Road-warrior guitarists with years of gigs under their belt who later design guitars have an advantage over builders without that experience. Knowing what works in the real world of tone-sucking stages and mishaps is where the rubber meets the road.

After sharing stages with guys like Paul Gilbert, Steve Vai, and Mike Keneally, to name afew, Greg Mara has taken his studio and stage experiences to the workshop and designed a line of guitars that are comfortable, easy to play, provide killer tones, and look super cool. His Standard and Premium models offer a variety of woods, custom necks, and pickups.

Mara’s Tenoroc has a mahogany body and a sandblasted two-tone finish. Sporting a smooth C-profile maple neck, rosewood 22-fret board, 25.5″ scale, and 12″ radius, the Tenoroc is eye-catching. Other touches include 2.4mm nickel frets, three active Fishman Fluence Greg Koch Gristle-Tone Signature P90 pickups, five-way blade selector, three-position voicing switch, and a lithium-ion battery. Plugging into a 40-watt/EL34 combo set clean produced loads of fierce definition, clarity, and punch in every pickup position. It’s a lively, open-sounding axe, and when pushed through a good OD pedal, it produced neck-position girth and Joe Perry-style swagger. And while the five-way selector and voicing switches don’t produce dramatic tonal shifts in a live setting, their combinations shine during recording.

The Tenoroc is a vessel for a guitarist’s rockin’ artistry. It adds flavor to time-worn licks. Though this effects-loving axe could easily handle a country gig, it’s really a rock-and-roll machine with attitude and a neck shape that offers comfort and licks galore. The Tenoroc cuts, but warms up nicely as an expressive blues tool.

Offering craftsmanship, playability, hip sounds, and striking looks, the Tenoroc is a tonal beast.

This article originally appeared in VG’s May 2023 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.