Dragons Den Meets: MacKenzie & Marr

So,

The other night I got sucked into watching Dragons Den. Not because I like the show, but sometimes I like to see what is out there and available from Canadian Inventors. And every once in awhile O'Leary get's told off, and that's always a plus!!!

Well Last night, I only caught one segment, and that was MacKenzie and Marr Guitars. These guys have been friends since 1954 and the guitars they make are labeled with a picture of the two as boys. Nice to see.

They thought it fitting that one of the Dragons come down and play "taste test" riff. Blind folded, Dennis O'Leary (the cheeky bastard) tries first the $5,000 guitar. I couldn't make out the brand but it had mother of pearl inlay around the sound hole. I didn't expect him to have as much talent as what I heard him play. Then he tried the M&M which retails at about an even grand, a beautiful guitar very different from what you see on the racks. As they put it:

For our first guitar we could have followed the herd – spruce top, rosewood back and sides, etc.... but does the world really need one more Martin D-28 “me too” knock-off? The MacKenzie & Marr “Tofino”, while paying tribute to the innovations of past masters with scalloped X- bracing and precision fitted neck, breaks with tradition in both body shape and wood choices.

The tone was immediately different, very crisp, gorgeous intonation and an almost sparky attitude. I wanted one the moment I heard it. Even blind-folded, O'Leary assumed the better guitar was $5k, but no. The better guitar is only 20% the cost of the traditionally expensive instrument.

The deal they cut was decent... I could tell the boys were split on how well they had impressed O'Leary and Treliving, who piggybacked on O'Leary's offer of 7% Royalties on a $35k investment. That's not even a guarantee of return!! O'Leary doesn't make those kinds of deals!!! That has to be some guitar to make him throw money away like that.

Anyway. I'm putting this out there because I want to see more people playing the guitar. You can buy them only online at their website. Maybe some day I could afford it, My fender, she's looking/sounding pretty tired these days. I might just put her up on the wall.

Good job guys.

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Friar Greg