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.
Duffy Bolduc
South Williamsport, Pa.
"Now all the things that use to mean so much to me has got me old before my time." G. Allman, "Old Before My Time", Hittin' the Note.
Major changes to guitars and amps, to be updated soon.
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