Saw an unusual guitar today Gibson MK 53

[Goat Mick]

I bought one of the pretty sunburst ones in a pawn shop in Ft. Bragg, NC in the late 80's when I was in town visiting family. It was a gorgeous guitar and played pretty good, but it was really dead sounding. I didn't keep it very long. I don't remember which one it was but it seems like it was a MK 73.

[Osage]

Originally Posted by Dr. Jazz

It was in Canada. I was working for Mountain Music at the time and the Gibson Rep sold one to our accountant and then approached him a month or so later and bought it back along with a couple of others. Our accountant then ordered a Laskin. (smart guy)

There was no buy back or recall. Despite not selling well, they had fans and after production stopped, they were actually more expensive used then they had been new for a little while. Your rep was almost certainly buying them back to sell for a higher amount somewhere where they were wanted.

[Ed-in-Ohio]

Originally Posted by Guitarfish

That's my story too. I bought my MK-35 around then too. My first acoustic. I still have it. The original case sells pretty high from what I've seen over the years. ...snip...

Does the case for yours have the pink plush interior? Gotta' love the '70s...Groovy Man!

IMG_6710.jpg

There's on down in San Jose, or at least there was. I played it but it didn't do anything for me. The price was cheap though. I can't quite remember the sound other than it being unremarkable.

[jspe]

Hi Everyone...I thought I'd jump in and revive this thread on the Mark Guitars.
Someone I got to know had a Mk 53 that was in pretty much mint condition, and decided to sell, so after reading this thread I ended up doing a partial swap to get it. Quite a nice sounding guitar...but I was puzzled by the amount of gap that seemed to be under the saddle when your holding the guitar and viewing it from the side. It seemed to me that the saddle couldn't be properly level on the bridge!
The guitar came with several saddles, so I thought I might experiment with the saddle fit in the bridge slot.
Noticing quite a large convex radius/arch to the top itself, particularly behind the arching, long bridge, I thought I'd see if I could match that radius to the bottom of the saddle, by sanding a small, even, concave arch along the saddle bottom. After a few little bit-at-a-time attempts, I now think I have it just right, and the saddle shows virtually no gap when viewed from the side, and of course fits quite flush in the slot when the guitar is tuned up.
Meanwhile...the sound has altered (improved!) considerably, and is way more balanced and full...no doubt (I assume?) because of the increased, even contact with the bridge! The more I play it, the more it seems to open up! A bit of a wow factor going on here!
I'm convinced now that this fat saddle set up might have been a flaw in the design, and with this simple compensation the guitar has improved immensely! I hope I've explained this clearly...some comments would be awesome.

[der Geist]

I have a MK-35 that i am going to be selling on CL this week. Excellent condition with the removable pickguard and rosette and all 3 saddles. According to the advertisments of the day Gibson was marketing it the same as the Taylor V Class. It has a similar V bracing and Gibson claimed superior intonation and a more balanced sound. I think it is a really nice instrument and the only reason i am selling it is because i have a line on a bucket list guitar i would like to get.

[zombywoof]

The MK 53 is the most commonly found these days. I have played them. I always walked away wondering "where is the bass?" The thing about the Mark series is they were a commercial disaster not because of sound or build quality but they were too much of a departure for the purists. The Gibson CF-100 suffered the same fate. Gibson started building theese in 1950 and within a few years had drastically cut production and in 1959 pulled the plug on the entire project. I gather folks thought the cutaway as too radical a departure and they did not sell well.

[Silly Moustache]

There's a guy in, I think, Brighton (UK) who buskes with one plpaying Manouche style jazz.
I've seen his guitar a few times bit "busked up" now but still souding good and really does project (possilby the design, possible the maple B&S - probably both.

Here's some info on them :

https://www.mk-guitar.com/2010/01/20...r-mark-series/

[jspe]

I'd like to see some techie guitar aficionados out there look into the saddle and slot radius contact issue on these Mark series guitars...