Guitars Are Functional Art - 1990 Mick Mars Vintage Mirror Top Telecaster

Hello this Johnny from AXN Guitars. In this installment of Guitars Are Functional Art we are observing the details of this authentic Kramer 1990 Mick Mars Telecaster. I think, my Brotha, this is a piece of Functional Art.

This specimin I have here is a 1990 Kramer Mick Mars. Its from the run of guitars manufactured by Kramer during the late 1980s and during the period when print advertisements featuring Mick Mars and his Kramer Guitars were in circulation.

Kramer Neptune NewJersey had no log and no records exist indicating how many of these collectible Kramers were manufactured. Thats because these were manufactured in Japan. So the thing about these production guitars is that they were only sold in Japan for the Japanese market. So that means that we didnt get any of these here in the USA in the 80s.. Bummer !!

One note I must make is that Mick’s Kramer Teles that he played live were done as semi-custom builds. If you look close at the video footage below you’ll see that they differ in a few minute ways from the production model i have pictured here on this blog.

The MM Kramers produced for sale were sort of re-productions and I haven’t seen any live footage of him playing an actual production model Mick Mars Kramer. The necks i can say for sure were ESP/Kramer manufactured. I’ve concluded they are production model necks or proto-types to the production model MM Kramer necks..

A known fact man… ESP Japan was making 100% of all the Kramer guitars in the late 80s through to 1990s. Neptune NJ stopped manufacturing guitars before that time. From my research ESP Japan had a custom shop in Tokyo Kramer was using to manufacture artist model guitars and certain special high end guitars.

Mick did play these Mirror Top Teles though whether they were custom or not. You can see Mick Mars using his personal Kramer with Motley Crue in the below video of the Moscow Peace Festival i think it was filmed in late 1989..

I have a couple things to add to this blog post see as I did own this guitar for a very long time…

Before so, though, Id like to thank my friend Bengt from Sweden who bought the Mick MarKramer from me in 2022. The shipping company took a very long time to deliver and Bengt was quite patient! Above is a video of the MM guitar I sent to Bengt in Sweden!

Now on to the MM Kramer I owned and sold. The Mick Mars Kramer Production Guitar sold in the late 80s has a neck that is quite different from any Kramer. The headstock is a different shape than any other guitar. The MM necks feel and aesthetics is very very close to a vintage 1980s Charvel and more like a Charvel and very much like a 1983-1985 Charvel than not. Also, the body was a 2 piece center Joined maple wood and very heavy! Mick made mention of that in various interviews yet the MM Kramer is truly an awesome and rare vintage Kramer guitar. It was Functional Art.

You can see detailed pictured at my earlier blog post here >> AXN Guitars Post KramerMick Mars Telecaster

I hope you enjoyed this installment of Guitars Are Functional Art here and check out our AXNguitars!

Moscow Peace Festival. Click On This Image To See Video ( use your back button to get back )

[ Wait one sec… if you can check out My Instagram Post for more Info and Like the page Id Appreciate it! Thanks Man ]

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Guitars Are Functional Art - Love for a 1979 Charvel Rising Sun

Here is a quick video and some information about this authentic 1979 Charvel made Dimarzio Rising Sun Guitar.

You can also learn more from this older post to my web site >> Rising Sun Charvel <<< Enjoy.

As many know Charvel Manufacturing made guitars and parts in Glendora California. Many people associate Charvel with some of the great guitars from a lost era. There are old relics out there if you search. Find your vintage dream guitar or you can buy an AXN Guitar. Thanks Much and Talk Soon! Johnny

If you can.. Please check this video out on my personal Instagram !

Guitars Are Functional Art Blog - This Video Available On These Socials

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Guitars Are Functional Art Blog Post #2 Defeating Neck Pocket Tone Myths

Neck Pocket Myths

Hello Rockers, I’m presenting a quick demo on neck pockets and how tight they need to be. Thank you for tuning in. Hit the social channels for this also and get some extra information.

Please watch it here if you can For Mobile Device Aka Cell Phones

Here is the Link to watch on Instagram

In enough words the neck pocket does not need to be super tight it just needs to fit !! check it out and thanks!!!

Watch The Video

Johnny AXN Guitars

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Guitars Are Functional Art Blog Post #1 Two-Wire Humbuckers A Heavy Metal Secret

Here’s part of the magic that I’ve absorbed. Having only 2 wires makes buttery distortion.

