find an official source but my understanding is that the “D” was for a factory Dimarzio pickup. Some later aluminium necked Kramers had Dimarzio pickups and every “D” Focus I’ve seen predates the switch to Seymour Duncans so it seems plausible that they may have either used up old Dimarzio stock or were deciding which pickup supplier to use at the time. That’s my best guess anyway, cheers!
Hey! That’s true for American series Kramers, but the Focus came out in late 83 with the beak shapes (possibly re-used American pacer necks). The idea I’m sure was if you wanted the latest/coolest look, you had to buy the more expensive American ones. F1000’s got a slightly different banana shape for a while but it was fairly short lived, the non-tilt pointy is probably most common (starting in ‘86, roughly)
Be careful, you can’t really say that with certainty. I have seen ash and maple focus guitars, I’ve seen pacers in maple, alder, and poplar, and I’ve seen strikers made with solid woods too, especially in the late 80s. They were always experimenting and modifying spec - not like current guitars that are all made the same way for the entire duration of that model
what you hv there is an 83. i hv the same one in white that i hv owned since 94. One thing, after 84 the headstocks went to the pointy style. from there quality declined. esp also produced bodies and focus was built in that factory. These kramers are tricky to date. another way to know you hv an earlier model is the logo on the neckplate. early ones will hv oringnal faunt and low serial number. the early focus guitars are solid as its amercian counterpart. PLUS the neck profiles are awesome!!!
Hey! The earlier ones like this had a black and gold “made in Japan” sticker at the heel of the neck or sometimes a small black “made in Japan” stamp on the back of the headstock. Over time though the stickers get peeled off or the stamp fades away. There are enough small differences to differentiate them from American series Kramers (body shape, output jack plate, etc) that an expert would be able to tell easily if someone were trying to pass one off as a USA model. That said, these necks and bodies were made by ESP in Japan the same as “American” Kramers were so other than collector value there is not much difference in terms of quality/feel, which is why Focus are such great bang for the buck. I sold this guitar after the video for a mere $450. Oh, serial number. Early ones like this, flat polished plate, just numbers. Later ones had chrome or black plates with “Neptune NJ” logo and A##### or B##### format. Best way to tell the year is not by serial number though, headstock shape is the easiest indicator as explained in the video. The SN’s don’t have any month/date codes just sequential numbers and even then, some plates used out of order. Cheers
I have a focus 1000 from 1987 i believe that has a HS pickup configuration... I cant find anything about them online other than maybe 1 sold listing on reverb. are you familiar with this one?
the serial number is 5 digits, no letters. I cant figure out for sure what year it is from or how much it is worth... I would really appreciate your input.
Hey! There wouldn’t be any factory H/S focus series guitars, but there were some Jolana assembled Baretta III’s like that. If you take a few pictures and email them to me I’d be happy to help you identify it. TotallyRadGuitars@gmail.com or you can submit the contact form on my website (sends to the same email). Cheers!
Hope you'll do more videos about kramer soon, love your content. I've actually found you by accident because i wanted to buy a nightswan ,,reissue" because i love the kramer reverse nightswan headstock (its actually my favourite headstock of any guitar). To be honest i wanna buy a vintage kramer that looks so damn hair metal but they're kinda hard to find lmao, love your content mate
Thanks! Keep an eye on the Kramerforumz classifieds. Sometimes really nice stuff pops up there for fair prices. I had some ideas for other guitar videos but it seems the amps are more popular, probably because not everyone likes a hair metal Kramer, but who doesn't like a Marshall. Cheers
Hi, it seems like you might be the best man to ask. I bought a Kramer focus 3000 between 86-87. It was a beautiful dark pink. Have you seen any of these? Thank you
Hey, I had a very solid pink/magenta one that was a mutt - focus body and neck, lots of mismatched parts, original floyd swapped for something crappy etc. That part sucked but the guitar itself was really sweet. Was it this color: totallyradguitars.com/blog/2022/12/15/new-guitar-kramer-pacer-deluxe-but-its-actually-a-focus-3000-mutt
@@totallyradguitars959 , I wish it was. I've just about given up on finding one. I've seen these newer one's and I'm not sure if you're referring to the red guitar they have pictured or the lettering in the beginning. Neither one is the same. Thank you very much anyway. I appreciate it.
