Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: Brow on January 25, 2007, 08:17:37 PM
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Hey guys.
My bands recording a new EP at a studio in Nottingham and while there today I nipped into the local Sound Control to see what (if anything) they had that was to my taste.
In a glass case and marked up at £399 was a Gibson Les Paul Melody Maker, like this 1: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Red-Gibson-Melody-Maker-Les-Paul-great-condition_W0QQitemZ120079609700QQihZ002QQcategoryZ33040QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Does anyone happen to own 1 of these or has played 1 before? I might head back to the shop while I'm there the next few days to try it out. For the price (and if it's anygood) I might pick 1 up as I don't have a P90 guitar :D :twisted:
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Sambo on here has one - drop him a PM ;)
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finally my guitar gets some attention! lol.
i love mine mate; just bought a jackson that has a £700ish RRP with at about £400 worth of upgrades and i still love to play the Gibson.
Its got a bare knuckle in as well; great combo. the harmonic richness of the mahogany with the BKP is awesome... its so resonant as well.
very similar to a double-cut, in terms of playing/feel (except of course it only has 1 cutaway)... sound wise i guess its a bit limiting for some people, but thats why i got Tim to make my P-90 coil-tapped... increases the tonal options significantly on a 1-pickup guitar... REALLY worth doing if your gonna replace the pickup.
neck is nice and full.
oh and the finish starts to wear down pretty easily giving you an awesome relic-type look after a while... (not sure how obvious that would be on one of the red finish - mines black - as the wood underneath is a rich orangey/red mahogany.
basically, i love it, and for £350 (used), i cannot fault mine at all. £399 sounds like a good price and its definitely worth the money in my opinion.
having said all this, im no guitar expert by any means, and it may be that the melody makers are a bunch of cr@p compared to some other stuff you could get in the price range. but considering its USA-made (whether that means much these days is debatable with Gibson i guess), and relatively cheap, i think its definitely worth the money.
go for it!
and tell me what you think as well- even if you try it and hate it id be interested to know your view.
cheers,
sam.
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I think, personally, they're some of the most bland and plain guitars I've ever seen. Boring satin finish and they're gonna be tonally very limited with only one pickup.
Plus the cheaper end Gibson are shockingly bad.
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that looks gorgeous man. I'd nab it! Only thing is if ur used to humbuckers, the noise from P90s REALLY gets to ya. well it does to me. i gotta get me a noise decimator still
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^ lol!
well i can assure you that it definitely isnt as grim as our friend Mr.Ed here makes out.
the finish has a cr@p-load of character in my opinion... the grain shows through the finish... its pretty unique - similar to the DC finishes- satin but with the grain still visible/feel-able almost...
and like i said when the finish wears away (which doesnt talk long- especially with some gigging/rehearsing) then the character increases ten-fold.
its got me plenty of compliments from guitar shops/mates/other players alike as its not a common guitar for people to have/see....
and its not extremely limited... thats like faulting the orange rocker 30, or the Epi valve junior for having limited controls. just because they are limited doesnt mean theyre bad.
and like i said- with the coil-tapped BKP its almost as versatile as a lot of twin-humbucker guitars ive played.
Indys point is a good one though./
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I think, personally, they're some of the most bland and plain guitars I've ever seen. Boring satin finish and they're gonna be tonally very limited with only one pickup.
Plus the cheaper end Gibson are shockingly bad.
from the way you say that mate, it appears youve never seen one? definitely not played one i take it?
personal opinion on the looks and sound front i guess... although i think its a lot more aesthetically interesting than a standard sunburst LP or a stock-colour superstrat/RG which is what im used to seeing.
and saying all low-end gibsons are shockingly bad is a slight generalisation.
oh and for what its worth- i think STRATS are some of the most bland and plain guitars ive ever seen.... (mainly because everyone has one) :wink: :lol: :)
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i haven't tried the MM, but try some Gordon Smiths as well, similar vibe, similar price, made in England. they compare very favourably to the lower end Gibsons I have tried, for less cash.
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i think he has one...?
or am i confusing you with someone else? :oops:
if not, ditto what dave said... it's something that i would really like to do- try some Gordon Smiths...
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You are correct Sam, I do have a Gordon Smith Guitar, and I love it :)
I play a mixture of guitars with both Humbuckers and Single coil pickups on them, so I'm definitely not scared away by P90s having more noise than a Humbucker :)
I hadn't actually thought about a Gordon Smith in this style to be honest, they must've slipped my mind :lol:
I'll keep my eyes open on Ebay for possible GSGs in this style, but the stripped down single P90 LP look is really growing on me :roll: :lol:
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ah, i thought so!
and yer i think its got a kinda marmite thing going on- people either love stripped-down, back to basics axes, or despise them for being boring e.t.c...
good luck with whatever you choose anyway!
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ah, i thought so!
and yer i think its got a kinda marmite thing going on- people either love stripped-down, back to basics axes, or despise them for being boring e.t.c...
good luck with whatever you choose anyway!
Thanks mate :)
I'm not definitely in the market for a new guitar, just saw the guitar and thought it might be a good deal :D :roll: :twisted:
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no probs.
and yer that sort of feeling is familiar to me lol
well it seems like a good deal to me anyway.
didnt actually ask- is it new or second hand? just assumed it was used, due to the price.
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heh, i had no idea you had a gordon smith, lol.
:drink:
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no probs.
and yer that sort of feeling is familiar to me lol
well it seems like a good deal to me anyway.
didnt actually ask- is it new or second hand? just assumed it was used, due to the price.
It's not priced as being 2nd hand, so I'm assuming it's new. They've discontinud this Melody maker series infavour of a new version of an older guitar, so maybe it's clearance pricing or something?
heh, i had no idea you had a gordon smith, lol.
