2006 Recording King Electrified 000-18 Clone Guitar

The owner of this guitar tried-out a customer's '30s MayBell parlor which I'd electrified and asked if I'd do the same for this down-on-its-luck, recent, Recording King 000. I hemmed and hawed him until relenting.

After doing all the other work on it (bridge replacement, crack repair to the lower bout, and some heavy-handed fret level/dress work at the fretboard extension to counteract the poor joint craftsmanship), I then electrified this in my usual way. This includes making a ground for the strings at the bridge plate with shielding tape (the ball-ends of the strings grab it) and a wire leading from it, a volume pot install (in this case on the upper-bout side), and then some sort of soundhole mount for a typical electric guitar pickup (rather than those "acoustic" magnetic pickups).

By its looks, this guitar is supposedly a 12-fret Martin 000-18 clone and I remember online chatter about how vaguely authentic-sounding they are -- "for the money." I dunno, folks -- I think you're nuts. These are built with much plainer, heavier bracing and have a long scale and thicker top. In effect, they're a bit like a 12-fret OM mixed with an x-braced Kay's aggressive mids. They don't really sound "Martin" at all, but they're neat guitars nonetheless.

Import QC is always pretty here-and-there, though, and the early structural problems this guitar had when it came in testify to that.

I didn't take an acoustic clip of this because there are a ton of these guitars out there to listen to -- sorry!

Note that the slightly "off" string path over the soundhole means the strings aren't quite centered over the poles. Still, an adjustable-pole P90 is way more useful in this application due to the ability to crank-up the output on the wound G string.

In this case I have an "electric 10s" set but with a wound G -- 46w, 36w, 26w, 18w, 14, 10. I'm sure the guitar would enjoy 11s or 12s for a better acoustic tone, but I think the main use for this will be plugged-in and roaring.

The mahogany back, sides, and neck are good-looking stuff that's highlighted nicely with tortoise binding.