Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: indysmith on August 01, 2008, 11:50:45 AM
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I don't know if they've always been this way, but lately I've noticed that Gibbo Melody Makers are going for damn good prices.
http://www.andertons.co.uk/acatalog/info_MMP1VSCH1.html
Has anybody tried one? I expect they'll be very poorly built but they're amazingly good looking and I'm going to try and hunt some down to try anyway.
(If only that pickup was a p90!)
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I was asking the forum about them a few months back - I was of the opinion that they were dead cheap, what's the worst that can happen?!?!
Never managed to play one though - let me know how that goes.
Mark.
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Well, it's impossible to tell from the pics, but my gut says they're going to be shockingly badly built. I can't say it looks good, either, though, but I think we might have quite dissimilar taste in guitar appearance, indy ;)
I'm sure there are better deals for cheap guitars out there, and probably better built ones!
Of course, they need to be actually tried to be sure that they're cr@p, they might turn out pretty decent...
Roo
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http://www.gibson.com/en%2Dus/Divisions/Gibson%20USA/Guitars/Melody%20Maker/Melody%20Maker%20%2D%20LP/
There's a video of them on here - I really like what I see. I hate finding things to GAS over that I actually might be able to afford! :lol: There's all my money gone... :roll:
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thats a crazy price... obviously gibson must be cutting corners somewhere, but if you can get a nice example it would be a great guitar for modding.
it would be pretty easy to swap that pickup for a black P-90 and maintain the look of the guitar
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There is a 2 pickup version too. I have been considering getting one, since I have an origianal Melody Maker pickup and I have a lipstick tube pickup for the neck position. They are very cheap over here, but I haven't tried one. I have to go to a Guitar Center and see if they have them in stock.
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Very funny that this was posted. I just returned from Thomann and jammed out on a couple of Melody Makers. The price was very tempting, but the guitars didn't do a very good job of convincing me. I tried out 4 or 5 different ones and the setups were all horrendous. That was partially expected. Still, lots of string buzzing and intonation problems. On a couple of them, the tuners had too much play. You had to turn it nearly a half turn before the string tightened. The pickups didn't do much for me. I thought they lacked, uhhh, character I guess would be the word. Dark, definitely a pickup upgrade on the horizon. I certainly wouldn't order one and expect it to be perfectly playable out of the box.
Other than that, fairly light but decent build. I didn't notice any structural problems. To me, the guitar is not exactly visually stimulating. But, for the price it's not bad. Although, by the time you upgrade the pickups, tuning machines, and all the other things that might be unnecessary (I am a sucker for upgrades :oops:) I think you will wind up spending quite a bit more.
Strangely, it seemed that the lower level of a very expensive guitar brand(i.e. Gibson Melody Maker) did not stand up very well to the mid-upper level of cheaper guitar brands (i.e. Epiphone LP). I tried out several Epi LP's that actually played very well in comparison.
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There's going to be a reason for it being that cheap.
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of course there is and i think kellar nailed it. Cheaper hardware and pickups, they obviously havnt gone to town on the finish either but i quite like that. I bet they are more likely to use multipiece bodies as well, again not really a problem for the price
if they are nice and solid with an alright acoustic sound and a straight neck the rest can be sorted relatively easily ( but yeah, it might end up not being such a bargain!!)
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I'd say if you play one and the basic construction and acoustic tone seem OK, you can't really go wrong. You can always upgrade the tuners and pickup(s), or even replace the bridge with an adjustable one if you want.
If I didn't already have a '60s Melody Maker, I'd be in for one. :)
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I think they retailed at about £400-ish (?) when they first came out.
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I think they retailed at about £400-ish (?) when they first came out.
Yep.
So under that reasoning, even if they're bad for a £400/500 guitar, they're probably good for a £250 guitar, and as such that might be a good deal.
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I don't know why, but Epi Japan guitars seem like some well-kept secret. I've got an Epi Japan Les Paul junior and it's a fantastic guitar. I paid £330 for mine which is a little under the going rate for a sunburst one, but check out this one on ebay at the minute in cherry red for £250 bin...
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-OUTLET-2006-Epiphone-Japan-Les-Paul-Jr-SC-P-90-CHR_W0QQitemZ120289140158QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item120289140158&_trksid=p3286.m63.l1177
Buy this one before I do, these LP jr's are great.