INFORMATION ABOUT A 2-WIRE HUMBUCKER

To keep it simple the less wires in the signal chain the better. So in a single humbucker guitar if you run the shielding as ground and the hot wire combination ( a stock braided humbucker wiring ) strait to the volume pot ii is the cleanest line of signal. The only way to get close to no-loss from the humbucker would be to run directly to the input jack.

Does this make sense? This also reduces any noise from other things like tone pots and extra capacitors and junk like that.

Guitars Are Functional Art Blog - This Video Available On These Socials

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The Fernandes ST-145SL Steve Lucather Model

The awesome Fernandes Steve Lukather model was produced in the 1980s, its a Fernandez ST-145SL. It has vintage stratocaster specifications. It was in the Fernandes catalog for 3-4 years starting about 1982.

The Fernandes versions were based of the two vintage Stratocasters that Steve Lucather used at the time live. He used a 1964 Stratocaster and Later Steve used a Valley Arts a Mike Magwire modified Strat with a boogie body and a Schecter neck. The 1964 Strat was mainly used in live performances from around 1980 to the mid-1980s. In response to changing time in 1981-1982 Steve changed and he installed EMGs and a Prototype Floyd Rose. That guitar was equipped with a prototype of Floyd Rose one of the first Mr Floyd made in the his garage, which is said to have been given to Steve Lukather and Brad Gillis got one two.

The earliest Fernandes Signature model was the ST-145SL One with and alder body and a Floyd Rose FRT-3. Following Fernandes models changed it to a Floyd Rose Locking FRT-4 tremolo as seen above and Steve added covered EMGs. There were variations which changed pickups with also changes to pickups hardware for the four or so years of the Fernandes run..

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Johnny Sold A Kramer Mick Mars Mirror Top Telecaster 4/2022

What up? Yes sir we sold a very sought after vintage 1990 Kramer Mick Mars Mirror Top Telecaster. As a matter of fact its the one in the photos here >>> https://alienxnation.com/vintage-1980s-guitar-resource-blog/2019/10/6/kramer-mick-mars-telecaster

Bengt is the proud new owner of this beast. Its going to reside in Stockholm Sweden from this point on.

I’m one of the few that have ever seen a real Mick Mars Mirror Top Telecaster up close and personal. Of course I pass the information and photos on to you rockers. The guitar is very unique. As a matter of fact very very unique. It has specifications that are intrinsic of Mick Mars tastes. The neck profile is nothing like any Kramers that were ever produced. This Mick Mars Signature has a wide-flat-fast-comfy neck profile which in my opinion resembles a Glenora/San Dimas Charvel USA neck shape from the prime time for them about ‘87-’89 …. Enjoy

Best Regards

Johnny AXN Guitars

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Jake E Lee Whitey Fender Charvel Guitar Exposed

ジェイク・E・リーホワイトギタ

Hello friends, I have finally sat down to write todays lesson. For decades I have studied Jake E Lee’s Whitey 1974 Fender Stratocaster in an effort to expose the facts that are known versus the unknown. Today I deliver the information.

Many retail Jake E Lee Signature models have been manufactured by Fender, Charvel Jackson and ESP with their 1990s JEL Signature. Of all these guitars none of them have ever been an accurate reproduction of Jake E Lee’s White Charvel. The closest and most accurate reproduction was produced by Fernandes in 1983 and made available in Japan in 1984 which i covered in my last blog post The 1984 Fernandes Jake E Lee Guitar ST-65JL Burny

This is an interesting and inflammatory statement for me to make. Truth be told, it all became more of a cash generator for these guitar brands verses and actual experiment in getting history straight. That said, I’m gonna clear it all up for the world in this blog post.

Here is where the history of Jake’s Whitey Charvel begins. It started its life in Fullerton California as a Fender Stratocaster with the below specs.

1974 Fender Strat 3-Tone Sunburst Specifications:

1974 was the last year for the desired "grey-bottom" - pickups with staggered pole pieces. All 3 singlecoil PUs are stamped 1974 and have outputs of N=5,46K, M=5,48K and B=5,45K. The guitar has a 3-way switch, came with black hard shell case with orange interior.

1974 Fender Stratocaster Hardtail 3-Tone-Sunburst Specifications:

Solid alder body
Maple Neck With Rosewood Fretboard with tiltneck-adjustment
Neck Radius: 7.5”
Rosewood fretboard with 21 frets
3x original "greybottom" singlecoil pickups
Hardtail bridge w/ 2-7/32” string spacing E-to-E incl. bridge cover
Scale 25.5”
Large 70s style headstock
6x Fender "F-Style" tuners
Incl. orig. black Fender tolex case with orange lining

Transformation

Jake E Lee ( Jakey Lou Williams ) was there in Hollywood California at the epicenter of RockNRoll in the Van Halen era of LA’s Sunset Strip. I’m not gonna spend time explaining Jake E Lee’s relationships with this person or that person. I also wont spend any words here going over the different bands he was in in Los Angeles in those days. Jake E Lee himself has discussed his place in each of those bands in great detail in various interviews. Instead I’ll made your lesson today only about The Jake E Lee Whitie guitar.

