Mako Guitars

[nonamemx]

Anybody have a Mako guitar?

Harmony Central seems to like them. I want to hear your thoughts about them.

I have found a neat Mako Stratocaster copy at a local Pawn Shop. Its dirty and grimy, needs to be set up, but it looks like a very good project-to-be. Its got a nice heavy body, a nice solid neck with a pretty tint and flawless wood grain. Its even got Schaller tuners!

They want a cool $69 bucks for it! It plays, and IS better than the pile of Squiers they have sitting there (for more than this Mako, they want $100-$130 for the squiers) I may pick it up tomorrow.


Just wanted to hear your thoughts and stories about Mako guitars. I dont know anything about them, besides they are a long since out-of-buisness company that made quality budget "copy" guitars in the 80's (much like Tokai and Ibanez, just not as popular)

[zeegler]

Re: Mako Guitars

If it plays nice, and is solid, buy it. For $69 you can't really go wrong can you.

[sully]

Re: Mako Guitars

when i was a kid, a friend of mine had a mako warlock. they're in the hondo/series 10/vester league, iirc.

sully

[nonamemx]

Re: Mako Guitars

Well, I looked at it again today. Its funny, how many things obvious things you DONT see the first time.

The Tuners WERE Schaller, but that DOESN'T mean they were quality [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] They were old and jumpy, and installed horribly, there were chunks of wood missing around the keyholes, patched up with a sharpie [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

It did feel solid. The neck was great, but the nut and tuner holes looked like shark attack survivors (haha, Mako?) It did work though, not too low or anything, didn't pinch the strings.

The body, I thought was pretty good. It felt nice and heavy, which is a test I usually use to pick out a good 'un from the bunch. But I examened the paint on the bottom near the strap button, and it had faint hints of horizantal rows. . . . so Im thinking its Plywood [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img], because glue weighs more per inch than wood [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img].

The only thing worth salvaging on it would be the bridge, which happened to be a DiMarzio bridge, I believe. It had "DiMarzio" on each saddle, although it may have just been the saddles that were replaced.

I think I can easily live without it, and the money will be put to much better use [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Jackson-Charvel]

Re: Mako Guitars

I bought a Mako Tele back in the early 90's form (guess where) a PAWN shop. hahaha. Seems Mako's habitat is suited for the Pawn. Anywho the guitar is black and I bought it for a then cool $100 with generic yellow lined hardshell case. Grover inline tuners black hardware (for a tele back then was almost impossible to find) Maple fretboard and even the neck pickup had a black metal cover cool.

The guitar stayed in tune and played well and the pickups sounded very good. I eventually replaced the bridge pickup with a Duncan Hot Rails which gives it some muscle.

Funny thing is I always looked at it as a "cheap" guitar so I sanded off the MAKO logo and re-painted it black and clear-coated it to be a mystery guitar. Years after when I sought a "real" tele, I was a bit let down as I thought Fender was the "be all-end all" when it comes to Teles. I have 2 MIM teles from different years and I prefer the feel and tone of the Mako in every way.

Recently after feeling a bit nostalgic, I did some searching on Mako and otrher cheap imports and found some info that all of the Mako's were made in the same plant that made Ibanez'guitars in Japan in the late 70's early 80's, so they can't be that bad.

[nonamemx]

Re: Mako Guitars

Thats a cool story. Any pics? sounds very interesting

Unfortunately, this one has been severely mistreated.

The neck was very nice though. . . oh well, no regrets.

If I see a better one along down the road, I may look into it.

[Jackson-Charvel]

Re: Mako Guitars

I don't have pics but I can take some tonight. I took the neck off for some reason a few years ago and never put it back together.

You can find them occasionally on Ebay, although they werent that popular I guess and they weren't exactly a household name even for cheapo guitars. FOr the low end cheap guitars these are probably among the better ones built. I wouldn't go as far as to say they had the quality of the Matsomuku built Westone guitars of the day, but close.

[jazzman]

Re: Mako Guitars

I think almost any guitar is worth 69$. I would buy it just to putter with.

[nonamemx]

Re: Mako Guitars

[ QUOTE ]
I think almost any guitar is worth 69$. I would buy it just to putter with.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, I thought about that at first, the "cheapness" appeal really had me hooked, but I have a Model 1A that needs work (new nut, new pickguard, some dimarzios), and the purchase would just set me back even further.