Mako Guitars

Can anyone verify that early Makos were made in Japan? I've seen that theory touted since it was speculated on this forum by Bud in 2003. If you read his post carefully, though, he admits he was guessing. The only thing I know for sure is that later ones were made in Korea. Another misconception is that you can distinguish the quality Makos as having Grover tuners. According to a 1980 Mako catalog, Grover tuners were an option available on any of their guitars (except the TB1&2). BTW, I have two Makos that are nicely made, and three that are clunkers. I'm trying to assemble S/N info, but not yet enough info to see any patterns. If you have S/N or other info, please send to me. I'll gladly share what I have. Regards, Al

alanwcollins at gmail dot com

: I have several Makos. It's taken me 3 years to learn the following:
: The line was started by Matsumoku, a ledendary luthier from Japan (hence the name Mako). He mass produced guitars for all the big brands in the early 70s and decided to release his own line. Most were made in Korea, a few of the very early ones were manufactured in Japan. Operations were moved to Korea because of much lower production costs. At some point in the early 80s,Kaman picked up the Mako line. Kaman started and owns Takamine, Ovation, and Applause and aggressively marketed Mako in the U.S.A. They stopped production of Makos after all the big names sued them. Mako was making high quality guitars for way less money than the big boys. Go figure. Now these things are the unknown jewels from that era. Hang on to what you have because they are becoming more and more collectable/valuable.
: Cheers!

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