A Stratocaster-inspired guitar from Mark Swanson

[Markku Nyytäjä]

Very nice!

[John Kingma]

That's a sweet looking Strat, Mark. The fretboard inlay is incredible.

[Randy Roberts]

Nice, Nice, and a third Nice! You really do make some outstanding instruments Mark.

I can't get the 6 separate nuts out of my head, it looks so gorgeous. I'm trying to figure out a reason you couldn't do that on an acoustic (as long as you didn't want to intonate the nut).

Are the two strips on the body back Osage?

[Mark Swanson]

Thank you Randy! You could do that nut style on an acoustic. It is true that you can't intonate the nut, but you can move the zero fret just a little bit forward. I don't have many intonation troubles though.
The stripes on the back have an interesting story. Before I was born in 1956, my mother had an old pump organ and it broke down, so she tore most of it apart and she put it in the basement. When I helped my 91 year old Dad move out of the family home last year. I found the remnants of that organ in a deep dark corner of the basement...so I made an amp stand out of part of it, and I made those center stripes out of it too! They are oak.

[Greg Carter]

Mark, any interest in either sharing the tone circuit, the "Q" of it, or commercializing it? I envision a little circuit board glued to the end of a pot for retrofits, or pushing forward a clean guitar front view, a la, on a two pup system, volume, blend, and this "Q". Clean lines and doesn't clutter the view of the wood, similar to a PRS without a Varitone switch.

[Jim Bonnell]

What a fine job. There are so many interesting things going on I don't know where to start. Love that inlay, set neck, zero fret and much more. I've shied away from set necks for too long. A guitar like this that needs no neck angle would be a good place for me to start. Any tips on shaping a heel like that. I've tried a few time and before I'm done I have a Fender style heel every time. Once again great job Mark.