MJ Guitar Engineering Mirage Standard

this is an update on my previous review, just a couple things. mj guitars has been great to work with over the course of the months paying off this guitar. i had mark install a fishman piezo system and coil splitters so its without a doubt the most versatile guitar around at this point.

i was actually kinda bummed out with the sound about 2 months or so ago. it just seemed like it didnt sound like it used to. it seemed thin and i could never get a heavy rhythm sound out of it, it sounded overly middy. im now playing through an engl fireball head into the same cab. i called up mj a number of times just wondering if the piezo system had ruined my tone. my livewire cables broke one day after a gig, so i replaced them with monster cables (the cables i used to use exclusively when i first got the guitar) and wallah! the great tone was restored.

the humbucking sounds are full and punchy. you can get a nice cutting lead sound and a big rhythm sound on the bridge JB and i've got a cool santana type sound out of the neck pickup. the split coils are an awesome addition, of course its not a strat, but they're definitely cool for some tonal variations. the piezo depends on your amp. if you have a bad clean channel it'll sound bad, and unfortunately the Engl's clean sound isnt the best. it uses the same output so you cant route it to a PA system. it doesnt sound like a $3000 taylor (what does) or a big gibson jumbo but its still a really cool sound and i'd recommend getting it installed.

like with any corvette or sports car, if you feed it anything less than premium it wont perform how you want it to. so definitely surround yourself with the best gear possible, and the choice of cables absolutely matters. this guitar rocks.

there was a problem with the piezo system where i had to send the guitar back to be fixed. basically the active electronics screwed up and the sound just completely cut out. it wasnt mj's fault, fishman had given them a faulty part. story continued in the next category.

so i tell mj to hurry as fast as they can (fishman took their sweet time, it ended up taking months for them to send the replacement part) as i have some gigs coming up. they actually send me a replacement guitar (a red roadster) and let me use it while the mirage was getting figured out. how cool is that?

this whole process has been great. another 2 months or so and i'll have the guitar completely paid off. mark and everyone at the mj guitar family has treated me like a celebrity and have helped me out like they would anybody else. they certainly go the extra mile to make sure you're completely happy with the product. they're just a great company to deal with and they know what customer service is all about. mark is a genius and his guitars are innovative and sound incredible.

i've gone into stores and played SG's, Strats, Teles, Les Pauls, every PRS you can think of, and sure they all do their thing and are pretty cool, but nothing is more inspiring than opening up that black case at home and plugging in my mirage. couldnt recommend them enough.

I had my Mirage Standard custom built, and it looks awesome... its a metallic grey/silver with 2 black racing stripes running through the body. It's got 22 frets with a flamed maple(that's right) neck. I also had it fitted with 2 Seymour Duncan Pickups(humbuckers), I believe a JB in the neck and a '59 in the bridge. I'm pretty sure the body is poplar, and it's semi-hollow, so it's light and sustains very well. Also, there are 3 knobs and a 3-way toggle. There is one universal tone knob and a volume knob for each pickup. I give a 10 for features, mostly because it's got everything I asked for.

Ok, so here's my rig... Mirage Standard(along with a prs custom 24 and a mccarty) into a boss tuner, dunlop wah, digitech whammy, boss dd-5, and a boss ac-2 acoustic simulator. These pedals run straight into the front of a Soldano hot rod 50+. In the FX loop of the soldano, i have a tc electronic g-major that has all my sounds stored(reverbs, chorus, compressor, channel switching, etc.). The g-major feeds into a bbe sonic maximizer, and then back into the FX loop return on the soldano. The amp also drives a soldano 4x12 slant cabinet.


OK OK so about the mirage... this this freakin rocks!!! I couldn't ask for a better sound. The only way i can explain it is the punch and clarity of a PRS with the balls of a les paul. It's like the best of both worlds. My only dislike about the sound of this guitar is that, when playing with distortion, it seems to lose some top end and clarity when the volume knob is rolled back. Other than that, it rocks... it's neck pickup is sweet for that jazzy clean sound, and the bridge pickup just rips with the heavier stuff.. pinch harmonics just pop outta the thing like there's no other day involved.

