Mclguitars 10th Anniversary Model 2020 Mary Kay

This was a long quarantine project and our first guitar of 3 we built for reverb.  For our 10th anniversary we decided to take the best feature of each year from 1954-1959 and combine them into one super 50’s model.

1954- plastics

1955-pickups (Klein epic 55)

1956-250k industry standard pots

1957-Mary Kay blonde white burst finish

1958-alder wood

1959- neck shape

It all started two years ago when a reserve cut of alder had the grain appearance strikingly similar to ash.  We were going to do a transparent color of some sort but held onto it until the time was right.

There is no exact custom translucent buttery sandy 50’s blonde color out there so we had to mix it and experiment.  We finished the body a total of ten times!  Took nine refinishes to nail the color finally.  Notice the subtle white burst around the edges.

The Mary Kay is a special color/hardware combo (blonde/gold) so we took it to the max and put gold on literally everything.  Gold frets, gold Optima strings, gold bridge screws, gold bridge springs, gold string height screws, gold tremolo claw (not brass), gold plated tremolo springs, we painted the block les paul gold top gold, hell- we even gold leafed (actual real gold on the guitar) the solder joint on the tremolo claw and gold leafed the truss rod adjustment screw you can barely see!  We went all out.  For us and for all of you.