1959 Gibson Melody Maker (Modded) Electric Guitar

This guitar is so good that it kind-of hurts. It's been owned by Mr. Val McCallum for a long time but he brought it by to consign recently and as soon as it was done, a local buddy of mine snapped it up right away. He's since done a bunch of guitar shuffling and it's now back here a year later (2023).

If this didn't have the Les Paul shape (I'm allergic to the tight waist on these), I would have bought this myself. I mean... it was one of those "love at first strum" things. It's lightweight, sounds great, has the classic "perfect" Gibson neck profile, oodles of sustain, great pickups... it's all there.

When Val initially got it, it already had some Schallers installed at the headstock. He later had a compensated bridge fit and two '73 Les Paul Deluxe mini-humbuckers wired-in. The job was good and the guitar played fine as-is, but I spruced it up a bit -- cleaning-up a little funk around the bridge rout, leveling/dressing the frets, and re-installing some period (same as original to this) tuners. I also put a MojoAxe compensated aluminum bridge on it. Once it was dialed-in, the magic was evident.

So -- it's not an "original" guitar, but it's far better than an original Melody Maker with its single, lap steel-sounding, single coil bridge pickup. What's really cool about this one is that the finish started as a pretty severe sunburst (see this other '60 MM for reference) but must have been exposed to scads of UV as the top finish has aged to this warm, mellow, slightly-bursted brown. If you look at the "angled" photo of the body you can just see the outline of the original yellow part of the sunburst in its odd, teardrop shape. When you've got the guitar outside it's a lot more evident, though.

The serial number places this at 1959 or possibly 1960, but in any case it's the much-cooler, single-cutaway version of the guitar. Whoever converted it to the Paul format kept the original wiring harness (with its slightly-annoying linear-spec volume pot) and then just routed and added a jack to the side while putting a 3-way switch where the jack used to be. It's a tidy setup! There was a whammy on it at one point, too, but it's long-since removed.

Repairs included: a fret level/dress, minor wiring work, replacement compensated bridge, cleaning, setup, adjustments.

Weight: 5 lbs 14 oz

Scale length: 24 5/8"

Nut width: 1 11/16"

Neck shape: medium C

Board radius: 10"

Body width: 13"

Body depth: 1 1/4"

Body wood: mahogany

Bridge: MojoAxe wraparound compensated (for 3-plain, 3-wound)

Fretboard: rosewood

Neck wood: mahogany

Pickups: 2x 1973 LP Deluxe mini-humbuckers

Action height at 12th fret: 1/16” overall (fast, spot-on)
String gauges: 46w-10

Truss rod: adjustable

Neck relief: straight

Fret style: wider/lower

Condition notes: despite its age, it's in really good structural shape and has no cracks or breaks in the body or neck. The finish has clearly aged a lot under heavy UV but it's a classy, relaxed look. There's weather-checking/crackle to the finish throughout with small nicks and dings and scratches mostly on the edges of the body as you'd expect. Clearly, it's been modified: the top has been routed for the two mini-humbuckers, the wiring has been altered, it has a replacement bridge, an alternate jack location and jack plate installed, and replacement tuners.

It comes with: a good hard case.