1989 Kramer F-6000

Details

Purchased online from Guitar Center after speaking with the store rep. Sadly, this was not a good sale for them as it had a clearly broken headstock and average - but not great - repair job. Since I had specifically asked for the condition of the neck and had it described as “very good,” I paid the going rate for a nice Focus/1000 series guitar and was disappointed to see the damage when it arrived. I ended up returning this guitar for a refund. On the one hand I’m disappointed in the lack of accurate description from the store’s part, but on the other I’m happy GC has such a good return policy for situations like this one.

While I had it, I remember it played well and the Floyd was as good as any OFR, and recessed on later models like this one. Pacers by this time were 7/8 size, but even the large bodied ones would’ve had the lower horn scoop, which the Focus/1000 series never got at any point in the run. It was helpful to examine it to be able to tell the difference between Focus bodies and American bodies of the same type. This one has a different control cavity shape, along with a shallower tummy cut, plus the most obvious difference of the pickup/controls (no American body would have a slanted humbucker, HSS layout, and 3 knobs). The three knobs are also positioned differently than earlier F-6000’s, which helps identify this one as a very late model, since there is still some mystery surrounding Focus/1000 series neck plates. If you compare to earlier models, the volume knob is closer to the corner of the bridge, and the mini-toggle coil split is located above the 5-way switch and the other knobs shifted accordingly - take a look at some of the other large soloist body Pacer Custom 2’s on this site for what this would look like (I don’t have an earlier F-6000 for comparison but the control layout is identical to the PC2’s).

I no longer own this instrument