“We were trying to do the perfect crossover between a Telecaster and a Les Paul. I love both”: Mikey Demus on making a Manson signature guitar that suits him down to a T

Working with the likes of Muse frontman Matt Bellamy, some of Manson’s signature builds have pushed the concept of the electric guitar further than most, but, this time, the new Mikey Demus MD-3 is somewhat more ‘everyman’.

We met the Skindred guitarist and songwriter to find out more.

How did you first discover Manson Guitar Works?

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“Well, it’s going back a bit. My drummer is from Exeter, he knew the Manson shop and knew the company and the guys, so they became kind of like my inherited family. I’d been touring with Fender stuff, which I obviously love, but I had a load of guitars go missing on a flight. Although I did get the guitars back, I retired them as some were irreplaceable.

“So I was looking for a company that could put something together that I’d be able to use onstage every night. Manson seemed the obvious choice. I was kind of surprised that someone would want to make a signature guitar with my name on it.

“I hadn’t really thought that would be something that would happen to me. I guess this was around 10 years ago. They sent me a couple of production models to play with, which were great. I just wanted to tweak a couple of things and we took it from there.”

Manson MD-3 Launch at Middle Farm Studios - YouTube

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You pretty much only use Manson guitars these days, certainly onstage anyway.

“Yes, I own loads of guitars, all different kinds of stuff, but having something that’s solid-bodied, stays in tune, sounds right and feels lightweight – that’s my main criteria. The signature or custom route is always something I’d done myself in the past.

“When I played Fenders I’d always modify them a lot as you couldn’t really get anything left-handed that rang my bell. I would always be taking something stock and making it my own – locking tuners, pickups that can handle higher gain.”

“I’m an old punk rocker at the end of the day! I’ve always loved Telecasters, Les Paul Juniors. I’ve never been into pointy metal guitars, they never quite felt like mine. So when we did the first signature guitars [the MD-1 and MD-2] it was really, ‘Lets start with the Telecaster – the Manson MA shape – and take it from there.’”

The new MD-3 is a very everyman working guitar

“Yes, I didn’t want anything that was too niche – you’re only going to play this if you play in a reggae-rock, punk-rock, heavy metal and electronic band. Well, there’s not many of them! I want people to do their own thing with the guitar – I didn’t want anything too weird.”

The earlier signatures were a little more ‘Tele’, the new one a bit more ‘Les Paul’. Why?

“I’d started a new band, King Sugar, in the time we’ve been prototyping, which I’m fronting and is still in the works. My guitar of choice for that was a Gibson and I just really got to grips with something that has a tune-o-matic bridge and full-size humbuckers.

“I thought if we ever do another signature guitar I’d love to explore that kind of thing but still retain everything about the MD-2 that I love. For me, we were trying to do the perfect crossover between a Telecaster and a Les Paul. I love both guitars and I really wanted to achieve something right down the middle.”

We understand you started with a pair of Manson Benchmark humbuckers but needed more heat at the bridge?

“I’m not sure exactly what Simon [Thorn – Manson’s in-house pickup expert] was doing, but he would send me a new version and it only took a couple of times to get it right – that’s the one! I’m not a massive fan of really high-output pickups, but then some stock pickups don’t have enough, so it’s somewhere in-between. Simon did a great job and I guess you can call them custom pickups.”

Are you a fan of the parallel humbucking sounds?

“Yes, live, I find those more useful than a coil‑split, which can feel like too much of a jump, not least with a bigger sounding humbucker. It can sound too thin and obviously be noisy, too.

“Because of the reggae thing we do, I need to be able to change to a smaller sounding guitar, almost as if you want to pick up a different guitar. But then I don’t want the sound to change too much and the parallel mode is perfect for that. I’m also the only guitar player in the band so I need to cover a lot of ground – so it’s versatile but usable, too.”

• “Not a hair out of place... A faultless, well-tuned and well-voiced working guitar”: Manson MD-3 Mikey Demus review
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.