Gibson Melody Maker First Look

  • Thread starter Thread starter Zaphod B
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Zaphod B

Zaphod B

Raccoons-Be-Gone, Inc.
...and a brief look it was. I just had enough time to unpack the thing, tune it, look it over, and plink for a few minutes before leaving for the evening.

It seems well put together. The neck (set neck) and body are mahogany; the fingerboard is rosewood. The headstock is narrow with a straight profile, and the tuners operate smoothly. The one-piece bridge-stopbar is adustable for height only - no intonation adjustment is possible. The frets seem to be finished pretty well, and I haven't detected any sharp edges yet. The neck appears true and has an appropriate amount of bow.

All the electronics, including the jack, are mounted to the pickguard. This way they only have to do a single top rout on the body.

The body is like a LP Special: solid mahogany and flat-topped, but a bit thinner (maybe 1/4" to 1/2" ?) than the LP Special. I'll take measurements when I get time. The upper fret access is much easier than an LP because of the reduced thickness of the body-neck joint. The body appears to be cut to the same profile as a LP, but I'll have to do a side-by-side comparison with the Special to see. As you can imagine, it's considerably lighter than an LP.

The finish appears to be the same as that used on the "Faded" series of Gibsons. It is an opaque stain or paint, and no pore filler is used, even on the back of the neck. The finish is not built up to a smooth, glossy level. So you can't see the grain through the finish but you can see it three-dimensionally. Regardless, the neck feels quick even though it actually feels like a piece of wood. The "Gibson" logo on the headstock is either paint or decal, but it's not inlaid. There is no other logo on the headstock. It's apparent that the finish is where Gibson saved a bunch of money on the production of the guitar, but it's not bad-looking.

The action as delivered is a bit high for my liking and I haven't had time to set it up. It is strung with a 10 - 46 string gauge which is what I'll keep. It frets cleanly (so far) and the intonation is actually pretty damned good considering that the one-piece bridge/tailpiece has no compensation.

I haven't had time to plug it into the Vox but I'll do that tonight and give a sound report. I'll get some pics uploaded in a couple of days.

So the initial assessment is that it's not a piece of crap. It may turn out to be a nice little piece.
 
Zaphod B said:
...and a brief look it was. I just had enough time to unpack the thing, tune it, look it over, and plink for a few minutes before leaving for the evening.

It seems well put together. The neck (set neck) and body are mahogany; the fingerboard is rosewood. The headstock is narrow with a straight profile, and the tuners operate smoothly. The one-piece bridge-stopbar is adustable for height only - no intonation adjustment is possible. The frets seem to be finished pretty well, and I haven't detected any sharp edges yet. The neck appears true and has an appropriate amount of bow.

All the electronics, including the jack, are mounted to the pickguard. This way they only have to do a single top rout on the body.

The body is like a LP Special: solid mahogany and flat-topped, but a bit thinner (maybe 1/4" to 1/2" ?) than the LP Special. I'll take measurements when I get time. The upper fret access is much easier than an LP because of the reduced thickness of the body-neck joint. The body appears to be cut to the same profile as a LP, but I'll have to do a side-by-side comparison with the Special to see. As you can imagine, it's considerably lighter than an LP.

The finish appears to be the same as that used on the "Faded" series of Gibsons. It is an opaque stain or paint, and no pore filler is used, even on the back of the neck. The finish is not built up to a smooth, glossy level. So you can't see the grain through the finish but you can see it three-dimensionally. Regardless, the neck feels quick even though it actually feels like a piece of wood. The "Gibson" logo on the headstock is either paint or decal, but it's not inlaid. There is no other logo on the headstock. It's apparent that the finish is where Gibson saved a bunch of money on the production of the guitar, but it's not bad-looking.

The action as delivered is a bit high for my liking and I haven't had time to set it up. It is strung with a 10 - 46 string gauge which is what I'll keep. It frets cleanly (so far) and the intonation is actually pretty damned good considering that the one-piece bridge/tailpiece has no compensation.

I haven't had time to plug it into the Vox but I'll do that tonight and give a sound report. I'll get some pics uploaded in a couple of days.

So the initial assessment is that it's not a piece of crap. It may turn out to be a nice little piece.
Click to expand...


Sounds pretty good so far Zaphod. Post some pics if ya can! :) Let us know how she sounds!
 
Will do, Gorty.

BTW, this is a dual-pickup model. The pickups are single-coils, but not P-90s.
 
I'd like to give you some Rep but I can't figure out how. This is the kind of post I'd like to see more of.
 
Zaphod B said:
Will do, Gorty.

BTW, this is a dual-pickup model. The pickups are single-coils, but not P-90s.
Click to expand...
hmm--- i wonder if the single pickup model is routed the same way. if so, i might pick that up and just drop a pu-loaded pick guard in, and save the $50 up front.
 
kojdogg said:
hmm--- i wonder if the single pickup model is routed the same way. if so, i might pick that up and just drop a pu-loaded pick guard in, and save the $50 up front.
Click to expand...
That's an interesting question. If it is, it would be a no-brainer to drill another hole in the pickguard for the pickup selector switch.
 
Milnoque said:
I'd like to give you some Rep but I can't figure out how. This is the kind of post I'd like to see more of.
Click to expand...
Oh, I'll always tell someone how to give me rep, especially if it's positive. :D

If you'll look at the post that you want to give rep to - say, my first post in this thread - look at the upper right-hand corner of the post, at the dark blue bar. You'll see the post number (#1), a set of scales, and an attention triangle. Click on the scales and you'll get a popup to give positive or negative rep, and space for a comment. Be sure to leave your name so people can send good rep back at ya. :)
 
If you get adventurous enough to unscrew the pickguard, could you please take a picture and post it? I would love to see how much routing has been done under that pickguard.
My Gibson the Paul has a decal on the headstock as well but no pickguard was ever mounted on it-there is just a back rout for the controls-pots & switch and the pickup routs.
 
