History - Gibson Melody Maker ®
('the underrated Gibson" or the "Gibson that time forgot")
Gibson introduced the original Melody Maker guitar in 1959. One was a single cutaway model, another a 3/4 size instrument. In 1960, a double cutaway full-size version was developed and successfully marketed for 10 years. In 1970, the Melody Maker Double was discontinued. In the late 1970's, however, there was a renewed interest in the "blues", influenced by "bottle slide" guitar stylists. Since the Melody Maker Double has the strong, single coil tonal characteristics, the instrument lent itself extremely well to this music and playing style. Thus, in 1977, the Melody Maker Double was once again made available.

Gibson Melody Maker Specs

Body	Original Spec:	Custom Spec:
Design	Solid body with a double cutaway.	Solid body with a double cutaway.
Dimensions	Length: 16" • width: 13" • depth: 1-11/32"	Length: 16" • width: 13" • depth: 2-1/2"
Material	Mahogany	1 piece Brazilian Mahogany
Neck
Nut Width	1–11/16"	43mm
Scale	24–3/4"	24–3/4"
Frets	22	22
Neck Pitch	3°	3°
Head Pitch	14°	14°
Materials	3-piece laminated mahogany	1 piece Brazilian Mahogany
Fingerboard	Rosewood	Brazilian Rosewood
Inlay	"dots"	Mother of Pearl "dots"
Binding	none	none
Head	3-piece laminated mahogany with blackened peghead and Gibson logo	Mahogany with Gibson logo
Bridge
Type	Tune-O-Matic	Schaller 1 piece wrap-over
Design	Narrow Schaller	Adjustable Saddles
Materials	Die cast zinc, chrome-plated	Chrome-plated, Brass saddles
Tailpiece
Type	Adjustable stop bar	As above
Materials	Die cast zinc, chrome-plated	Die cast zinc, chrome-plated
Pickups
Number & Type	2 adjustable single coil with plastic covers	1 Gibson Dirty Fingers / JBJ Seymour Duncan Humbucker
Materials	1 Alnico V magnet per pick-up	2 Alnico V magnets
Type of load:	Magnet loaded	Magnet loaded

Melody Maker Vintage Specs

Available: 1959 to 1971 (reissues available 1977-1981)
Collectibility Rating: 1959-1965 models: D-, 1966-1971 models: D--

1959 Melody Maker (MM) specs:

slab body 1 3/8" thick, single rounded cutaway (like a Les Paul Junior but thinner), one 7/8" wide oblong pickup with black cover and no visible poles, stud wrap-around bridge/tailpiece, pickguard surrounds pickups, knobs mounted on pickguard, unbound fingerboard with dot inlays, narrow 2 1/4" wide peghead (narrower than any other Gibson model), gold decal peghead loog, sunburst finish. Short MM3/4 scale model available with 12 frets clear of body.

1960 Melody Maker specs:

Pickup narrowed to 5/8", two pickup model introduced.

1961 Melody Maker specs:

Symmetrical double cutaway with rounded horns, horns point away from neck, slightly rounded body edges.

1962 Melody Maker specs:

Maestro vibrato optional. Keeps the same wrap-around style bridge/tailpiece with the strings drapped over it and attaching to the vibrato.

1963 Melody Maker specs:

Body edges more rounded, horns point slightly farther away from neck, cherry finish.

1966 Melody Maker specs:

SG body style with pointed horns, white pickup covers, enlarged white pickguard that covers most of body, knobs mounted into top, vibrato standard, fire engine red or Pelham blue finish.

1967 Melody Maker specs:

MM-12 string version available with 2 pickups and no vibrato. Also MM-3 available with 3 pickups. Fire engine red color discontinued and replaced with sparkling burgundy finish.

1970 Melody Maker specs:

MM3/4 discontinued. Wider peghead, walnut finish available on all models but MM-12.

1971 Melody Maker specs:

All MM models discontinued and replaced by SG-100, SG-200 and SG-250 models.

Why a Gibson Melody Maker?

The first thing you read in Guitar making books is "Think of a design for the shape of your beast!" that one was easy, years ago In 1983 I saw Andy_Laurie in a Wishbone Ash concert live at the Marquee on television. He had a Gibson Melody Maker that he played for all the video, it only had one pickup, not the original single coil P90 but a black humbucker. Great sound and easy to use, no switch!

 I wanted to keep to the original spec of the guitar, which was Brazilian Mahogany, Rosewood fingerboard and Brazilian Mahogany Body, all with a nice red stain.

Wood

This was purchased from guitar wood supplies in Millers Dale just outside Buxton in Derbyshire. They have a fantastic selection and you come away totally inspired ready to start whittling away! All the woods were hand selected for straightness, grain and overall quality, the neck cost £12, fingerboard £12 and body £35. Also needed was a truss rod, square channel type for £7

Parts

The parts were from my collections of bits, the tuners were Grover taken from a Yamaha Acoustic with a broken neck (£10). The bridge was a wrap over Schaller Gibson style taken from a small scale guitar made approx. 14 years ago.

The pickups are used Kluson P90 Single Coils, these were purchased from a guitar show in Manchester,

The plans were purchased some 15 years ago as I had a purge on making guitars which most ended up being broken down for the parts. The plans were photocopied (to preserve the master copy) pasted to card and cut out for templates.

Cutting Specifications:

Neck width - Nut	43mm
Neck width - Body end	56mm
Neck width - Profile	22mm
Fingerboard depth	3mm
Head-stock thickness	15mm
Scale length	24 3/4 inch
Body thickness	52mm

Construction - Neck

The first part was to plane the surfaces ready for marking out from the plans, this will be a one piece construction with heel and angled headstock. The head-stock will be slightly bigger than the original 60s slim head, more like a Gibson Les Paul.

