Frequently Asked Questions
Why is this guitar at this price point?
Your Morales Custom Guitar is handmade, with North American woods (Alder/Maple), a six point solid brass tremolo plate with a thick, solid brass block, brass brushed stainless steel bridge pins, 500k CTS tone pots (Tone 2-connected to mid/bridge pickups), 3- Alnico V noiseless pickups, Jescar (USA) stainless steel frets that are hand-polished by us, abalone inlets, an Ox bone nut and locking tuners. WOW, that was a mouthful! Basically, for the price of a standard American model, you can have a guitar that is completely tricked out and comes with a hard case! There is an ultra version that is made by another company, but it is twice as expensive as the EMW-22. Discounts can be made for local pick ups. Just contact us and we are happy to discuss.
Why stainless steel frets?
Anyone who has had a refret done on their guitar knows how traumatic it is for your instrument. They need to be ripped out of your guitar when needing to be replaced. It’s not that you will NEVER need to have your stainless steel frets replaced, it’s that it is far less often, if ever, that you will need to polish, much less have the frets replaced. We are so confident in their construction (Jescar-USA steel) that we offer a 10 year warranty on them! Is anyone else this bold (or crazy)?
Why 500k CTS tone pots?
We realize that most single coil guitars use 250k pots. We chose 500k because the Alnico V noiseless pickups were so good, we wanted to add some “spank” back into our guitar! What we’ve produced has a much larger sweep across the spectrum. I usually live around 7-10 on the mid/bridge pickup Tone 2 on my standard guitars. However, on this guitar I am able to play at around 4-5 with plenty of room to move up or down, depending on style and level, without it becoming a muddy or tinny mess.
What type of woods are used and where are they sourced?
The body is Alder and the neck is Maple. They are farmed on the American/Canadian border, so it is impossible to tell if it is American or Canadian, to be truthful. The rosewood is farmed from an eastern province in India, known for its fine grains of rosewood and ebony trees. All of our woods are ethically sourced and many have been in stock for many years.
What type of hardware and what type of setup is used?
Our initial setup is set as a hardtail, though you can most certainly float the bridge if you prefer. The bridge plate and block are both solid brass, which gives it amazing sustain! The bridge pins are stainless steel blocks brushed with brass. If we used brass for the bridge pins, the steel strings would likely weaken or even rip through the soft brass. The tuners are nickel locking tuners for ease of string changing. We also replace the standard string trees with rollers to reduce friction of the string.