The New Tofino

This summer marked our third year in business and our second since we taped the Dragon's Den episode that launched MacKenzie & Marr Guitars. It also saw the arrival of the long overdue order of second generation Tofino and Dionisio guitars. I'd made three trips to China in the last 9 months to deal with delays and misunderstandings with the factory. This order would tell whether time and expense had paid off. Would these guitars be as outstanding as we hoped?

With a great deal of trepidation we cut open the first carton. Initial reaction from everyone present, “WOW – you've changed the cases. Do they ever look great!” We'd made a number of changes to the cases – new outer material, an additional neck support, one extra clasp on the far side of the lid and, last but not least, a built in mini-hygrometer (great in theory – not so good in practice. More on that later.)The end result did indeed look wonderful. The case was improved but what about the guitar?

The minute the first Tofino was unwrapped – before tuning it and before playing it - I knew we had a winner. The guitar was pristine. So was the second, the third and so on. Not one guitar we examined had the slightest flaw. The factory had outdone themselves.

Playing the new guitars was another revelation. We'd made some subtle design changes, most of which will remain secret, and early samples suggested there would be an associated improvement in sound. Just how much of an improvement was something we weren't prepared for. The new Tofinos blew us away – greater projection, stronger bass and, if possible, longer sustain.

Here, in a nutshell are the changes we've made:
1. Back and sides are now mahogany. We've heard disturbing stories about harvesting practices in central Africa, where our Akoumé was grown. Coupled with a constant supply shortage, it made continuing with the wood undesirable. Working with plantation raised Mahogany solved the ethical issue and actually sounded better. A win for the planet and a solid win for our customers.
2. The body depth in the lower bout has been increased marginally. It made sense to carry the results of our experiments with ways of maintaining tonal “punch” in a cutaway guitar (Dionisio) through to the full body model.
3. The same piezio electric pickup and preamp we introduced in the Ian Tyson Limited Edition is now standard across our line. Fishman has done a great job of developing a 100% internal (no cutting into sidewalls – tone and volume controls are inside the upper sound hole) system.
4. We've replaced the Goto 381 16:1 tuners used on the first series of Tofino acoustics with our own 20:1 tuning machines. The change was made primarily to eliminate a bottleneck in production time but the high ratio (to rotate the post a full 360 degrees requires 20 full turns of the button) gives us bragging rights. It also makes for even more granular tuning accuracy.
5. The fretboard is slightly flatter – a 14 inch radius as opposed to the original 12 inch radius. For most players the difference will not be noticeable but for those struggling with barre chords the change will be welcome.
6. The “secret sauce”. Every company has a list of ingredients they add to their product but won't reveal publicly. We're no different. Tofino has been favourably compared to guitars costing thousands more since it was introduced. We made that happen by building a really good guitar out of top quality materials -and by doing some things we don't think our competitors have discovered. The new Tofino has one more “secret sauce” ingredient that elevates it to a whole new level. We won't tell you what it is, but play one and you'll agree – no other guitar in its price range comes close to the sound and playability of a MacKenzie & Marr Tofino.

Oh, and the hygrometer we added to the case? It looks impressive but no two give the same reading. Some don't register any change in humidity at all and those that do are totally inaccurate. As one friend and customer said in an email “I set it for 50% and left it in the case as decoration.” We'll go back to the drawing board on the hygrometer until we get it right. It's really critical that guitars are properly humidified. But this time around we missed the mark. Owners still need to visit their local hardware store.

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