When I received this guitar in the mail, it was set up perfectly. The action is perfect, the intonation is impeccable... just an all around sweet guitar to play. I asked them to set it up for drop d tuning, down a whole step(drop c) and it has never needed an adjustment in the 6 months i've had it.

while this guitar is extremely well put together, some of the electronics could be a little bit more trusty. Sometimes the guitar's signal cuts out, and I'm not completely sure where the problem lies(i'm almost positive it's not the cord). Also, the toggle switch broke, and i needed to take teh back plate off and superglue it back together. So far, it's held fine.
Also, while out on our first tour(im in a hard rock band) i broke the bridge pickup on the first night out. I had to ship the guitar back to get repaired(it needed a new, more heavy duty pickup saddle).
Luckily, i had my prs mccarty as a backup.

When i called them to say the pickup had busted through the body, they were more than happy to repair it. So, i overnighted the guitar to the factory, and they fixed it the same day and overnighted it back. I only had to pay for the shipping costs. The shipping kinda sucked, but when i got the guitar back, it was much better than before i broke it... it's freakin sweet now.

All i would ask is that the electronics be a little more reliable, but that's a minor problem. I just think they could be a little more heavy duty, ya know? But, overall, this guitar rocks, and, unless ur beating the living piss out of it every night, i'm sure it will hold up fine.

This is a 22 fret Standard with a smooth perfect maple neck and a rosewood fretboard. I got it used off of their site (www.mjguitar.com). I've wanted this type of guitar for about three years now, for this price I couldnt pass it up. It had a tiny little imperfection (a little chip) by the neck pickup and I got a great deal on it because of that.

I think they are making these out of poplar if I read correctly on the website. It's chambered, and its so light. Very light, very comfortable. Wraparound bridge, exactly what I wanted. Gotoh tuners. Duncan 59 in the neck and Duncan JB in the bridge.

The finish? I could write a book about the finish. It's one of their color shifting finishes, this one is purple to green. I seriously have to admit for a while yesterday all I did was hold it up to different lights and move it around to look at the colors. I felt like a little kid. In all honesty, it's breathtaking. The website gives you an idea, but to experience one of these guitars in person is a real treat.

These guitars come standard with straplocks, how cool is that? I think it was strung with MJ strings, which (for more plugging) are great strings.

I really hate to bring this rating down at all for such a fantastic company, but being honest if it came with a coil splitter it'd be a 10 outright. With what its got, its abolutely incredible.

My band plays alternative rock/power pop. I play a Marshall DSL 50 (sovtek power amp tubes, electro harmonix preamp tubes) into a Sonic (a company out of Cudahy, WI, really underrated stuff) straight 4x12 cab loaded with Celestion 75's. For now, I also have a Boss ME-50 for effects and tuning, though I'm upgrading to a Lexicon rack system soon.

Let me tell you, I owned that amp for about three months before I got this guitar, and it has breathed new life into the amp. Before I was in a transition stage of gear and had to sell a lot of it because I was broke, and I was using a $99 Epiphone Les Paul Special. For what it was, it was ok, but it just made me sound so average. The clean sound was absolutely unusuable with the guitar and the drive was cool but...not quite there.

Fast forward to yesterday, right when I plug in, bam. Whole new amp. These Duncan pickups (at least the JB) are LOUD. I used to play with my gain at around 6 (I like a somewhat aggressive sounding drive sound, but with more of a classic rock feel). Now I have the gain around 3. Before I had to have the amp cranked up all the way, now I have it just over half and I'm more than fine. Loud.