Once marked out the first stage of the neck is to Route out the Truss rod channel, this is a ready made box section with a rod in the middle which is pre bent, fixed at one end and adjustable at the other. It was decided to keep to the original idea of having it adjustable at the headstock end with a truss rod cover for Allen key adjustment.

The channel is 10mm x 10mm with the adjusting nut just under the Nut of the guitar, this is best cut before the wood has been rough cut as one side can be used as a guide to run along the Router straight edge guide.

When the truss rod is in place, the neck can be rough sawn to shape, this is going to be done on a band saw, the first cut will be on it's side cutting the headstock angle.

Then the wood below the back of the neck and heel area is cut away.

The head-stock will need to be levelled off top and bottom, this could be planed smooth, but to ensure uniformity it is going to be clamped in a vice with X and Y movement and milled under the router table with a flat 10mm router cutter. The heel will also need milling to shape.

The back of the neck will need milling down to the right thickness, approx. 22mm. This can be milled free hand with the neck upside down.

The sides of the fingerboard are planed with a Jack plane, the nut width is larger than a Gibson Melody Maker, this one is 43mm and the end of the fingerboard is 56mm, these measurements are based on a 1999 US Fender Stratocaster. The contour of the back of the neck will be as near to the Stratocaster as possible as this is the best profile I have found for myself based on many guitar profiles over the years.

Fingerboard

The fingerboard is Brazilian Rosewood (SG 82), this is quite dense, more so than Indian Rosewood (SG ) Santos Rosewood (SG ) and South American Amazonique (SG ) but not a dense as Ebony (SG ) or Cocobola (SG).

This was the Rosewood used on the 50s and 60s Les Paul Standards.

The Fingerboard is quite rough sawn, I am not going to plane the fingerboard flat as the grain runs in different directions and can tear leaving deep gouges.

To ensure that the fingerboard remains flat and smooth I am going to mill it with a 10mm flat ended cutter in the router, first one side to level off and then flipping over to finish the other side. I then just need to keep milling until it is at the correct thickness (3mm).

Glue the neck and fingerboard together

When I am happy that the fingerboard and neck will give me a perfect joint with no gaps at all, it will then be ready for gluing together. I tend to give the final wood a roughish sanding (400-grade sandpaper) so that the glue can key to the rough surface.

I apply lots of glue to both pieces of wood, any excess can be wiped away when it is squeezed out of the sides. When they make contact I slide them around to disperse any air bubbles trapped and clamp them up when in the correct position, checking all the time for movement.

The most important thing for me is ensuring a good clamp and so I use up to 12 clamps (6 a side), ensuring that scrap pieces of wood are in place to protect the neck and fingerboard from being marked from the clamps. I also squeeze the joint within inches of its life, so much so, that it is hard to undo the clamps when I come to take them off, this system works very well for as the joint can be stronger than the wood itself! I leave the clamps on for a minimum of 24 hours.

When the joint is dry, the edges of the fingerboard need to be trimmed off. The camber of the fingerboard will have a radius of approx. 9", so that strings do not choke against the frets when you bend up and chord still feel nice and round. This is the same radius a US Fender Stratocaster, I find it the most comfortable shape.

I shape the fingerboard with a Jack plane purchased from Machine Mart for approx. £10, this is a very long based plane, as opposed to a smoothing plane which is short in length.

When I think I am near the camber I use a Camberplate ®, this is is an old brass telecaster scratchplate with a 9" radius ground out of it by a bench grinder, then sharpened to a knife edge, I scrape the Camberplate along the fingerboard and it marks where I need to keep planning, I can also rest it on and against the light I can see the shape of the fingerboard against the plate.

When I have finished and am happy with the camber I sand it with 400 > 600 > 1200 grade wet and dry.

Fret not!

The fretting is possibly the most important stage. The scale length is 24-3/4" standard Gibson scale length, using jumbo frets.

First I have a photocopy of a Melodymaker neck plan (1:1) with the frets marked, but you could buy computer fret print outs to tape on to it.

Using a Stanley blade I notch the edge of the fingerboard on both sides where I need to cut. This gives me a slight groove to start the saw in, I have tried many saws and you can pay about £30 from a fretting saw but I use a 50p Junior Hacksaw with a metal cutting blade in, do not use a wood cutting blade as the teeth are fanned out so that it does not bind in the wood when you are cutting, these blade cut a slot to wide.

Always try it on an off cut of wood first and try putting a fret into that so that the fret is a good fit and that you neck is not ruined by having all the frets slots to wide, also check the depth of the cut, too deep and you will have gaps under the fret, too sallow and the fret may not sit in far enough, I tend to over cut and live with the gap.

Clamp the neck down before cutting and make sure you have plenty of time so you are not rushing only plan to cut the slots in this session and nothing else.

Be very careful when cutting that the saw does not jump out of the slot when you are sawing, remember it is a metal cutting blade and so it will bind in the wood, it jumps out very easy and when it does it will catch the fingerboard and leave a slight groove, even the smallest of grooves can be hard to sand out without affecting the camber or giving a flat spot.

Next it is time to insert the dot markers, I have used Mother of Pearl 6mm wide, you can use the cheaper Mother of Toilet Seat (Plastic) but the colours are much better on the real thing.

Mark the position of the dots, make an indent with a centre punch, drill a pilot hole approx. 1.5mm, which is a hobby drill, drill a 5mm hole with a wood drill, drill the final 6mm this was a metal cutting drill, test on a scrap piece first so you can guess the right depth and that the MOP does not fall into it.

These were a very tight fit, I filled the holes with wood glue then placed the MOP over the hole, gently used a G clamp to squeeze the into the hole, careful not you break the MOP, when they were all in I filed them flat and re-sanded the fingerboard, 400 > 600 > 1200 grade wet and dry.