JohnMarr's blog

We've always said that we're not in this for the money. No sane person would start a guitar business to get rich. Yes, turning a profit is kind of important. It helps pay the bills and keep the lights on. But the real reward is the satisfaction of our customers. We encourage reviews from owners for three reasons: Firstly, it strokes our ego. We love hearing from owners who are surprised by just how good their new guitar actually is. Secondly, it gives us feedback on where we need to focus to make the experience even better, and finally, it plays a vital role in attracting other new owners.

Most reviews arrive in the form of bits and bites - small digital chunks that end up stored as words, sentences and paragraphs. Imagine our surprise and delight when we found an envelope in our physical mailbox that contained an actual letter from a new customer. Not only a folded paper letter but one that was composed on a typewriter.

I wrote John (by email, I confess) asking if we could share his praise for Tofino X, at the same time mentioning how unusual it was to receive a typewritten letter. He replied with his generous assent and went on to say:

Hi John, yes, by all means you can use my comments. And let me add that the guitar continues to show me new notes and combinations and melodies every day. An amazing instrument.

Speaking of amazing instruments, every now and then when I write I like to go acoustic, and I found a 1963-ish Olivetti Lettera 32 for those times. It's a legendary typewriter in its own way. Its initial iteration, the Lettera 22 (the same typewriter, really), is in the Museum of Modern Art for its design. American author Cormac McCarthy wrote nearly all of his works on a 32, and then sold it for a quarter of a million dollars. He used some of that to buy another 32. And you can find Leonard Cohen's muse, Marianne Ihlen, seductively typing on one on the back cover of Cohen's album "Songs from a Room."  It's really a lot of fun to play -- I mean, write with.

Thank you so much for sharing your story and for giving us a look in the window of your creativity.

Years (iOK...decades) ago, when I was in the sporting good business there was a saying that went something like "If you haven't heard a rumour by noon on Monday - start one". Lately, a stream of questions about whether MacKenzie & Marr is selling out to one of the major guitar brands has hit my inbox. Someone is starting rumours with no basis in fact. The potential suitors in these false stories range from Martin to Taylor to Gibson. How the misinformation gets traction is beyond me.

Let me put any and all of them to rest.

We are not for sale. We have had no conversations or correspondence with Taylor Guitars on any subject including the purchase of MacKenzie & Marr Guitars. The same goes for Gibson.

No conversations with representatives of Martin Guitars touched on MacKenzie & Marr Guitars as a potential acquisition. They neither expressed interest in buying us nor did we suggest we were open to a purchase.

In short, we're independent and intend to stay independent.

It's no secret that a MacKenzie & Marr guitar has a stellar sonic voice. But how do we achieve that perfect sound?

That's been a closely guarded secret......until today.

Here's a video capture of our highly trained sound man evaluating a hollow body electric. It took years of study and hands-on experience to reach this level of skill. The concentration in his face and subtle dexterity of his fingers convey a sense of confidence.

A great guitar is the sum of its parts plus the skill and care in assembling them. Too often, a guitarist buys a new guitar without asking the right questions about those parts.

Here are some things we suggest you should look for:

AAA grade (or better) solid wood:

It's not enough to know your new guitar is made with solid wood vs laminated (read plywood) wood. You should also ask what grade of wood was used in the construction. Top wood book-matched pairs are graded from B to A, AA, AAA and Masterclass.  The difference in sonic character between the different grades is significant. So is the price. When a brand you're considering won't, or can't tell you the grade of wood they used, assume the worst.

Dovetail Neck to Body Joint:

A dovetail neck-to-body joint is difficult to do. The skill and time involved often raise the price of a guitar. But that dovetail is critical in constructing a cohesive stringed musical instrument. Everything from weight distribution to sonic voicing relies on that one small joint. Less expensive guitars and/or guitars produced in highly automated factories where bolt-on necks are the norm rarely rise to the same standard.

Genuine Bone Nuts and Saddles:

If the guitar you're considering has a plastic nut or plastic saddle, treat yourself to an inexpensive upgrade with parts made from actual bone. The difference in sound will surprise you. Tusq and Nubone from Graphtec will produce similar results.

Wood or Bone Bridgepins:

The jury's out here. We use Rosewood, Ebony or bone, but we suspect conventional plastic would be fine.