How about the sound? Incredible. Phenomenal. Not sure if there are enough adjectives I can throw in here. A bright, full sound with just the right amount of clarity and balls on the JB. I do have to crank the bass on my amp because the JB is relatively bright, but it doesnt matter, this guitar improves the DSL in every way (that was more of a knock on the DSL anyway, nice amp, but even better with the Mirage). And the 59 is so warm. For a while with my Epiphone I never even thought about the neck pickup before (I didnt have one), but I find myself switching over to it a ton.

The thing that really got me was that as hot as the JB is, it still sounds great clean (as clean as my Marshall can get at least). And the knobs on this thing, they work. It cleans up really well and you can get a ton of tonal variations just by switching it around. I've played around with the middle setting the least, but I'm sure I'll be using it more in the future because its a sweet rhythm sound.

Big rhythm sound, beautiful clean sound, fairly loud acoustic (nice snap to the strings that I didn't expect) sound, a lead sound that cuts through everything with no problems. Oh, and it sustains forever. I struck a note and held it for as long as I could and couldnt help but throw the devil horns up. Eventually my hand got tired and I had to move on with it. Unbelievable sustain.

I can't think of any dislikes.

This was also a real treat, because everything on this guitar was spot-on perfect.

Obviously I talked about the little paint chip, but that wasnt the company's fault and its small enough that its not an eye sore (and anyway guitars are meant to be PLAYED people).

This is BY FAR the nicest neck I've ever played. Honestly, I went into a Guitar Center about a week before I found out about this guitar. I played around with some PRS Custom 24's and some Les Pauls, and I was gonna finance something. I decided on an orange PRS Custom 24. It was a nice guitar, but anything but inspiring. Anyway, so I just got an account at a bank, and I guess I didnt have enough credit history, so they wouldnt let me finance it, so I walked.

Best thing that ever happened to me. I found out about this beauty on the website and...the rest is history. A sign from God without a doubt. In this category (and every category), this thing SMOKES any guitar I've ever played. The PRS neck, its honestly like a bad joke compared to this neck. There's just no comparison. Nothing comes close.

The action is so low, but its perfect. Its such an easy guitar to play. You dont need to fight with it, it inspires you. Like an incredible guitar should. All the hardware is in tip top condition. No problems. Even used it was flawless. It took a little longer to ship because the company moved its headquarters to Montana, so they had to send it back to California for Mark to setup perfectly before sending it out. He did a great job.

The straplocks help a lot. I'm torn between completely babying this thing and playing it like I normally do. It's the nicest guitar I'll ever have (till I buy a brand new one to go with it!).

Even without the straplocks, the strap buttons were really nice. I played around a bit with just those and it held the guitar on well.

It's a solid guitar. I'm sure it'll get more imperfections on it the more I play, it's the nature of the beast. But with polishings and semi-regular checkups it should last forever I would think.

THE BEST! A+ times infinity. I've done this completely with the help of Deirdre and Joan, and it's been a great experience. It started out with a couple emails of interest, all responded to promptly. Then I called in and talked to Deirdre about the guitar for a while and next thing you know we were making plans for financing (which is a beautiful thing for people like me).

I honestly feel like family. I've had a ton of problems with my bank just with this new account, things have been screwed up more than once, and MJ Guitars has been so patient and willing to work with me. Right after I put my offer on the guitar, I guess some people came into the company store and wanted the guitar, but they still went through with the sale for me. Great stuff. Joan the receptionist has been so helpful playing middle-woman through all this and I called up Deirdre to thank her profusely yesterday for everything.

No pressure at all. The nicest people in the world. Very helpful. An incredible company to deal with, I'm sure Mark is also awesome. I'd love to talk with him someday, maybe when I'm ready to get my next Mirage. I'm a customer for life.

I've been playing seriously for a couple years now. It's hard to calculate the years as I started taking lessons when I was young, stopped for a while, started up, and got serious a while ago.

I've mentioned all the other gear I own thats worth mentioning, though the gear list is going to grow considerably soon (and as I said will no doubt in the future include another Mirage Standard).

