Thanks, boys, yeah, she's way too good for me, I know!
Wes, the Strat Wanna Be is a Mako Traditional.
Tom, neither play well, but the necks are straight and the bodies are fine, so lot's of potential!
The Mako is an interesting guitar - They are Japanese, and apparently they stopped making axes in the mid 80s. The Traditional series was made in the mid 70's for about 5 years and were relatively high end for their stuff - It's a Maple on Maple neck with the skunk stripe, body is mahogany plywood. A lot of players have these and swear by 'em a la Golden Era Japanese Squires.
Here's the best info I found on 'em so far. These things are sought after somewhat, and in decent shape go in the $100 to $300 range from what I found.
It seems quite possible that the Hondo and Mako were both made by the same outfit, though the best I could come up with on the Hondo is mid-80's, which is when these Formula 1 Series apparently came out, obviously aimed at being a hair band axe, but pretty decently put together - Floyd Rose trem and locking nut, no-name buckers, but tightly done and insulated. Body looks like the same Mahogany plywood as the other to me, with a nice Rosewood on maple neck. There is a loyal bunch of players who seek them out apparently, they got great player reviews in several places, and people speak of picking them up for between $25 and $100.
This one's essentially sound thought the electronics are pretty thoroughly shot - They are both dirty and corroded and have paint dings. The Mako got abused some way or another; the guts of the neck pickup are missing and the knobs and switch have been squashed by something, but no other appreciable damagebut show almost no fretbard or fret wear at all...
At this point, I plan to restore this one as best as possible, (Keeping all the original parts of course) and replacing all the electronics; I just happen to have a matched set of Texas Specials that would go real nice in there, and come to think of it, I have 2 or 3 trem bridges here somewhere too. Hmmmm...
Urb
