1985 Kramer Focus 6000

Details

This guitar I grabbed online at a good price for a hand painted masterpiece - this Dan Lawrence graphic was done in 1999. This means someone must’ve sent this guitar or body in to Dan to be painted, and I’m not sure how much something like that costs but I’m sure it can’t be cheap. The quality is of course extremely professional and the finish is impeccable.

It’s equipped with a black original Floyd Rose, most likely the original would’ve been chrome, and the tuners on the headstock are chrome so that indicates that. The switches have all been replaced with very nice quality feeling ones, and the pickups are EMG’s, with an 81 in the bridge and two SA single coils in the neck and middle. I love this pickup combo and they fit and sound just like a guitar covered in skulls should.

The neck is a high gloss lacquer and a mean player, with a very rounded back and medium frets - clearly this neck wasn’t tampered with and is the original spec. Sadly, the headstock appears to have been broken at some point, but it got a professional repair job and is repainted with a plain Kramer logo. Originally, this would’ve had a body color matching headstock and the Focus 6000 logo, so I suspect this repair or paint/relogo was done at the same time as the graphic on the body. This odd headstock shape is a transition between the more banana/rounded shape and the later non-tilt pointy headstock the ‘86 Focus series had.

I originally had planned to take this body and swap the neck for an American series neck, but the neck mounting holes on this body are wider spaced than the standard American series neck plates, so I ultimately decided against it. The neck on it already plays great so there’s really no reason for the swap besides pure vanity.

I no longer own this instrument