Finally, I am building myself some MK guitar replicas. I think they are closer to the original specs than anything I have ever seen, plus I avoided anything that might compromise tone, plus some 'secrets' I think that might contribute to the original sound. I could not wait until all details are finished (the nuts are not even shaped and groved properly yet
) but assembled them for some first sound checks and experiments.
They all have the dream machine body shape and contours, one-piece bodies, a unique neck profile, the correct kind of wood, the right frets etc., and generally differ from a Fender Strat in various details.
I am still experimenting with the mahogani for the CAR Strat (mahogani is rather a trade name, for different tree species) and other factors.
from left to right: 8218 (mahogani, CAR), 8136 (birch, the stolen sunburst), 8218 (mahogani, CAR), 8001 (ash, the replacement sunburst with the jack on the side)
If you wonder why the 8136 has no dots: I still might swap necks, so I will do these last (or leave it without?) And I had no silver output jacks so I took golden ones for now.
Sound: All have a lot in common, due to the same brass hardware and birdseye maple I guess but each one sounds clearly different from the others (note that I always judge the sound unplugged, of course they have different pickups that also sound different). The birch is the heaviest guitar and has the softest sound with a typical midrange, while the ash body makes a crsiper sound. The mahogani bodies are heavy but the aluminium pickguards are much lighter than the brass pickguards. I put Duncan SSL1s into the mahogani guitars. Both mahogani Strats sound similar yet very different! One more guitar with an ash body is still in the pipeline.
I have not decided if I will keep these all for myself or not, and I might make more. Unfortunately they take me sooo long to build...
I am already planning the finish. Especially the correct red will require some tests.