:drink:
Yup, I had 1 custom ordered a few years ago with money I got left me when my Grandad died., and here it is:
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y158/Browsif/Guitars/GSG1.jpg)
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y158/Browsif/Guitars/GSG2.jpg)
Just incase you care :lol:
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corr £399 brand new! now thats an even better deal, (if thats the case of course.)
like i said before- let me/us/the forum know if you do get it in the end- it'd be interesting to hear your opinion if you try it out.
and i remember you posting pics of the GS a while back now- bloody lovely!
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corr £399 brand new! now thats an even better deal, (if thats the case of course.)
like i said before- let me/us/the forum know if you do get it in the end- it'd be interesting to hear your opinion if you try it out.
and i remember you posting pics of the GS a while back now- bloody lovely!
Thanks mate :)
It's always been a really nice guitar to play, but it seemed to lack in plugged in tone, until I got a Black Dog and a Riff Raff in it :D
£399 only just gets you an Epi LP from most places, so £399 seemed like a really good deal, especially if it is a USA Made guitar.
I'll have chance over the next 2 days to try the guitar out, so i think I'll nip down tomorrow or Saturday during a break in recording to try it out and see what I think.
The shop also has Orange Tiny Terrors instock, so gonna kill 2 birds with 1 stone, as I've been interested in 1 of those for ages! :twisted:
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mmm black dog and riff raff in a custom GS... thats the stuff dreams are made of i tell ya! :lol: :)
and yer i was thinking about the cost of Epis... cant really go wrong with a USA gibson for £400...
and ahhh the tiny terror! ive been looking at them recently too as a practice amp so i dont have to lug around my ENGL everywhere. they look really nice, and from a couple of clips ive heard sound pretty brutal considering their size.
happy testing! and now im off to bed. :)
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Have a mate with one, and frankly, I'm not a huge fan.
The pickup's pretty dead and the neck feels cheap and stocky like an epiphone.
The only reason I can see it being priced for £400 infact, is the fact that it's made in the US, which is one of it's good points.
Looks pretty nice I guess, but the P90 look has never done it for me.
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I love P90 guitars however and I think that for that money, it has to be worth having. With that name on the headstock, it will always have a resale value.
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Don't have a good word to say about them I'm afraid, have played a lot of them and not found a good one yet. Just like the Gibson SG special fadeds. Low end Gibsons just don't cut it.
It hasn't occured to anyone that it's at £399 because they simply weren't selling at £499? Because they simply weren't worth it?
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last time i saw a one of these Melody Makers in Belfast, about two years ago, the price tag was £700! shocking! and they insisted that was the lowest they could go without losing money.
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If it was the red one in Marcus, they're currently trying to give it away in a raffle, after cutting it to 500...
The neck on that thing was balls, to be blunt.
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Hey guys.
Thanks for the new replies.
Had a busy day today recording guitars, so haven't had a chance to either the Melody Maker nor the Orange Tiny Terror a trial.
We're all being 'banished' from the studio for a few hours tomorrow while the singer does his vocal parts, so I'll be sure to nip down and try it out then :)
How do these guitars hold their re-sale value? I'm assuming they'd always be sellable due to the 'Gibson' on the headstock?
As long as the guitar sounds and plays well acoustically, I'd more than like stick a BK P90 in it anyways, so the quality of the stock P90 isn't too much of an issue :twisted:
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For future reference, but this equation is killer if you ask me.
Roland JC-120 + Gibson Melody Maker or P-90 pick-up equipped = Tone!!!!!
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Yup, I had 1 custom ordered a few years ago with money I got left me when my Grandad died., and here it is:
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y158/Browsif/Guitars/GSG1.jpg)
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y158/Browsif/Guitars/GSG2.jpg)
Just incase you care :lol:
very nice, what's that colour? lightburst?
last time i saw a one of these Melody Makers in Belfast, about two years ago, the price tag was £700! shocking! and they insisted that was the lowest they could go without losing money.
assuming that is marcus, I wouldn't believe them if they told me the sun was shining outside. They're quite possibly the worst music shop in the world. They've told me on occasion that "Marshall tube amps are the only tube amps that you can get any distortion out of", and virtually every time I'm in, do something to piss me off.
Last time I was in I was trying out some (i.e. 2) Fender Strats. I'd been there for about 10 minutes, and they asked me to leave (or at least hinted), since someone else wanted to try the amp I was using. One other time, they told me to turn down. A 15 watt orange tube amp. Cos, you know, it's a crime to want to hear how it performs at a decent volume (about half way up, and with the pre-amp gain low to try to keep the volume down). I just don't like 'em. every time I say "maybe I should give them a chance", they do something to annoy me again.
Sorry for the rant- I haven't tried that melody maker, i just saw the £700 price tag and laughed inwardly.
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very nice, what's that colour? lightburst?
It's alot 'Yellower' in person than it looks in the pictures :) It's quite a strange colour, not 1 i've seen on another guitar before.
I actually tried the Melody Maker today and can't say as I thought much to it to be honest :? The neck felt quite horrible and the pickup was bland, so I didn't bother buying it.
I did try 1 of these though and quite liked it:
(http://www.gretschguitars.com/repository/gretsch/images/G5238_xl.jpg)
1 shop I tried 1 in had a Gold Top and the other a black 1. They were both £259, which makes them great sounding guitars for the money :)
The 2nd shop I went in also had 3 Strats (2 white and 1 pale blue), Fender Lite Ash Tele and the Gretsch in Black that I wanted.
Chances are I may pick 1 up tomorrow if the shops open, so I'll post back with my findings ;)
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^ cool! yeah, it is a strange colour, I don't think I've seen anything in that colour either. It's nice, though.
:drink: