Michael Kelly Patriot Decree?

[Mac Morganfield]

I'm on the lookout for a guitar to keep at work for practice at lunchtimes. I suppose i'm looking for something a little bit different, not really from one of the big names and my search brought up this particular model from Micheal kelly. I saw the 'Black vapour' version and fell in love! Stunning i think.

So, it's pretty much affordable, attractive, seems to have favourable reviews but i'd quite like to hear of any personal experiences and wonder why, on this 'lower end' model it has two tone and two volume with coil splits whereas some of the more expensive Patriots have one volume and one tone with coil splits?

Any views/experiences would be gratefully recived, Ta!

[Duffy]

I've got a MK Patriot Custom and it is a very cool guitar.

I would not scoff at the Decree. I like the four controls. You probably will like it perfectly well for an office guitar. These MK guitars are some of the guitars that you seem to get more value than the price you pay.

In the future you can always hot rod it with some new pickups and possibly electronics. Put in some Seymour Duncan pickups like some Dimebag rails or a JB/59 set or alnico II pros. But in the meantime it should be totally good for what you want.

What amp are you playing it into?

I wouldn't be surprised if you like it so much that you decide to take it home instead of leaving it at work.

Why does it have two volumes and two tones? Probably because they were trying to make a real good guitar at a real attractive price point. Havig two volumes and two tones I find to be a great control set up. You can set the volume and tone for both pickups differently and access them instantly just by engaging the switch. Also a neat feature of this two plus two set up is that you can turn one of them all the way down, usually, and the other one up to whatever volume you want and then hit a note or chord and rock the switch back and forth and it works as a kill switch, because one of the volumes is turned all the way down - this lets you get some great sounding stuccato or machine gun type silent cuts into your sustained note or chord. You can use the stuccato a lot of interesting ways. Most people probably don't do it but it is an interesting option that sounds cool to some players. Having a guitar with the two plus two control set up is definitely worth having and experimenting with. I like them myself and the Epi Tribute I'm playing right now has the two plus two set up with series/parallel coil tapping. Depending on the amp and your interests the coil tapped sounds can definitely become really useful to get some great tones, especially out of a real sensitive amp and at higher volumes and gain levels.

I like the two volumes and two tones because I like to adjust my volumes and tones alot while I'm playing. It is a skill all its own, often neglected. I rarely just set the volume and tone and forget it anymore. Adjusting them as you go can really add some dynamics to your playing and produce some great tones. Actually it is a nice feature that some of the higher level models don't have, making it a very decent guitar in its own right and definitely a platform for some very quality hot rodding.

[Mac Morganfield]

Cheers Duffy, thanks for your input. I may have phrased the question wrong, what i meant was, i like the four control set up, i find you have more control and most of my guitars have had 4 controls (my Gibby SG Standard for instance). What i meant was, if 4 controls give you more control, why have they not given the 'upper end' models four controls? Two controls seem to be a bit of a compromise and if they can fit four on the lower end models, why not the upper end. I have been looking at some of the other manufacturers who seem to have three controls (two volumes and a 'blend' pot) but could'nt understand the Michael Kelly reasoning, have i missed something?

I'm considering getting a Blackheart Handsome Devil for work and have a Vox AC4TV10 at home. I have the space to crank the Blackheart at work and secure storage when it's not in use.

Thanks again buddy, very much appreciated!

[Duffy]

I think they did it to make an affordable guitar more attractive. You could email them and ask. The three knob set up is quick and easy I guess, you don't have to look down to sort out what's what on the run.

The Decree is nice though, and with a pickup upgrade would probably be remarkable.

I have a Blackheart Little Giant head into a 4 X 12 and it is a decent amp. I really, however, find my Fender Super Champ XD to be awesome - twin 6L6 tubes and 16 great voices including a few essential but decent effects like reverb, delay, vibrato, and chorus and some combinations; at 15 tube power amp watts. It's not a line six or vox chromie type thing. What I'm really finding cool but not cheap is the Blackstar Club 40 that has twin EL34's for about 700US.

Just a design decision on the three knobs on the higher end models I guess. Fender does the three knobs a lot but has the occaisional four knob 2 + 2 configuration. It probably has a lot to do with marketing and the target demographic.

I really like my MK and the cherry burst flame is really beautiful. I got it to replace a Gibson faded SG that was stolen from me and I like the MK Custom better actually. The SG had a lot of sentimental value though, because even though I had it for less than a year, it spent its first days in a hospital bed with me for nine days and, along with the Vox AmpPlug "lead" headphone amp provided me with some post surgical relief while I was on, unfortunately, near non existant pain meds because the morphine pump was driving my blood pressure too low for safety. I was hurting and the SG helped out some. The sting of having it stolen is still with me. I also had a Fender Hwy 1 fat strat stolen in the same incident. I could use that strat right now for a project I'm planning. Insurance covered the guitars, but it was unpleasantly compounded by the fact I had to give my x wife that I was then separated from 600US because her name was listed first on the homeowners insurance policy, and she had to rip me off for some significant money or I wasn't going to get the check - it got sent to her with both our names on it. I'm divorced very profitably now and she is appropriately in my personal history. My new woman, by the way, is very supportive of my musical purchases and encourages me to get way higher quality stuff, which is more satisfying and has lead to fewer but more thought out purchases.

I think the Decree is a good guitar, without doubt - plus you seem to find it strikingly appealing, including the features.