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I don't know, now. The last melody Maker I played was a horrible beast of a thing. the neck profile was a Trapezium (there was, literally, no curvature on the neck, at all, it was like playing a very large crowbar) and it was covered in this thick finish I can only describe as Hammerite-like, right up the back of the neck.
It didn't sound awful, and had a usefully low action, and intonated fine, but by the Goddess, it had the single worst neck I've ever laid a hand on.
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I don't know why, but Epi Japan guitars seem like some well-kept secret. I've got an Epi Japan Les Paul junior and it's a fantastic guitar. I paid £330 for mine which is a little under the going rate for a sunburst one, but check out this one on ebay at the minute in cherry red for £250 bin...
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-OUTLET-2006-Epiphone-Japan-Les-Paul-Jr-SC-P-90-CHR_W0QQitemZ120289140158QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item120289140158&_trksid=p3286.m63.l1177
Buy this one before I do, these LP jr's are great.
It seems that almost any guitar made in Japan is of excellent quality, no matter what name is on the headstock.
I must say, that one is a beauty, much better than any Melody Maker I have seen lately.
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I don't know why, but Epi Japan guitars seem like some well-kept secret. I've got an Epi Japan Les Paul junior and it's a fantastic guitar. I paid £330 for mine which is a little under the going rate for a sunburst one, but check out this one on ebay at the minute in cherry red for £250 bin...
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-OUTLET-2006-Epiphone-Japan-Les-Paul-Jr-SC-P-90-CHR_W0QQitemZ120289140158QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item120289140158&_trksid=p3286.m63.l1177
Buy this one before I do, these LP jr's are great.
Bugger, I was watching that and now you've ruined it! :evil:
Just kidding, I am watching it but I already have two of them so I really shouldn't buy another. They're among my most favourite guitars. They seem to have slightly more of an "authentic" vintage vibe than Tokai, Edwards etc - maybe it's the nitro finish or the fact that they say Les Paul on the headstock. Those Japanese Epis have taken over from Orville by Gibson (like Snickers and Marathon), they're basically identical.
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I always wandered why those Jap Epi Elitists aren't mroe popular over here? Is there a distributor for them? If they were in shops more I bet they'd see a lot of action.
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Are they allowed to sell them in Europe?
The reason you have to go through hoops for the classy Fender Japan stuff, is because it's "non-export" - the agreement with Fender is that they're not allowed to market them in the US and Europe. Does the same apply for the Gibson/Epi stuff?
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There seem to be three different types of Epiphones:
1. The Korean ones which are available everywhere.
2. The Elitists which have a round-topped headstock. I think they're Japanese and are legitimately available in the US and Europe.
http://www.epiphone.com/elitist/default.htm (http://www.epiphone.com/elitist/default.htm)
http://www.dv247.com/invt/37145/product.htm?gdftrk=gdfV2356_a_7c416_a_7c1181_a_7c37145 (http://www.dv247.com/invt/37145/product.htm?gdftrk=gdfV2356_a_7c416_a_7c1181_a_7c37145)
3. The re-branded Orvilles, which have proper Gibson headstocks and are strictly for the Japanese market.
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I always wandered why those Jap Epi Elitists aren't mroe popular over here? Is there a distributor for them? If they were in shops more I bet they'd see a lot of action.
The elitists are great. I recorded with one a while back, it was such a nice guitar. It was one of the old Sheratons, great guitar.
When it came to getting a new guitar I was torn between that and the '81 Navigator.
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I have a friend in USA who told me that he'd tried a few of these melody makers and he rated them-obviously allowing for the price, they are not a top end model but then the MM was a student guitar when it was originally marketed.
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I don't know why, but Epi Japan guitars seem like some well-kept secret. I've got an Epi Japan Les Paul junior and it's a fantastic guitar. I paid £330 for mine which is a little under the going rate for a sunburst one, but check out this one on ebay at the minute in cherry red for £250 bin...
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-OUTLET-2006-Epiphone-Japan-Les-Paul-Jr-SC-P-90-CHR_W0QQitemZ120289140158QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item120289140158&_trksid=p3286.m63.l1177
Buy this one before I do, these LP jr's are great.
that's gonna cost you a lot more than £250 by the time it gets to the UK, though, surely?