I love everything about this guitar. The finish is beautiful, the neck is effortless, the setup is great, everythings great. Stays in tune! What a concept, not used to that. Great pickups, great sound. Wish it had a coil splitter as I said, but its no big thing. Maybe I'll make a big deal out of that on my custom made one.

My favorite feature is that its inspiring. It begs to be played. It's amazing to look at, and I've done my fair share of that. But at its heart, its a player's guitar. Awe-inspiring in every way.

This thing doesnt compare to any other guitar. It far exceeds anything those other companies can dish out. In closing, I'm an MJ Guitar Engineering devotee for life.

This is a 2004, made in USA, Mirage Standard with custom upgrade features galore. A highly figured and solid Canadian flamed maple top (one piece, not book matched) and matching maple neck, poplar semi-hollow chambered body and ebony fret board spanning a cool 25 1/2" with 22 frets. It has 2 Seymore Duncan pick-ups with a JB at the bridge and a '59 PAF at the neck. Two volume and one tone controls with a three way selector switch. This guitar is also equipped with a Fishman bridge pickup system with a three way blender switch and volume control to combine the humbuckers and acoustic sounds this insturment can deliver and then some. The active electronics require a 9 volt battery. The body style is a futuristic, space age type, double cut-away with a trans-amber finish. The tuners are Gotoh with Dunlop 2150 medium-jumbo frets. The neck width is 1 11/16" at the nut.The guitar comes with a custom USA made G&G vintage case, truss rod tool and set of picks.

Folks, I've owned Gibson insturments since 1977,including Les Paul Standards, Customs and semi-hollows and I've never heard anything like the Mirage. The tonal pallet and sonic combinations of this guitar can only be believed when listened to in person. I use the Mirage with two different amps depending on the club size or my recording needs, but I mainly play it through a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier Tremoverb with a 2-12" enclosure. I use a Dunlop Cry Baby and the Rectifier pedal system.

This gutiar was ready to burn right out of the case. Anyone who has seen my insturment has commented on how flawlessly finished this guitar looks. It's turely a working peice of art. Larry Robinson did all the inlay work and the detail is striking. Mark Johnson fabricated the custom volume and tone controls and rear cover plates. A problem with the Fishman Acoustic chip needed to be rectified and a minor binding of the tone control was adjusted.

This guitar is built to last. I've used it live and recorded with it and the multiple layer laquer finish is easy to clean after a nights worth of abuse. It has a life-time warranty for all parts and in the short period of time I've owned the guitar, it's not needed any adjustments. However, I'm very selective on when I use the guitar in public due to the one of a kind build that would be impossible to replicate and it's high dollar value.

Superb is the only way to describe the level of service I've received at MJ Guitars. I originally found them needing a repair to a Gibson Les Paul Custom that suffered the inevitable neck break. Their repair work was so good that I was able to recoup 90% of the value of the guitar upon resale. The warranty is lifetime. This guitar will out last me.

I've been playing for well over 25 years now. I've owned Les Pauls, Strats, Teles, Rickenbacher (sp) you name it, and never have I owned such a beautiful looking and sounding insturment. If it were stolen, the special rider on my homeowners policy would cover the dollar value, but it could never be replaced. This guitar was made over a period of a year. The design and custm fabrications could never be exactly duplicated. If you have a chance, go to the MJ Guitar web site and you can view the guitar in their custom section. It's the only way I'm able to say what I am saying and be able to back it up. The guitar is theemed after my career as a firefighter for 22 years. I call it magic, but take a look for yourself.

This is a 2002 I beleive, Mirage Standard. 2 SD humbuckers. Poplar back, gorgeous maple neck with MJ ingenius headstock. This headstock makes tuning machiones VERY easy to use. Brazilian rosewood fretboard, carved maple top. F/R volume pots, 3 way selector switch. Body is chambered and man you can tell..oh my god...what tone !!!Gotoh tuners. MJ standard fret inlays. Maple binding around body. Finish is absolutely flawless black gloos. Hardware is chrome. Carbon fiber veneer over headstock with MJ incredible great headstock design. 22 frets 25.5" scale. Bridge I think looks to be Gotoh. All hardware absolutely the best quality. Guitar shows incredible attention to detail. Neck and action simply incredible, smooth like glass, action almost impossibly low as per my request. Perfection. The top of this guitar is sculpted beautifully..you've got to see it. Oh yea...came WITH a case, case is the best I've seen yet. Guitar also came with straps locks....POO on other makers who dont include them !!! Spend $3000 for a PRS ? and they make you buy strap locks ?? Poo.

