Totally unanticipated double NGD...

[Larry Mal]

Nice Melody Maker... those are fun. I had one for a while and it was my open C tuning electric. I ended up selling it to fund a Lead 2, so I did well, but I would buy another.

Had you gotten that with the stock pickup in there, you would have almost certainly disliked it. I thought it would sound kind of like a single single coil Fender, it sounded nowhere near that good, and I don't really know what you would have to do in order to make a pickup sound so bad. But they did it.

[Larry Mal]

Edit: I think yours would have came with a singular hum bucker, though, is that right?

[Sid Nitzerglobin]

Edit: I think yours would have came with a singular hum bucker, though, is that right?

Thanks!

Yup, the impression I have is it was a pseudo limited edition kinda thing w/ a 491T from the factory. I didn't find the stock single coils to be the worst I'd ever heard on the earlier standard MM I'd had, but they definitely weren't quite as rocking to me and I would probably have swapped them eventually if I'd hung onto it.

The 491T is a pretty pleasant surprise, I believe it's the first time I've tried one and, in this guitar anyway, it seems to strike a great balance between output and dynamics. It'd be interesting to hear one in a full on LP.

[Larry Mal]

Yeah, now I remember, Gibson put up a series of Melody Makers in the typical Les Paul shape, but also in an SG shape and an Explorer shape, if I recall, in that cool blue and a white that I also liked.

Does this one have a 60's style neck on it? I tried to buy one from that lineup but never could really get the price to where I wanted it to be on one. I'd still like one, something I could actually leave on the stand with little hands grabbing at everything.

Glad you like the pickup on there!

[Sid Nitzerglobin]

The neck is a pretty good happy medium to me, it's not as beefy as the baseball bats but seems like the same kind of shape scaled down maybe 10-15%. Definitely more comfortable overall than the Gibsons I've had/tried that were described as a slim taper.

[Sid Nitzerglobin]

I did a little tinkering on the tele today.

First I sanded off (mostly..) the logo of a spare Duncan AP2T-L and dropped it into into the bridge. This is pretty much a lock for co-champion of the tele bridge sound I tend to like most and it did not disappoint in here. It still goes right up to the edge of chimey/shimmery/shivery icepick when I dig in close to the saddles w/ the controls dimed but has a bit more mids and output and it seems easier to work the dynamics than the stock pickup. I hadn't tried one w/ steel saddles and I think they pair up nicely.

For the WRHB I swapped the stock pot for an Emerson 1M and it seems to have pulled the body more into focus for me. It's still got a round warm body but it's not quite as overbearing and diffused.

I reused an Emerson PIO .047uF cap I found while I was digging around for the pickup and pot so I threw that on the bridge tone pot while I was in there too.


My luthier friend was nice enough to make a bone nut for it w/ an even spacing starting 3mm in from either side of the board, cut some starter notches in the saddles, and give it a good intonation w/ his bench strobe this evening as well. Doing some A/B/C ing of it with the Booncaster and AV52, it doesn't have quite the same degree of active, bouncy feel of the other 2 teles but it is also noticeably easier to play and feels pretty evenly inspiring.


I'm still undecided on the guard, the white continues to grow on me so I'll probably leave it alone for the time being.