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I don't know why, but Epi Japan guitars seem like some well-kept secret. I've got an Epi Japan Les Paul junior and it's a fantastic guitar. I paid £330 for mine which is a little under the going rate for a sunburst one, but check out this one on ebay at the minute in cherry red for £250 bin...
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-OUTLET-2006-Epiphone-Japan-Les-Paul-Jr-SC-P-90-CHR_W0QQitemZ120289140158QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item120289140158&_trksid=p3286.m63.l1177
Buy this one before I do, these LP jr's are great.
that's gonna cost you a lot more than £250 by the time it gets to the UK, though, surely?
Yeah, £70 for shipping and probably another £75-£80 for VAT and import charges - so about £400 all told. Still not much more than I bought my two for, though, at the end of the day.
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I'd say those Epi Japan LP juniors are well worth £400, though the pickup ain't nowt to write home about - just been replacing mine with a BKP this afternoon. It's something Tim rustled up for me and I'm not sure how it sits in the BKP P90 range. Mine is the classic 10,000-turn P90 wind but with an A4 magnet. DC resistence around 7.8k
I upgraded the electrics to CTS/Switchcraft while I was in there and I'm stringing it up tomorrow = can't wait to hear how it sounds compared to the overwound Fralin A5 P90 that was in there before.
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I've pimped mine too - upgraded electronics, aluminium bridge, locking tuners.
My BKP-91 is also AIV - although I didn't specifically ask for it - but 8.6K.
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gonna try a lightweight Aluminium Faber bridge on mine, see how it goes.
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I've tried the Joan Jet signature model, quite cheap..... and beats the cr@p out of an SG, especially the faded ones.
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Yeah, £70 for shipping and probably another £75-£80 for VAT and import charges - so about £400 all told. Still not much more than I bought my two for, though, at the end of the day.
i was just mentioning it in case someone who wasn't familiar with importing saw the £250 price and went for it, thinking that was the final price! :lol: :)
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Yeah, £70 for shipping and probably another £75-£80 for VAT and import charges - so about £400 all told. Still not much more than I bought my two for, though, at the end of the day.
i was just mentioning it in case someone who wasn't familiar with importing saw the £250 price and went for it, thinking that was the final price! :lol: :)
No, you're right - there are still lots of people who don't realise how much extra it's going to cost them! :)
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:drink:
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I really can't resist those Japanese Epis.... :oops:
(http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p216/phillyq/IMGP2440.jpg)
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A handsome beast Philly.
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That is real beauty Philly, how much did it set you back?
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:D Thanks chaps. It was £350 plus shipping - it's new, but it's got a little dent on the edge which may have put off some buyers. It'll be easy enough to patch up.
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Thought you didn't like guitars with 2 p90s? Hypocrite! Looks tastey though, me wants.
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Thought you didn't like guitars with 2 p90s? Hypocrite! Looks tastey though, me wants.
:lol: :lol: :lol:
You're absolutely right... but I may experiment a bit with pickups. :wink: No irreversible surgery though.
I must admit, at the moment I'm liking the sound. Compared to my SG Specials, the pickup settings sound more distinctive simply because they're further apart (I think).
There's something about the tone of these singlecut Juniors I really, really like. I think it may be due to the full-width neck tenon.
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Wooo! That's a cute looking beast!
I was about to say there was a new Japanese Tokai very much like that on the wall in Regent Sounds in Denmark St last saturday - I think it was £499 ish, but don't quote me - but of course you don't want/need to know that... do you?!! :lol:
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:D Thanks chaps. It was £350 plus shipping - it's new, but it's got a little dent on the edge which may have put off some buyers. It'll be easy enough to patch up.
Christ! That's a lot of prettiness for not very much money...
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I was about to say there was a new Japanese Tokai very much like that on the wall in Regent Sounds in Denmark St last saturday - I think it was £499 ish, but don't quote me - but of course you don't want/need to know that... do you?!! :lol:
No, no more... at least for now! :lol:
As for the price, I don't want to give the impression these things are perfection for silly money - there are quite a few little finish flaws and the pickups ain't too great. And on this one I think the bridge is a tiny bit off-centre, but I'll sort that later.
But the basic construction is spot on, the hardware's good and they're nice and lightweight. I had a very similar Gibson LP Special about 10 years ago and this Epi plays and feels much better.