stephdegenerate's Reviews
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This is the modern Melody Maker to beat
From 2003 - 2006, the Gibson Melody Maker was rejiggered into a form similar to the Les Paul Junior, with a single cutaway and a sole dogear P-90. It retained, however, the thinner body, slimmer neck and headstock, "button" tuners, and top-mounted output jack of the classic Melody Makers - and, unusually for both, featured a Tune-O-Matic bridge rather than a wraparound.
The result was, in my esteem, a guitar superior to both the Les Paul Junior and all other iterations of the Melody Maker. It's lighter and faster than the Junior, and the classic P90 has a thick, powerful roarthat the traditional Melody Maker pickups can't match. The individual bridge saddles allow precise intonation, the controls are simple and straightforward, and the satin finish is comfortable and resistant to fingerprints. All this combined makes a killer gig guitar that can take a beating and keep screaming.
41034
they did something really similar with the melody maker SGs in the 70s and I have a very interesting fender All American Melody Maker II that has a strat vibrato and 2 MM singles stock. They're always messing with the MM trying to offer an American guitar that might snatch some players from fender mexico LOL I ahd a buddy who got one of the melody makers like yours and it played and sounded excellent although the finish was pretty poorly applied. For the money it was like a Jr that won't break your back (although the Jr and Specials vary a lot in weight, some are as light as an SG, most aren't). What'd you pay?
@jimmarchi1 I scored mine for only $200 because it had some damage - a steal as far as I was concerned, since it was an easy fix and these usually go for $500 - $600 these days! I got it back into pristine shape within a weekend; it's my go-to gig guitar now.
I've heard there were some quality control issues with this model when it comes to finish and appearance (seems to be luck of the draw whether you find a good one or an ugly one), but in terms of playability (and weight!), they're winners. I've seen pics of those All American MMs but never come across one in person...super weird for a Gibson, but I bet they're fun as hell to play. I'm historically more of a Fender player so the more Fender-like MMs are the Gibsons that always reel me in.
Killer Vox-in-a-Box
This is one of my all-time favorite dirt boxes, and a unique little monster to boot. It's made to mimic the chimey distortion of a cranked AC15, but unlike similar pedals, it's specifically intended to give the semblance of a single-speaker combo amp at any volume. There's an internal trim pot that lets you adjust this effect, but not eliminate it, so it'll always have a fair degree of natural compression and a slight "boxiness." Personally, I think it sounds absolutely fantastic and true to intent, and I use it for recording frequently. It's all hand-wired and hand-painted, superb craftsmanship.
Perfect one-button cocked wah tone
I love the sound of a cocked wah pedal, like Mick Ronson's seminal work of the glam-rock era, but keeping that sweet spot onstage is difficult with a traditional wah. This pedal puts that perfect smooth filtering into a one-button box with super simple controls, accessible even to a luddite like me. I like that there's a Mix knob, so you can make the effect subtler or bolder (unlike a normal wah); and i like that you can use it as a transparent wah or a fuzzy/distorted one. The only other pedals of this type were strictly "cocked wah fuzz" pedals. This one let you choose how clean or distorted it is. As for the build quality, it's totally hand-wired an solid as hell.
41034
yeah. mick woulda eaten this up in the spiders days... there's also the keeley version with 2 different filters as well as bypass