Melody Maker upgrades..what did you do?

[Wattage]

Well what did you all do to yours so far?

I put on a set of Grovers, cleaned up the nut and a few rough fret edges, sanded the board smooth (400/600/0000), put on gold knobs and dropped in a Hot Rails. What a difference - a very cool little guitar is now a Rock n Roll killing machine.

I think I am going to score another guard somewhere and wire up the original pup so I can swap in it and out when I want. It did take a little effort to get the Hot Rails in. I had to open up the guard a bit to fit the shoulders of the HR and I had to notch the body to fit the the lead wire coming out of the pup, a bit of a pain but no biggie I used a Dremel and was done pretty quickly.

Note to SD, make a replacement pup line for the MM's with the lead wire coming out the bottom Matter of fact make a whole prewired pickguard assembly that just drops in and sell it with a quick disconnect for the ground. I'd have a few guards with different pups for mine in no time.

[The Golden Boy]

I have an old Epiphone Olympic. Figure it as Epiphone's Melody Maker.

While the new Melody Makers have a P-90, the Epi (and the old Gibsons) had the MM pickup- bigger than the average Strat SC... For a long time I used a SD JB Jr and then a Fralin SP 42....

[EveryMn]

While the new Melody Makers have a P-90,

No they don't.

[Empty Pockets]

i'd like to hear this guitar. wanna trade it for my SG for a couple weeks..?

[kmcguitars]

How much of a hassle would it be to put a Firebird PuP in it? (I know it's a different beast) But I had a Hotrails in my 67' MM and it sounded a Lil' dark for my taste. I cut a new pickguard for it and put a SM-1 in WHOA YEAH ! The body on the 67' MM was factory routed for P-90's or mini's.

[Wattage]

You'd have to cut the body up a bit. The rout in the body is just wide enough for a single coil and I say "just" by like a hair. In fact I cleaned the edges a bit all around and opened up the one end to fit the larger round tab of the Hot Rails.

[The Golden Boy]

No they don't.

The MMs they were making with the "Santa Maria" bodies have/had a P-90 in them.

http://www.gibson.com/Files/USA_PDFs...rdatasheet.pdf

[EveryMn]

The MMs they were making with the "Santa Maria" bodies have/had a P-90 in them.

http://www.gibson.com/Files/USA_PDFs...rdatasheet.pdf

Those ones have been out-of-production for at least a year, possibly more, now.

[The Golden Boy]

Those ones have been out-of-production for at least a year, possibly more, now.

I had no idea there was a new-er MM in the style of the old ones.

[Hecubus]

I used to hate Melody Makers. When I was fifteen, a buddy gave me a pretty beat up Melody Maker (his Dad split and left it in the basement). The thing looked like a toy. At a time when Ibanez and Jackson were selling circles around Fender and Gibson, it was not for me. I politely gave it back to him as I knew I would get laughed off stage with that thing.

Fast forward fifteen years and after playing one of the P-90 models at Guitar Center I have added yet another blunder to my list of regrets. If I ever see that dude again I will let him know that I am ready to do him a favor and take that "POS" off his hands!

The funny thing is that I now get funny looks playing my Charvel in front of people.

[EveryMn]

I had no idea there was a new-er MM in the style of the old ones.

Yep. Been on the market for about 10-12 months now.

[Rich_S]

Oh, you know... the full treatment: Leo Quann Bada$$ bridge, Dimarzio Dual Sound, Gibson humbucker at the neck, Schallers.



Of course this was in 1980.

[ErikH]

The MMs they were making with the "Santa Maria" bodies have/had a P-90 in them.

http://www.gibson.com/Files/USA_PDFs...rdatasheet.pdf

Those ones have been out-of-production for at least a year, possibly more, now.

I had no idea there was a new-er MM in the style of the old ones.

Yep. Been on the market for about 10-12 months now.

EveryMn, sorry, you are so off. These new Melody Makers just came out THIS YEAR! They were introduced at the Winter NAMM show in January. The P90 MM's (official name, Les Paul Melody Maker) were discontinued shortly after that. So, it's more like 5-6 months now in both cases. Dunno where you got 10-12 months from.

[EveryMn]

EveryMn, sorry, you are so off. These new Melody Makers just came out THIS YEAR! They were introduced at the Winter NAMM show in January. The P90 MM's (official name, Les Paul Melody Maker) were discontinued shortly after that. So, it's more like 5-6 months now in both cases. Dunno where you got 10-12 months from.

I had been awake for roughly 22 hours when I wrote that- please excuse my failing memory.

It's still old news, though.

[JeffB]

hmmm...

a regular single coil fits, eh?

hmm....

ccol rails?

lil 59?

Super Distortion Single?

hmm.....

[JeffB]

..what did you think of that guitar rich?

[Wattage]

hmmm...

a regular single coil fits, eh?

hmm....

ccol rails?

lil 59?

Super Distortion Single?

hmm.....

With a little arm wrestling but not much. Yeah I am thinking I'll own an extra guard real soon and make a quick disconnect for the ground and own a few pups. I still plan on scoring another at some point, more for my son since he loves this one as much as I do.

I'll tell you the Hot Rails was made for this guitar, first time I ever owned one and it just smokes!

[Rich_S]

..what did you think of that guitar rich?

It was a great axe. A bit neck-heavy, but it sounded great. It had a huge mahogany neck on it. In some ways, I liked it better than the Les Pauls I also had at that time.

[Wattage]

Added a clip into the first post.

MM with the Hot Rails into the Windsor. Crappy room mic into a laptop but not too bad sounding.