High Ratio Tuning Machines:

Most guitars come with standard 14:1 ratio tuning machines. Really good guitars are equipped with 18:1 or 20:1 tuners, not just because they allow incredibly fine-tuning of each string but also because the machining needed to produce them must be more precise. They're simply better quality tuning machines.

 

Courtesy of True North Records and Stoney Plain Records, we gave away a copy of the new Ian & Sylvia record to everyone who purchases the new Ian Tyson Inspiration acoustic guitar.

They choose between:

• CD
• Vinyl LP (very limited quantities)
• FLAC (High bit rate download)

N.B. The choice of the physical media - CD and Vinyl LP - will incur a nominal shipping charge.

 

This offer is no longer available.

Musicians in Europe (that still includes Britain, doesn't it?) have been writing for years asking if they can buy MacKenzie & Marr guitars from us. Until today we've sadly had to say no. That's changed. Thanks to reduced shipping rates from our carrier and our newly discovered ability to fill out government export documents without wanting to commit murder, we now ship to most countries in Europe. We can't offer the seven day "no-hassle money-back guarantee" or the return for repair or replacement lifetime warranty but given the almost non-existence of problems on this side of the Atlantic in the last eight years, we're confident that's not an issue. Freight costs to most European countries are $300 CAD. We're working to lower that by a bit. Stay tuned.

Tom put together a CD of some of his live shows a few years ago. We have a few copies and we'd love to give you one. All you need to do is send us a stamped self addressed CD mailer. CD mailers are available at most stationary stores. Please use our Canadian address. You'll find it on our contact page.

This time of year it seems that Santa Claus works in our shipping department. We're constantly surprised by the number of generous spouses, parents, children etc who order MacKenzie & Marr guitars as Christmas presents. Here's what you need to know about buying one of our guitars to put under the tree:

• We extend our 7 day "Love it or Leave It" no questions asked return policy until the end of the first week of the New Year for all guitars being given as gifts. Make sure you mark "Christmas gift" or "Holiday gift" in the comments field of the order form, or (as always) call us at (514)833-8352.
• In order to insure your guitar arrives in time for the Holidays we recommend ordering as early as possible.
• If you would like to order early but have us hold you guitar in our humidified warehouse let us know. We'll make sure we ship it so it arrives in time to go under the tree.

Here's how we check the approximate relative humidity in our loft. To begin with, we need the current outdoor temperature and the current dew point, which we get from any number of weather sites. In this example, they are 0 and -6, respectively. We load the calculator (http://andrew.rsmas.miami.edu/bmcnoldy/Humidity.html), plug those numbers into the appropriate boxes and hit the "Calculate" button. Hopefully, the resulting RH (relative humidity) will be close to the same as shown on the weather page we visited earlier.

Next, we clear the RH field, replace the temperature field with our current indoor temperature and calculate again. In this example, with no additional humidification, the indoor RH would be a staggering 50% less.  In all honesty, we rarely do any of those calculations for our location. We have a bunch of calibrated hygrometers scattered around the loft and one or two full room humidifiers running from late September until well into May. We make sure we're at least 40% RH, (preferably 45-50%) but it's good to know just how much of an uphill fight it is to maintain comfortable and safe humidity. Try it for your home. 

When Ben Moore pointed us towards some of the cool videos he's recorded of his fingerstyle playing on a left handed conversion of our Tofino acoustic guitar we wanted to share them. Enjoy!

Ben is a classically trained guitarist who concentrates on contemporary fingerstyle, composition, and teaching. He's from Cambridge Ontario but recently graduated the Music Performance program with honours (under the tutelage of Dr. Matthew Gould) at Cambrian College in Sudbury. He placed second in 2014's OMFA provincials performing Grade 9 classical guitar and has received numerous high golds from Sudbury's Kiwanis Music Festival in 2015.
Ben's works include pieces for piano, orchestra, and guitar ensemble. Most recently he has released several cover arrangement/original video's on his YouTube and Facebook. He has 2 albums: his debut album named "Exposed" (2014), and "That's That for That" (2015) which are both contemporary fingerstyle.

See (and hear) more of Ben's great playing on his Youtube Channel (http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiXkN2sE8s7oO-BYEi0aK5aheDeq_3Vhe)