Anfontan said:
If you get adventurous enough to unscrew the pickguard, could you please take a picture and post it? I would love to see how much routing has been done under that pickguard.
My Gibson the Paul has a decal on the headstock as well but no pickguard was ever mounted on it-there is just a back rout for the controls-pots & switch and the pickup routs.
Click to expand...
Anfontan, I'll do that at some point and put up pictures.
 
More info!

I took some measurements tonight and compared the dimensions of the Melody Maker against my '72 LP Special.

Melody Maker body thickness is 1-5/16" throughout.
LP Special body thickness is 1-5/8" at the neck, increasing to 1-3/4" at the bottom.

The body shape of the two guitars is identical. (At least as near as I can tell by holding one over the other and eyeballing.)

The neck join on both guitars is at the 16th fret. Since the scale length is the same, the distance from the bottom of the body to the nut is the same.

The Melody Maker has a smaller headstock overall. The length from the fretboard side of the nut to the top of the headstock is 7". On the LP Special that measurement is 7-1/4". The width of the MM headstock is 2-1/4" throughout. The LP Special has the standard LP flared headstock which is considerably wider.

The nut is probably some kind of polymer.

So what you end up with physically is a skinnier and lighter version of the LP Special with a small headstock.

Now to the good stuff - the sound.

This puppy rocks!


The single-coils are hot. I mean, really hot. The sound is hard to describe. Imagine a set-neck, mahogany Telecaster with a snarl. Kind of.

When the pickup selector is in the middle position and you play choppy rhythm chords, you get a very Tele-like honk, but the guitar has the sustain you'd expect from a LP and the bass strings have much more definition than my Tele.

With the neck pickup only selected, the guitar sounds nothing like a Strat or Tele neck pickup sound...it's obviously a single coil, but with a bunch more depth and sustain. Not muddy, though.

With the bridge pickup only selected, the sound is very bright...with the amp set clean this sound is a bit too bright, but with some preamp gain cranked in it sounds very good.

This guitar is a real sleeper. I'm liking it. I think I'll get one of each color. :D
 
Oh, and another comment about playability:

I lowered the action to where it's comfortable to me, and the guitar still frets cleanly and has nice action. The crude finish is actually quite fast on the neck.

Also, this guitar is more responsive to pinch harmonics than any other that I've played. :)
 
Zaphod B said:
The single-coils are hot. I mean, really hot. The sound is hard to describe. Imagine a set-neck, mahogany Telecaster with a snarl. Kind of.

When the pickup selector is in the middle position and you play choppy rhythm chords, you get a very Tele-like honk, but the guitar has the sustain you'd expect from a LP and the bass strings have much more definition than my Tele.

With the neck pickup only selected, the guitar sounds nothing like a Strat or Tele neck pickup sound...it's obviously a single coil, but with a bunch more depth and sustain. Not muddy, though.

With the bridge pickup only selected, the sound is very bright...with the amp set clean this sound is a bit too bright, but with some preamp gain cranked in it sounds very good.

This guitar is a real sleeper. I'm liking it. I think I'll get one of each color. :D
Click to expand...


Nice work, good score Zaphod! :)
 
Zaphod B said:
I took some measurements tonight and compared the dimensions of the Melody Maker against my '72 LP Special.

Melody Maker body thickness is 1-5/16" throughout.
LP Special body thickness is 1-5/8" at the neck, increasing to 1-3/4" at the bottom.

The body shape of the two guitars is identical. (At least as near as I can tell by holding one over the other and eyeballing.)

The neck join on both guitars is at the 16th fret. Since the scale length is the same, the distance from the bottom of the body to the nut is the same.

The Melody Maker has a smaller headstock overall. The length from the fretboard side of the nut to the top of the headstock is 7". On the LP Special that measurement is 7-1/4". The width of the MM headstock is 2-1/4" throughout. The LP Special has the standard LP flared headstock which is considerably wider.

The nut is probably some kind of polymer.

So what you end up with physically is a skinnier and lighter version of the LP Special with a small headstock.

Now to the good stuff - the sound.

This puppy rocks!


The single-coils are hot. I mean, really hot. The sound is hard to describe. Imagine a set-neck, mahogany Telecaster with a snarl. Kind of.

When the pickup selector is in the middle position and you play choppy rhythm chords, you get a very Tele-like honk, but the guitar has the sustain you'd expect from a LP and the bass strings have much more definition than my Tele.

With the neck pickup only selected, the guitar sounds nothing like a Strat or Tele neck pickup sound...it's obviously a single coil, but with a bunch more depth and sustain. Not muddy, though.

With the bridge pickup only selected, the sound is very bright...with the amp set clean this sound is a bit too bright, but with some preamp gain cranked in it sounds very good.

This guitar is a real sleeper. I'm liking it. I think I'll get one of each color. :D
Click to expand...

Sounds like a primo score there Mr. Z!!!
 
Thanks, Gorty and Anfontan.

For $399, I think there should be one of these things in every kitchen. :D
 
i have been waiting to read a true review on one of these, i have been going back and forth whether to order one or not, after all of this i think you made my mind up for me.
 
I've had several Melody Makers and have played them for over Thirty years. Great guitars. I've had one Melody Maker for at least 25 years and it's loaded with a SD HotTele Pickup.... just excellent.
 
Pictures!!

Here's a full shot. Daylight was fading but I think the color is fairly true.
 

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