Michael Kelly Patriot Decree MKPDCSB Electric Guitar Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought this for myself. I have been playing guitar for more than 40 years and have only recently, with the availability of computer recording, gotten into electric. I have a Fender Strat and wanted a Les Paul type guitar without the price that Gibson demands. As they have sued everyone who makes a replica they have no competition.
Anyhow, the guitar was pretty good out of the box. I changed the strings, lowered the action, did a small neck adjustment, set the intonation and we were good to go.
The pups are meaty with good bark if you dig into the strings. Roll up the bass and select the neck pup and you have a good jazz tone. Roll up the treble, select the bridge position and you can do some chicken pickin' country stuff. The split coil sound on this guitar is not terrific but I can see it will have a place in a guitarist's vocabulary.
One gripe however is the technical backup. After a week, the neck pup started to become murky, and I emailed Mike Kelly support about this. A very nice gentleman emailed me the next day. I told him I had narrowed the problem down to the volume pot. He promised have a tech call me in two days. A week later I am still waiting. However a quick spray of Deoxit on the pots solved the issue.
At this price you get a versatile instrument with great hardware, and good features, but bad support. You could easily pay more than double and not get as good an ax.

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Michael Kelly Patriot Limited Electric Guitar, Bubinga Review

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(More customer reviews)It's a decent guitar for the money($489).It has pretty good hardware.The bridge,nut,fretboard,neck,body,and tuners are solid.The body is mahogany back,maple top,and spalted maple veneer on top of the maple top.I really wish it was'nt veneer on top.The abalone inlays on fretboard look really nice.I was'nt that impressed with the Rockfield SWC pickups.I think they might be good for classic rock.They just were not high enough output for me.The frets were not level on one side of the neck so I had to send it to Michael Kelly to fix it.Plays fine now,the action is a little higher than I want it but it can't be lowered anymore(buzzing).The access to the 22nd frets is very difficult and is a reason for me to sell this guitar.If you want a Les Paul copy I think this is one of the better ones out there,just make sure it's set up right and the frets are level.

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Michael Kelly Patriot Vintage MKPVWH Electric Guitar Review

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(More customer reviews)Excellent E.guitar, soft to touch, excellent sound and the refining not mind. Comparable to the Gibson. Professional guitar for demanding musicians, I liked very much!

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Michael Kelly Patriot Premium MKPPBRD Electric Guitar Review

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(More customer reviews)I have had this guitar for only 2 days and to say the least I am overwhelmed in an every way regarding it. I have been a guitarist for 35+ years (I am 45) and have owned many guitars including a Fender Lead III and Gibson Les Paul. I also own and have owned several acoustics which is my general guitar of choice. I am very aware of what a good guitar should sound like and one that doesn't it. First I was very surprised at the stunning beauty of the guitar. The picture in Amazon is good but doesn't clearly show the beauty of the workmanship of this instrument. The color is gorgeous (I have the blood red) and it has a wonderful gloss applied to it as well. The abalone inlay is perfect without any uneven or uplifted areas any where on it. No blemishes or discoloration anywhere to be found. (Trust me I looked hard and am an easy critic). The ebony fret board really makes the abalone stand out. First thing I checked was the neck to see if it appears to be warped where I would need to adjust the truss rod but the neck was perfect. The action was set low, (my preference anyway since us females don't have the hand strength) and with only a minor remote buzz I could occasionally feel (not hear through the speaker though) is my only issue with it. Again that is a minor issue. A bridge adjustment would solve this problem. No buzz or short in either the switch, tone control or volume knobs. One knob is a little looser than the others but not too loose. Could be the others are slightly too tight. Again a minor issue. Now for the sound quality. The pickups are EMG 81, 85s and run $210 new. (I checked out all this before my purchase). Not being a metal fan I still had to revert briefly to my high school days and turn up the saturation to hear some old classic rock sounds and do some rifts. The sound was great. The 81 gave it a nice lead sound the 85 great rhythm and the combination was great as well. The real test for me though is how does it sound clean without any distortion or artificial gimmicks. I was very impressed. I could get a good natural honky tonk, blues or crisp lead sounds just as is. I have a classical style of play and the sounds held up superb doing normal acoustic songs on this guitar. The natural sustain held long and was very good and clear. Keep in mind the only amp I have is a very small Peavey Rage 108 that is over 20 years old and if it sounds awesome through that amp we are talking some very good sound quality. It doesn't sound like a Les Paul but I don't think that was the intent with this guitar. It has its own unique and very versatile sound. Although with some tweeking with picks up and tone controls the sound came very close. (One could always get a Seymour/Duncan Pearly Gate pick up for this, I prefer the ones it came with). If this were a Les Paul name it would easily go for $1500 to $2000. It has a mahogany body, maple top, maple set neck, ebony fret board and with all else in terms of appearance and the stunning sound I am profoundly pleased with it. How it will hold up I believe depends always on the care of the instrument but so far I find it hard to put it down and return to my acoustics. Another thing I am amazed at is the cost. All I can say is I take my hat off to Michael Kelly for creating such a wonderful instrument at a reasonable price. It is made in South Korea, where also my Takamine 12 string is from and they make very good and high quality instruments there. I definitely recommend this to guitar to anyone, hobbyist, or professional. If you doubt me try one out at a music store see if the Patriot Premium isn't all I am bragging about.

