Melody Maker, light mod..

C

Captain Tightpants

New member
Bought a new Melody Maker on sale at MF in late May. Bought it with the intent of modding, but the pickup I expected to hate turned out to be pretty cool. However, it was intended for modding, so...

Decided to pop the old mini humbucker I just took out of my Deluxe in the bridge. Pretty cool, very different from he rest of my Gibby's. Sounds great on Who and Neil Young stuff, does an excellent job on Malcolm Young heavy riffing, too. Only problem is it is pretty micro-phonic under heavy gain, which is odd because that was never a problem in the Deluxe.

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Re: Melody Maker, light mod..

The stock single coil is REALLY bright, sometimes to the point of being shrill. I almost never set the tone above 7. Howevr, lots of usable tones from 3 to 7, and it really responded well to volume changes. Also, wound to about 4.5k it's a pretty loud pickup, surprisingly. It handled moderate gain OK but got strangley brighter under heavier gain.

I was actually afraid to spoil some of thsoe qualities, but it turns out the old '77 mini-humbucker really just expanded the usable range. It's still very bright with the tone at 10, but it's not nearly as piercing. It is a lot brighter in this guitar then it ever was in the neck position of the Les Paul. The ''bright trebles'' have an articulate warmth to them, it's nice.

Handles the heavier gain MUCH better than the single coil, although it's pretty micro-phonic. Sounds wicked on "Keep on Rockin' in the Free World", tho!!!

It does really great on loud and clean Malcolm Young rhythm tracks, and I like doing the Angus parts with some dirt on it, too.

Obviously the hum-cancelling is a big plus over the single coil, too. Te single coil isn't bad by any means, but it ain't a Tele pickup either.
 
Re: Melody Maker, light mod..

Captain Tightpants said:
The stock single coil is REALLY bright, sometimes to the point of being shrill. I almost never set the tone above 7. Howevr, lots of usable tones from 3 to 7, and it really responded well to volume changes. Also, wound to about 4.5k it's a pretty loud pickup, surprisingly. It handled moderate gain OK but got strangley brighter under heavier gain.

I was actually afraid to spoil some of thsoe qualities, but it turns out the old '77 mini-humbucker really just expanded the usable range. It's still very bright with the tone at 10, but it's not nearly as piercing. It is a lot brighter in this guitar then it ever was in the neck position of the Les Paul. The ''bright trebles'' have an articulate warmth to them, it's nice.

Handles the heavier gain MUCH better than the single coil, although it's pretty micro-phonic. Sounds wicked on "Keep on Rockin' in the Free World", tho!!!

It does really great on loud and clean Malcolm Young rhythm tracks, and I like doing the Angus parts with some dirt on it, too.

Obviously the hum-cancelling is a big plus over the single coil, too. Te single coil isn't bad by any means, but it ain't a Tele pickup either.
Click to expand...


for microphonic pickups with covers, i've tried this trick with success. take the cover off, put a piece of electric tape over the slug coil to cover up the metal, make sure everything on the pickup is tightened sufficiently, then replace the cover.
 
Re: Melody Maker, light mod..

Thanks for the tip, only problem is vintage Gibson mini-humbuckers have a way of falling apart when you take the cover off. They aren't constructed the same as full size humbuckers, no screws etc.to tighten. I may wax-pot it at a later date, but I'll just see if I can deal with it for the time being. If ole' Neil Young can put up with it, so can I :laugh2:
 
Re: Melody Maker, light mod..

Great job! Oddly enough the other day I was looking at those Melody Makers and thinking about getting one to throw in my Firebird minis. Your Deluxe mini looks great in there and I bet it rocks! Keep on rocking in the free world...
 
Re: Melody Maker, light mod..

:eek2: i LOVE it! i may steal this idea. i had ridiculous amounts of melody maker GAS a while ago, but knew that singlecoil wasn't going to cut it for me. this is really really cool... congrats on that badass guitar! and the best color for them, too!
 
Re: Melody Maker, light mod..

Thanks, Jay. In the interest of full disclosure, I'll just say every negative thing you hear about the finishes on these things is pretty much true. Parts of the top felt like barn-board they were so rough, and the finish barely qualifies. The neck wasn't quite that rough, but I still took a little 600 grit to it, that smoothed it up considerably. This finish ain't gonna last tho. I knew that getting into this, tho, so it wasn't a problem.

But it plays in tune, intonation is as good as any guitar with a stop-tail bridge, and it's relatively buzz-free with an astonishingly low action after a good fret polishing. Even with the stock pickup, there were some pretty usable tones, provided you kept the tone control under 7!!! WAY brighter than any Strat any higher than that:shock::laugh2: The mini is MUCH better, tho.

I may down the road strip it down for a refin, but for now I'm just gonna play it.
 
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