Good luck - with these sometimes you just have to add it to a feed on eBay or reverb and check it every day until the one you want pops up for sale. Kind of a pain but people who have good ones don’t usually want to sell them (myself included, wish I’d never sold the one from this video)
I have a Kramer Focus 2000 that says on the neck plate "Made in USA" "Neptune, NJ". It looks a bit different than this one....the headstock is a hockey stick! Any ideas?
Hey there, hockey stick headstock puts that somewhere around 1985 or so. Despite the neck plate, it's still made in Japan. I go over all of the headstock shapes in this video starting at 8:57
@@doug941 Sorry for the delay, if it has the screw-in style original floyd rose, a 6mm trem arm should fit correctly. If that doesn't work, you could try FretsOnTheNet, he can make you an arm for almost anything.
Great video ! I have a focus 3000 with the same headstock as yours. same neck plate as well. I have a question I have always wondered about. why does the neck plate have a hockey stick style engraving on a guitar that had the beak style headstock ? Did kramer always have that head stock in mind ? My pick guard was broken and i had some bad pickups, so I bought a new HH style pickguard and threw in the hot rodded pick ups. I also refretted the neck with jumbos ! those tuners have a gotoh logo on the back. I love my Kramer.
Hey! The earliest focus guitars (like the matsumoko ones) don’t have the engraved logo, just a number. By the time the focus got the plate you describe with the hockey stick logo, american Kramer’s had that headstock shape but the focus still kept the beak shape (on 2000 and 3000’s). Focus 1000’s got the skinny banana headstock shape first then shortly after that all focus got the non-tilt pointy headstocks. So the company’s official branding was the hockey logo but they were still selling beaks on focus and striker series. They also kept the hockey logo on neck plates even when they used pointy headstocks from 86 onward. Rock on!
Definitely. I have a couple of Barettas but none of the really special ones - and I don't have any of the new production stuff. One of my biggest regret-sales was a 2006 Baretta 85 Reissue though, that was a beautiful instrument. I have a few amps to do next then I'll circle back and do some more guitar videos.
I'll see what I can do - I think people like the amp videos a lot more than the guitar ones but I'd still like to talk about the Mavericks. They were originally based on the Kramer Nightswan and even had the same body shape as that guitar early on. Kind of interesting history but extremely hard to find info on them
TLDR: the headstock on my 1987 kramer focus 2000 just snapped. I wanted to see if I could find a kramer focus neck on reverb and I found a lot of them, just not the 2000 in metallic red. Is there much difference to the neck profiles between focus models?
Hey, no difference in profile by model however you can expect substantial differences depending on the year. As with anything Kramer, they were constantly changing and trying new things. For example, I’ve seen non tilt pointy focus necks with capped fretboards (side dots on the line between fretboard and neck wood) and also slab boards, and I different back profiles to accompany that, even though from an arms length the necks look identical. Nut width also fluctuated, but less so with Focii which are almost always R2. Sorry to hear about the broken neck, they can usually be repaired - good luck I hope you find one that you like
@@totallyradguitars959 Thanks so much! the one I have has a non-tilt pointy headstock. I ended up gluing it back together and plan to refinish the headstock.
I gave one to my nephew that looks exactly like the one in this video. Same color, specs, everything. He still has it and it still looks and sounds great.
Awesome! Beautiful guitars for sure
Glad you're back. Great video's 👍
This is a great video man, I’m thinking of picking up one of the new “Focus” models and doing a history segment on the old ones. This will be a great info source for when I do.
My first real guitar was identical to yours in this video🤘
One of my first real good guitars was a Focus 6000 in white.
Really cut my teeth on that before buying my Explorer in 85.
Have owned many of these, great guitars!
What a great video! Thank you for all the information!
Do you know what’s the difference with the series Focus 3000 D, with that “D” ?
Thank you
Hey! I can’t find an official source but my understanding is that the “D” was for a factory Dimarzio pickup.
Some later aluminium necked Kramers had Dimarzio pickups and every “D” Focus I’ve seen predates the switch to Seymour Duncans so it seems plausible that they may have either used up old Dimarzio stock or were deciding which pickup supplier to use at the time. That’s my best guess anyway, cheers!
