Mako Traditionals TS-3

Several months ago I was walking my german shepherd when I spotted something rather familiar sticking out of the dumpster at my apartment complex. It was the headstock of a guitar I recall from over 20 years ago when I was in high school. Instantly I was transported to 1985 to Farrington music at the Seaview Square mall in New Jersey where I remember checking out a very similar guitar. I even recal that I thought it was nice ,  felt solid and well built. The reason I didnt buy it was two-fold; On one hand I thought it was a bit too expensive for what it was competing with in the market at the time. And on the other hand it was too expensive for what it was competing with in my mind, which was Angus Young and a wine red 1962 Gibson sg, with a side order of Marshalls if you catch my drift.  Fast forward to 2009  and sticking out of this green metal dumpster in Austin, Texas is a completely intact red Mako Traditionals TS-3 with black hardware and a rosewood fretboard. As I examined the axe, I was sure to find some terrible damage that would completely de-value the guitar to parts value, but no, it was in great vintage shape. Sure the guitar was missing strings and needed some TLC, a set-up but besides that, I wouldnt really know what I was holding til I cleaned her up and changed the strings. Why someone would throw such a cool guitar in the garbage is beside me. I have spent hours daydreaming about the possible reasons, but in the end, it doesnt matter, I saved it from the landfill and she has rewarded me with some great music.

Mako Traditionals are a rare run of the MAKO Japanese guitar brand that was originally created to be a high-quality, low-cost tribute to iconic guitars such as Gibson Les Pauls, Fender Telecasters and Fender Stratocasters made between 1983-1989.During the life of the Mako Guitar brand, there were many different models produced, but essentially the best ones can be identified by the machine heads which were shipped from the factory standard with Grovers. Another thing that makes these older Mako guitars special is that they are now approaching thirty years old! That makes a huge difference in not only collectibility but playability. Like an old bottle of wine, it just takes time to let the woods settle. When many guitars are new they are not made from "aged woods", which have dried out and become more resonant over time even before being made into a guitar. Some high-end brands like Martin guitars of Nazareth PA, utilize older aged woods which they gladly charge for. Some guitars made from aged woods can run upwards of ten thousand dollars brand new. Mako guitars on the other hand might have been low priced guitars in the eighties, but thirty years later they are growing into vintage axes ready to be born again just like any good vintage fretted instrument. The Mako traditionals TS-3 stratocaster inspired guitars were displayed in classic Mako Shark darkburst, Candy apple red with black hardware and black trim, and the Black with white like Eric Clapton's Blackie. As you can see from the pictures, the red one and the shark burst are represented here, The Shark one has a maple "V" shaped neck and chrome Grover machine heads. The Red one has black Grover machine heads and the standard strat shape. These guitars resonate very well now that the wood has aged, dried and settled and folks I gotta tell ya, the pickups are pretty amazing. If you ever find one of these I highly recommend NOT changing the pickups. The only real alterations that are good to make with these guitars, is generally a new 5 way toggle switch and sometimes a new input jack. The value for these really cool vintage Mako Traditionals ranges on the vintage market from 150.00 usd in bad condition to as much as 650.00 for an original beauty that was worthy of someone like Stevie Ray Vaughn or Eric Clapton. I love these guitars and from what I see in the blogs, so does everyone else. I will be posting more on a regular basis. http://www.makoguitars.com they are just fantastic finds. Happy hunting vintage guitar collectors.