When the MK strat came out he said he wanted to do a Made in Mexico version but obviously that never happened.
Because compromises! All of Mark's signature guitars have no compromises. It has to be a proper, professional-grade, USA-made Strat, just like the ones Mark plays himself. Once it's Mexican-made, it's not a real thing because it's not what he's playing. And when you try to upgrade it with better woods and hardware, suddenly it's priced like a USA-made guitar anyway. So I think it's the problem of "The perfect is the enemy of the good". It's like saying you're a perfectionist without saying you're a perfectionist.
I would need to dig out old magazines to see what he said, but my memory (from 20 years ago, admittedly) was that his comments were made after he had played Mexican strats at the 2002 shows and he was impressed by their quality. He also said he would like to see different colour versions of the MK strat.
Well, Mark said a lot of things, and as far as I'm concerned, talk is not equal to do. He said he wanted to record more music with Chet Atkins, but simply can't find time for it, 10 years prior to Chet's death. He said he loves playing in small pubs while touring in big ass stadiums. He said he loves cheap guitars before playing one of his songs on yet another custom-built, one-of-the-kind guitar. But I can easily imagine a Mexican signature and multiple-coloured MK Strat.