Thank you!!!
I have a neon green Kramer F-6000.
Do you know the official name for that color?
It sounds like you are describing "fluorescent green." Check out this page: vintagekramer.com/paint.htm
I thought that in late 83 the headstock went to the hockey stick style headstock.
Hey! That’s true for American series Kramers, but the Focus came out in late 83 with the beak shapes (possibly re-used American pacer necks). The idea I’m sure was if you wanted the latest/coolest look, you had to buy the more expensive American ones. F1000’s got a slightly different banana shape for a while but it was fairly short lived, the non-tilt pointy is probably most common (starting in ‘86, roughly)
The pacers from 80's are made with Maple body's.. the focus from. 80's are alder and strikers we're plywood .
Be careful, you can’t really say that with certainty. I have seen ash and maple focus guitars, I’ve seen pacers in maple, alder, and poplar, and I’ve seen strikers made with solid woods too, especially in the late 80s. They were always experimenting and modifying spec - not like current guitars that are all made the same way for the entire duration of that model
what you hv there is an 83. i hv the same one in white that i hv owned since 94. One thing, after 84 the headstocks went to the pointy style. from there quality declined. esp also produced bodies and focus was built in that factory. These kramers are tricky to date. another way to know you hv an earlier model is the logo on the neckplate. early ones will hv oringnal faunt and low serial number. the early focus guitars are solid as its amercian counterpart. PLUS the neck profiles are awesome!!!
Do these guitars say Made in Japan anywhere? And how do you read the serial number to tell when made? Thanks.
Hey! The earlier ones like this had a black and gold “made in Japan” sticker at the heel of the neck or sometimes a small black “made in Japan” stamp on the back of the headstock. Over time though the stickers get peeled off or the stamp fades away. There are enough small differences to differentiate them from American series Kramers (body shape, output jack plate, etc) that an expert would be able to tell easily if someone were trying to pass one off as a USA model. That said, these necks and bodies were made by ESP in Japan the same as “American” Kramers were so other than collector value there is not much difference in terms of quality/feel, which is why Focus are such great bang for the buck. I sold this guitar after the video for a mere $450.
Oh, serial number. Early ones like this, flat polished plate, just numbers. Later ones had chrome or black plates with “Neptune NJ” logo and A##### or B##### format. Best way to tell the year is not by serial number though, headstock shape is the easiest indicator as explained in the video. The SN’s don’t have any month/date codes just sequential numbers and even then, some plates used out of order.
Cheers
I have a focus 1000 from 1987 i believe that has a HS pickup configuration... I cant find anything about them online other than maybe 1 sold listing on reverb. are you familiar with this one?
the serial number is 5 digits, no letters. I cant figure out for sure what year it is from or how much it is worth... I would really appreciate your input.
Hey! There wouldn’t be any factory H/S focus series guitars, but there were some Jolana assembled Baretta III’s like that. If you take a few pictures and email them to me I’d be happy to help you identify it. TotallyRadGuitars@gmail.com or you can submit the contact form on my website (sends to the same email).
Cheers!
Hope you'll do more videos about kramer soon, love your content. I've actually found you by accident because i wanted to buy a nightswan ,,reissue" because i love the kramer reverse nightswan headstock (its actually my favourite headstock of any guitar). To be honest i wanna buy a vintage kramer that looks so damn hair metal but they're kinda hard to find lmao, love your content mate
Thanks! Keep an eye on the Kramerforumz classifieds. Sometimes really nice stuff pops up there for fair prices. I had some ideas for other guitar videos but it seems the amps are more popular, probably because not everyone likes a hair metal Kramer, but who doesn't like a Marshall. Cheers
Hi, it seems like you might be the best man to ask. I bought a Kramer focus 3000 between 86-87. It was a beautiful dark pink. Have you seen any of these? Thank you
Hey, I had a very solid pink/magenta one that was a mutt - focus body and neck, lots of mismatched parts, original floyd swapped for something crappy etc. That part sucked but the guitar itself was really sweet.