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Michael Kelly Patriot Decree MKPDBKV Electric Guitar Review

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(More customer reviews)I luckily stumbled across Michael Kelly guitars at a store in town and I cannot express my love for this guitar. I have 10 and this can replace all the others. Most guitars have only slight changes is sound dynamics when switching between pickups but this guitar with the coil-tapping can create an enormous variety of tones. The workmanship is top notch and it looks absolutely beautiful. A joy to play. The quality you get with this combined with the price is a no-brainer. Check out the rest of their line too including hollow bodies and EMG pickups.

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Michael Kelly Patriot Custom MKPCAT Electric Guitar Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought my Michael Kelly Patriot Custom Electric Guitar about a month ago when Amazon had it on sale. I am a fifty-six year old amateur, still taking lessons, but before this my main guitar was an '84 American Strat, so I had a top quality guitar to compare others against.
I was originally looking for a Gibson Les Paul-style guitar to compare against the Strat, and had picked-up a new Epiphone Limited Edition Les Paul Studio Deluxe Electric Guitar about a month earlier. The Epiphone is a very good guitar, but the machine heads were not great and needed to be changed (I went with Grovers), which brought the total cost of the Epiphone up to the cost of the MK Patriot Custom. The Epiphone is a great guitar to experiment with changing the hardware to see how much the sound and is changed by the successive hardware changes (I will probably change the pickups on it to Seymour Duncan Hotrods sometime later).
The quality of the MK Patriot Custom is way beyond the Epiphone. Nothing wrong now with the Epiphone, but you can FEEL the quality of the Patriot Custom as soon as you pick it up. It is slightly heavier, VERY solid, and has GREAT sustain. The ebony fingerboard is a dream (I feel that the ebony makes for a smoother feel, especially for bends). The sound out of the Rockfield pickups is incredible (right up there with the EMG active pickups on my Strat), and the machine heads that come standard with the guitar are Grovers, so no need to swap out ANYTHING.
The MK Patriot Custom is also a beautiful guitar. I got mine in Cherry Sunburst, mainly because of the video posted on Youtube by a German guitar store (can't understand a word of what the guy is saying, but watch it full screen in HD mode, and you'll see that you don't need to understand German to know that he is impressed with this guitar):
[...]Guitar World also posted a written and video review. Read the review, then scroll down to watch the video: [...]The MK Patriot Custom is an INCREDIBLE guitar right out of the box. Just get you favorite guitar tech to set-up the action the way you like, and you're all set.
So... watch the two videos, read the review, and if you are looking for a top-quality Les Paul-style guitar without having to compromise slightly and go to Epiphone, or pay a huge premium just for the Gibson name, BUY A MICHAEL KELLY PATRIOT CUSTOM NOW, before they get crazy and either discontinue a great product (companies often do that with a great product so that they can increase the price on the cosmetics-only-changed "new product" they then launch), or they just announce an incredible price increase on the product.
I am convinced that Michael Kelly is THE new name in top-quality guitar manufacturers, and that the Patriot Custom is a future classic.
Do yourself a favor and get one.

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