Oh man...whew!!! I had never seen or played an MJ when I bought this from MJ direct. MY God...after about 30 minutes of playing I called Dierdre at MJ to thank them profusely. Sound ? Well...I the past year os os I've played at least 100 top end guitars from all the brands/makers I could find. The tone is the MJ is simply fantastic ala LP creamy smooth but with a wonderful snap. The Duncan pups used all ow for great tonal variations thuis allowing great diversity, I can play anthing i want on this MJ including jazz, blues, classic rock, even metal. Overall this MJ Standard CLEARLY stands out as the best electric solid body guitar I have ever played. Amazingly flexible. superb crisp clean high, creamy mids and tight deep bass. sustain up the wazoo. In a nutshell this guitar cruises. Its extremely easy to play and the balance is perfect. guitar weighs maybe 6.5-7#, feels like a feather. Neck is awesome, alot like an LP with speed I find on strats...perfection again. 1-10...sound is a 15

AWESOME< AWESOME< AWESOME to these 3 categories...perfection. You can see in an instant 1 man made this guitar and that man knows EXACTLY what he is doing. The innovations of this guitar ARE NOT hype folks...Mark johnson (MJ) is in my opinion making the finest guitars on the planet. The quality i amazing, especially when you consider the intense amount of work. The body shape/contours flow perfectly and the hand sculpting/carving of the top must be an amzing amount of work..a true work of art. One thing about MJ's I found out is they are MUCH, MUCH classier and beautiful in person than pictures. The headstock absolutely gits this guitar perfectly and I am a "old school" guitarist for looks. I was blown away by the look, fit and finish of this guitar whenI opened the case. To all of you seeking an axe, do yourself a favor and dont get stuck on the PRS, Fender, Gibson, etcc...thing. If you REALLY are a player, give yourself a treat..get an MJ..like no kidding. Again 1-10..this category is a 15 there is no finer crafted guitar anywhere...period.

Built like a tank altho light, extremely good woods selection ( I know woods very well as I was a skilled cabinmaker). I am certain this guitar will become an heirloom. All parts are top end...absolutely nothing I would improve or want to modify.

The best...I feel like family and THATS the best you can get. Dierdre and Ethan (Mark's EXTREMELY wonderful, intelligent informative youg'ns) made me feel right at home...no pressure, no hype. What I like was that they are very humble folks. So...I guess the best compliment I could make if shortly after I took possession of my MJ Mirage Standard, I ordered a MJ Mirage Custom, THATS how impressed I am. Do yourself a SERIOUSLY good favor and contact the good folks at MJ Guitar Engineering (and no Idont work for them). Best darn guitar and value on the planet. Plus you get the coolest looking axe..1-10 its a sure 15

Bla...bla...bla... I cant stop raving...GET ONE !!!!! I'll finish by saying this guitar is EASY to play well. Its extremely informative, accurate and has the tonality, sound that will make you a better player. IT will also (and very important to me) bring out your creativity due to its flexibility and design. I find myself discovering new sounds, bends,chording, etcc.. this guitar just "allows" it to happen. Its like its saying to you " Go ahead man...do it, I can make it happen!". To me this is the mark of a true instrument. There is no higher compliment I can say. This guitar does EVERYTHING with perfection. It is crisp/fierce when you want that...butter smooth and creamy when you want that and extracts every iota of nuance. chords come thus cleanly and minor fretting shines thru in complex stuff.....WOW !!