Michael Kelly1950s 53DB 6 String Solid-Body Electric Guitar Right (MK53HCSMRO)

Beautiful guitar, eye catching cherry sunburst finish, perfect intonation, awesome humbucking pickups! Very happy with my purchase!!🤓👍👍👍👍👍

I bought my MK 53’ at Sam Ash. I love the sound the switches knobs and pick ups. I have seen some bad reviews by people who bought used MK 53’s with scratches impossible to be made from shipping and burrs that “Scratched their palm almost making it bleed.” … Well, first off I challenge anyone to try to squeeze their palm between the volume switch and the selector switch to be able to do this? Yes if the selector switch was all the way on for the neck pick up but how can you possibly push the selector switchback down using your palm unless the guitar was upside down. How often do you put your palm where mine is in the picture??? I had no flaws in mine whatsoever. If for some reason we receive a bad one in the bunch, we return it. and why on earth would you buy a guitar if you don’t like the Pups? I don’t get it? people cry, I can’t afford a $1,200 dollar guitar with the right parts so I’ll buy an $800.00 dollar guitar and spend. $500.00 on new pups and switches cause that’s smart. I love the sound of my 53’ and the looks. I get compliments on it all the time. I understand sometimes a guitar is made with flaws. That is part of life. Shop smart and look at pictures of the guitar you are buying on line. I can’t imagine buying a guitar that I i don’t have any pictures or a “This is a picture of what your guitar might look like. I bought a used 2004 mim fender showing dozens of pics including the two big chips in the top and bottom of it. I took a metal grinder and blended them in drawing a gecko with lightning bolts. Hey, When Life gives you lemons….

Have to say my tele 53DB was is perfect shape, frets were great and finish outstanding. Neck feels great and love the pickups since you can change the configuration with the push/pull knobs. Can't believe in this market guitarist are not snatching these up but I know there are a lot of choices out there. This is my first tele style guitar and I'm loving it.

The Good:First off, I've been looking for a tele shape with double humbuckers and body contour/forearm carve for a long time. Kudos to Michael Kelly for making this! The body truly is beautiful aside from some scratches, but I don't mind given the price ($725 CAD after shipping).The Bad:Pickups are not great. Need to be swapped, but I expected that. Blemishes, scratches, red paint on the fret board. They put the neck on before the body fully dried as you can tell from the back of the neck. As a result, someone got paint smudged in several places on the actual fretboard. It is very noticeable, so not sure how this wasn't caught in regular QA. There is a large sharp plastic burr on the pickup selector switch which scratched the side of my palm almost enough to draw blood. Will need to be filed/sanded off or replaced. There is wear and oxidization on the frets. Fret ends are sharp (not the worst I've seen, but not great). Ultimately though, these aren't deal breakers. Just means the guitar should have been sold as B-Stock at a discount.THE UGLY:This part is where I shake my head. The nut is an ABSOLUTE MESS. It is easily the worst cut I've ever seen. Worse than sub $200 guitars. String slots are a jagged mess (see pics), strings ping if you try to do bends. Break angle is almost non existent....combine that with poor slotting and strings fall out of slots easily. But WORST OF ALL - the nut was improperly installed. Impossible to ever tune this thing properly as any open strings will be way off from fretted notes. Given that and the issues with break angle, fret oxidization, sharp fret ends...it's not just an issue of putting work into the neck. Just needs a whole new neck.This is an absolute shame because the body is so beautiful. So close, yet so far! The worst part about this is that someone inspected it and said, "yep, send it out." This worries me because it means this probably isn't a one-off problem if they are just okay with these types of issues.