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Melody Maker Pickup Info Please.

TM1

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 27, 2003
Messages
8,349
I’ve had around 20+ Melody Makers over the last 50 years. The early pickups were to a slight degree. The bobbin being slightly wider and had a brass shield around the magnet. The magnets, even in 1959 were the short type, which probably had a lot to do with changing them out in all pickups. Unlike a P-90’s & humbuckings, the magnet sits up on its side, not flat like the others. Being up on the side makes for a real narrow field that “sees” the string vibration vs. flat. More like a Fender pickup as the magnet doubles as a pole piece. Probably the closest in looks is the Mustang & Duo Sonic pickups.
I have two MM’s, both single cutaway, double pickups. One’s a ‘61 and the other’s a ‘62 which leads me to believe that Gibson made both double cuts & single cuts at the same time. I would imagine that Gibo was using up pre-cut bodies. I’ve owned a couple of double cut ‘61’s, so I know that both were made concurrently.
 

roxrob

Member
Joined
Mar 15, 2003
Messages
221
I own every version of the mkI MM except the 3/4. All the single pup,MM and the double pup, MM D. I also own the Epiphone Olympic mkI in single and double pup versions. They are identical to Gibson except for tortoise guard and longer headstock.

The 59 pup is shorter and wider by a wee bit but they sound the same, more or less and you'd need bat ears to tell them apart. My 61 Olympic D with the typical pickups is the hottest sounding of the bunch, with a neck pup that kills any of my Fenders while the 62, the latest singlecut Gibson I've found has the biggest boldest tone in the bridge.

Wire, the same 42 ga pe as pafs, is the same and ohm readings are similar, not exact, but close enough. I love these guitars. The big knock against them is why I love them. That is they don't sound like p90 or paf. They sound like singlecoils similar to Fenders. Now I'd bet any good Fender played on that rig with the same settings would sound as good and damn near the same and a p9o or paf, though no doubt would sound good, would be noticeably different.

There is real magic in a melody maker, as was shown in that excellent video. The trick is in the controls.
Now heres an idea...... if the coils are wound with the same wire as PAFs and with similar resistance readings to the individual coils of a PAF, could you take the coils of 2 melodymaker pickups and mount them in a humbucker case wired as a humbucker and have a close approximation to a PAF?

Has anyone tried this

Rob
 
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