Here is the story of the transformation of Jake’s ‘74 strat hardtail into the Chavel Jake E Lee White guitar that was used while Jake was in The Ozzy Osourne Band. This is how Jake E Lee told it and I translated it to the short version…

Jake E Lee worked at music store when he was young and tried a bunch of Strats. The owner said he would give Jake a good deal so Jake could pick out something he liked. He played all the fenders there and walked off with the hardtail Strat.
Jake owned the 74 hardtail Strat in LA in the early 80s and used it in all its 3-tone sunburst glory. All the rockers in Hollywood had flashy guitars so Jake was after a little individuality. Jake was friends and roommates with John his buddy that worked in the Charvel shop in San Dimas Glendora CA. John shaved the big Strat headstock down and put a Charvel logo on the headstock. Needless to say the guitar got paint and a full a remodel. It became The Whitey. If you look close at Ozzy concert footage you can see that there is a 3 bolt fender style neck plate on the real Whitey guitar. Go check out vintage live footage of Ozzy from the 1980s theres is some technical things to learn.

Technical Challenges To Converting A Tame Strat into A RockNRoll Monster

So there we have it. Now you know what was under the hood of Jake’s Whitey before it became a RockNRoll guitar. There are a couple problems someone will encounter with a vintage Strat crankin out Metal.

Firstly, if you look at those specification of the original fender you can’t skip over a few limiting factors one would encounter if they attempted to use a stock 1974 strat hardtail as a rocknroll guitar.

1 - The Fender factory fingerboard radius of that ‘74 Stratocaster was 7.5”. Fingerboard radius is the curvature of the fingerboard across the neck, from the lowest string to the highest string, and just like the radius of a circle, it is described in inches.

Johnny from AXN ( quote )
Ha Ha… For rocknroll guitar players the curve of the fretboard on those 1970s fender stratocasters makes it very tough to bend strings and play fast. So the question becomes
“How the heck did Jake play all those bends and metal riffs using a neck with a 7.5 fingerboard radius?”
The answer is that a very popular modification in the 80's was to take the older strats with those 7.5” radiuses and plane them out to a flatter one typically 9.5”.
It’s my belief that Jake had at least two early rounds of modifications. The modification to the radius and I think a bridge upgrade done years before the white paint and headstock mods done at Charvel Jackson.

In addition to this modification the other obvious changes needed to convert this fender burst into a fire breathing metal guitar was to add an aftermarket brass Charvel era hardtail bridge.

Ok so all the recent Jake E Lee Signature guitars sold by Charvel/Fender are not accurate in many ways. These guitars are meant to look like Jake’s but almost non of the specifications are near accurate to a 1974 Strat. So one would ask the question… how do those releases by Charvel end up feeling like Jake’s Whitey? Well they don’t. Sorry to say. They just look like it.

The above photo is showing you the real bridge. As owned by Jake.

I’ve owned and sold 4 of these authentic 1980s hardtail bridges. I have one left of these first incarnation of Jake’s hardtail fixed bridge i’ve kept ( pictured ). I also have notes from the shop foreman that machined the very first bunch of bridges for Charvel Jackson in the 1980s and I own his notes on the spects.

Long story short without the right string spacing on the hardtail and without some specifics from the 74 strat you don’t have the feel of Jakes baby.

Let us not forget that Jake’s Whitey Guitar was a 1974 Fender Stratocaster with a wide 2-7/32” string spacing from the Fender factory. Johnny - AXN Guitars

There more details on our Jakes Hardtail Bridge at the following link if you care to delve into that detail further.

Link To Our Page Discussing The Jake E Lee Bridge

Ok girls I posted this info into my blog for you. I hope you enjoyed it.

In the rest of this space i have put a really rare and cool interview with Jake E Lee from 1986. Jake talks about a lot and its well worth the read. Sorry about the green pages but everyone likes to use content without crediting the guys that did the work… LOL me I found it after after 30+ yrs ;-) .. thanks and come back to this blog for more.

Thanks Johnny

The Following : The balance of this blog Post will contain the Guitar World November 1986 Article about Jake E Lee. Its great … read it!