New Melody Maker Day

AniML

AniML

New member
Got the last one other than the floor model from my local shop. Brand spanking new and I got to test drive it before paying only $299+tx. Contrary to reports of low-end Gibson haters, fit and finish are just fine.

Stock pup (DD 103, I think) is not bad, in fact it screams (in a good for ceramic kind of way) but long term, not my thing. This weekend the spare PGb zebra goes in and I start thinking of solutions to somehow cram in a tone control. Well, maybe on the tone control; there is something to be said for barebones simplicity

mm01.jpg
 
Re: New Melody Maker Day

The volume pot on your MM appears to be in the typical location used for the neck volume pot on the twin pickup MMs of old.

The obvious location for a Tone pot is the hole currently occupied by your jack socket. Relocating the jack socket would involve "surgery" but would be worthwhile.

How generous is the control cavity?
 
Re: New Melody Maker Day

AniML said:
not.

I'm thinking maybe to go concentric, but I don't want it to get even more in the way
Click to expand...

Sounds as if you have the same problem that I did with my PRS SE One.

On my P90-equiped mahogany slab, I only really need a Tone control to be either wide open or totally rolled off. ("Woman Tone".) I achieved this with a push-pull pot and a capacitor connected to ground as a pre-set Tone.
 
Re: New Melody Maker Day

Shouldn't be too difficult to put the jack on the side in a typical LP position using an LP jack plate, if you've got a drill bit long enough to reach the control cavity.

Use a 3/4" - 1" dia bit (IIRC) long enough for the jack to fit inside, then a 1/8 - 1/4" to go to the cavity (for the wires).

Then, as was already suggested, put the tone knob where the jack is now.
 
Re: New Melody Maker Day

I couldn't wait for the weekend to do the pickup swap. The stock pickup has a Gibson USA baseplate and is said to be a 491T, a.k.a. a HB103.

I installed the PGb zebra and was underwhelmed. It didn't have the growl I was looking for. So plan "B" was to go to my MJ wound Demon and now it roars.

BTW, whoever is curious about the control / pup cavity, there is little room to do anything. Sucks they didn't recess the volume control cavity as deep as the output jack, because there is not even room for a concentric stacked pot, and maybe not a push pull either. So it's no tone control for now.

mmcavitysm.jpg
 
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Re: New Melody Maker Day

You can convert them to a side jack...I did mine. I just used a 7/8 bit right up into the control cavity then stuck an Electro Socket in there.

If you put a side jack on it you can use the stock jack place for a tone control!
 
Re: New Melody Maker Day

the guy who invented fire said:
You can convert them to a side jack...I did mine. I just used a 7/8 bit right up into the control cavity then stuck an Electro Socket in there.

If you put a side jack on it you can use the stock jack place for a tone control!
Click to expand...

Yup. Or get a router bit that will allow you to deepen the cavities by following the existing edges, and then use stacked pots.

If it was mine, I'd probably just rout out a bigger space under the pickguard, and add another hole in the pickguard. Move the jack back and add a tone pot where the jack was. I prefer having a top jack.
 
Re: New Melody Maker Day

ItsaBass said:
A push/pull pot to do what?
Click to expand...

sorry my brain weren't working...

What i meant was use a double stacked pot??? sure you can get a variety where if you pull up you use the top pot and push down you can use the bottom pot????

cause something like that would be awesome for the job, no woodwork and 2 pots.
 
Re: New Melody Maker Day

Left_Hand_Strat said:
sorry my brain weren't working...

What i meant was use a double stacked pot??? sure you can get a variety where if you pull up you use the top pot and push down you can use the bottom pot????

cause something like that would be awesome for the job, no woodwork and 2 pots.
Click to expand...

The OP said that the cavity is not deep enough for a stacked pot.

AFAIK, there is no stacked pot that is also a push pull, and no stacked pot that allows you to switch back and forth between the two pots. Defeats the purpose of a stacked pot if you are having to switch back and forth between the two. The purpose of that stacked pot is to have independent control of volume and tone. Switching would not do that. It would bypass one pot when you switched to the other.
 
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Re: New Melody Maker Day

I'd make it a side jack and slap a square or football jack plate on the side, whichever fits best.
 
Re: New Melody Maker Day

There's enough space under that pickguard to route out more space. However I would probably just put another pot in the jack position and drill a hole for a threaded endpin jack.
 
Re: New Melody Maker Day

+1 for enlarging the control cavity.

Research photographs of vintage single and dual pickup Gibson Melody Makers. This will give you some idea of where the controls and jack socket could go on the scratchplate.

Typically, on a single PU model, the two pots and jack are arranged in a triangle. The hole for the original jack socket could be filled - either with a grommet or with a mode switch for the pickup.
 
Re: New Melody Maker Day

ItsaBass said:
The OP said that the cavity is not deep enough for a stacked pot.

AFAIK, there is no stacked pot that is also a push pull, and no stacked pot that allows you to switch back and forth between the two pots. Defeats the purpose of a stacked pot if you are having to switch back and forth between the two. The purpose of that stacked pot is to have independent control of volume and tone. Switching would not do that. It would bypass one pot when you switched to the other.
Click to expand...

I still believe that such a thing would be useful to someone somewhere in this world.

Anyway, Funk is on the money as always. he knows what he is talking about.
 
Re: New Melody Maker Day

GuitarDoc said:
Shouldn't be too difficult to put the jack on the side in a typical LP position using an LP jack plate, if you've got a drill bit long enough to reach the control cavity.

Use a 3/4" - 1" dia bit (IIRC) long enough for the jack to fit inside, then a 1/8 - 1/4" to go to the cavity (for the wires).

Then, as was already suggested, put the tone knob where the jack is now.
Click to expand...

So after a few days, I've decided it needs a tone pot. This ^^ is the solution I think I am going with, but I am not entirely comfortable drilling a 7/8" hole in a piece of wood a little more than 1" thick with a hand drill.

I suppose I could try a unibit, but Im not sure how well they work on wood. Otherwise any tips to help center the hole and keep it aligned?
 
Re: New Melody Maker Day

Drilling the hole accurately is a jig job. Ideally, it should have been performed before the wood went to the paint shop. This is why idsnowdog and I both suggested additional routing beneath the scratch plate.
 
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