MJ Engineering MIRAGE 1996. Ultra Rare. Mark Johnson from Alembic.

MJ GUITAR ENGINEERING — MIRAGE CUSTOM | 1996 | "HAWAIIAN BURST" | EARLY PRODUCTION

There are guitars you play. And there are guitars that play you — instruments so well-conceived and so beautifully executed that the moment they're in your hands, something shifts. This 1996 MJ Mirage Custom is that second kind of guitar.

ABOUT THE BUILDER

Mark Johnson began his career in the mid-1970s working for Alembic — one of the great crucibles of American guitar innovation — where he spent years mastering the craft at the highest possible level. In 1993, Johnson stepped out on his own and built the first Mirage prototype, with a singular goal: to create a guitar that was completely unique from the headstock down to the contours of its body. The company he now runs with his son Ethan, MJ Guitar Engineering, is perhaps best known for the Mirage series — a line of handmade instruments boasting dramatic top carves and a unique reinforced split headstock design. Collective Soul's Joel Kosche is among the high-profile professionals who play Mirage series guitars.

This is not a factory guitar with a boutique price tag. The level of workmanship is exceptionally high — the glassy finish is flawlessly applied to complex curves, and the detail work is surgically clean throughout. Every Mirage is built by hand, in America, by a luthier with fifty years of experience and a singular vision.

THIS GUITAR

The 1996 Mirage Custom you're looking at is an early production example — built just three years after the original prototype, when Johnson was still located in California and refining the design with the obsessive attention of a craftsman at the peak of his creative powers. Early California-built Mirages are particularly prized by collectors — they represent the model at its most elemental, before it expanded into multiple variants.

The Hawaiian Burst finish on this particular instrument is, quite simply, extraordinary. The AA figured maple top is fully matched and exhibits a depth of color and grain that photographs cannot adequately capture — the kind of finish that stops people mid-conversation when the case opens. The Birdseye maple neck is a visual match for the top, and the ebony fretboard adds both tonal authority and visual contrast that completes the package.

The electronics are no afterthought: dual EMG humbuckers — an 85 at the neck, an 82 at the bridge — wired to push-pull controls for coil-splitting versatility. This is a professional-grade electronics package that most boutique guitars charge extra to specify. The semi-hollow mahogany body with its internal tone chambers delivers resonance and sustain that a solid body simply cannot match at this level.

SPECIFICATIONS

Body: Double-cutaway mahogany with AA figured maple top — semi-hollow with internal tone chambers

Finish: Hawaiian Burst

Neck: Birdseye maple with dual-action truss rod

Fretboard: Ebony

Headstock: Signature MJ split design with side-mounted tuners

Pickups: EMG 85 (neck) / EMG 82 (bridge) with push-pull coil splitting

Condition: Excellent — any incidental marks are characteristic of the natural materials used

Case: Original hardshell case, excellent condition

Year: 1996

WHY THIS, WHY NOW

Johnson nurtured the Mirage concept over more than two decades of building instruments for other manufacturers before stepping out on his own. What resulted was a guitar that operates simultaneously as a precision instrument and a sculptural artwork — the kind of piece that serious collectors and serious players pursue for entirely different reasons and are equally satisfied by.

Early MJ Mirages from the mid-1990s are increasingly difficult to find in this condition. As the Mirage's reputation continues to grow — and it will — these first-generation California-built examples will be the ones that matter most to collectors. You are not buying a guitar. You are acquiring a piece of American lutherie history from one of the most underappreciated master builders working today.

Available exclusively from the professionally curated, internationally renowned Richard Davis Collection — accompanied by Certificate of Authenticity and Title of Ownership issued by the International Musical Instrument Registry (IMIR).