Was it this color:
totallyradguitars.com/blog/2022/12/15/new-guitar-kramer-pacer-deluxe-but-its-actually-a-focus-3000-mutt
@@totallyradguitars959 , I wish it was. I've just about given up on finding one. I've seen these newer one's and I'm not sure if you're referring to the red guitar they have pictured or the lettering in the beginning. Neither one is the same. Thank you very much anyway. I appreciate it.
Good luck - with these sometimes you just have to add it to a feed on eBay or reverb and check it every day until the one you want pops up for sale. Kind of a pain but people who have good ones don’t usually want to sell them (myself included, wish I’d never sold the one from this video)
I have an 87(ish) f1000 that has the black pointed style headstock with the block letters but it has a maple neck/fretboard. One of my fav guitars
Love the early Kramers. Love all your videos. Especially the amp videos. Very informative. Also your playing is superb.
I have a Kramer Focus 2000 that says on the neck plate "Made in USA" "Neptune, NJ". It looks a bit different than this one....the headstock is a hockey stick! Any ideas?
Hey there, hockey stick headstock puts that somewhere around 1985 or so. Despite the neck plate, it's still made in Japan. I go over all of the headstock shapes in this video starting at 8:57
@@totallyradguitars959 Thank you! Subscribed with the Bell!
@@totallyradguitars959 One more thing....I've been trying to find a replacement whammy bar! I haven't found one that is the same!
@@doug941 Sorry for the delay, if it has the screw-in style original floyd rose, a 6mm trem arm should fit correctly. If that doesn't work, you could try FretsOnTheNet, he can make you an arm for almost anything.
@@totallyradguitars959 Thank you so much! I miss having that wammy bar!
Great video ! I have a focus 3000 with the same headstock as yours. same neck plate as well. I have a question I have always wondered about. why does the neck plate have a hockey stick style engraving on a guitar that had the beak style headstock ? Did kramer always have that head stock in mind ? My pick guard was broken and i had some bad pickups, so I bought a new HH style pickguard and threw in the hot rodded pick ups. I also refretted the neck with jumbos ! those tuners have a gotoh logo on the back. I love my Kramer.
Hey! The earliest focus guitars (like the matsumoko ones) don’t have the engraved logo, just a number. By the time the focus got the plate you describe with the hockey stick logo, american Kramer’s had that headstock shape but the focus still kept the beak shape (on 2000 and 3000’s). Focus 1000’s got the skinny banana headstock shape first then shortly after that all focus got the non-tilt pointy headstocks. So the company’s official branding was the hockey logo but they were still selling beaks on focus and striker series. They also kept the hockey logo on neck plates even when they used pointy headstocks from 86 onward. Rock on!
Good information👍
Love these vids on kramers, could you do a collectors guide on Barettas and Baretta specials?
Definitely. I have a couple of Barettas but none of the really special ones - and I don't have any of the new production stuff. One of my biggest regret-sales was a 2006 Baretta 85 Reissue though, that was a beautiful instrument. I have a few amps to do next then I'll circle back and do some more guitar videos.
@@totallyradguitars959 Awesome can’t wait!
Really cool man. Can we request the '91 Maverick next? Thanks!
I'll see what I can do - I think people like the amp videos a lot more than the guitar ones but I'd still like to talk about the Mavericks. They were originally based on the Kramer Nightswan and even had the same body shape as that guitar early on. Kind of interesting history but extremely hard to find info on them
TLDR: the headstock on my 1987 kramer focus 2000 just snapped. I wanted to see if I could find a kramer focus neck on reverb and I found a lot of them, just not the 2000 in metallic red. Is there much difference to the neck profiles between focus models?
Hey, no difference in profile by model however you can expect substantial differences depending on the year. As with anything Kramer, they were constantly changing and trying new things. For example, I’ve seen non tilt pointy focus necks with capped fretboards (side dots on the line between fretboard and neck wood) and also slab boards, and I different back profiles to accompany that, even though from an arms length the necks look identical. Nut width also fluctuated, but less so with Focii which are almost always R2.
Sorry to hear about the broken neck, they can usually be repaired - good luck I hope you find one that you like
@@totallyradguitars959 Thanks so much! the one I have has a non-tilt pointy headstock. I ended up gluing it back together and plan to refinish the headstock.
thank you for your terrific videos--much appreciated.