When I saw one of these guitars hanging on the wall at Kenny’s Music I just had to have it. Mine is black, has a resonant one-piece body and a nicely chunky neck.
These instruments were originally intended as affordable “student” models so it’s great to see things come full-circle. Once again there exists an economically accessible path into ownership of a genuine Gibson.

Never mind the “Student” tag – these are perfectly valid guitars in their own right. I certainly love mine and its only shortcoming was the lack of a second pick-up with which to create a contrast to the brightness of the original single-coil unit, located at the bridge.
(There is in fact a two pick-up model available but I’ve always believed, when choosing a guitar, pictures on the internet are just not good enough – you need to be able to feel the goods and this one felt great).

After some head scratching I remembered I had some new/old-stock, USA-made Hamer pick-ups, with very narrow pole-piece spacing, tucked away somewhere. As luck would have it the spacing was perfect and I set about figuring out the best way to fit one into the “neck position” on my Melody Maker.

In its standard form the Hamer unit would have extended beyond the footprint of the existing scratch-plate, creating a noticeably clumsy look, but after detaching its metal base and placing the pick-up in situ, I achieved a perfect fit.
Unusually the magnetic slug pole-pieces on these pick-ups protrude almost half an inch below their fibre-board former. I found that by drilling six slightly undersized holes in the body of the guitar, I was able to press-fit the pick-up so that it looked like an original feature.
All that was left was to very carefully cut a recess into the rim of the body for a Tele-type jack-socket and fit a pick-up selector switch into the original jack-socket site.

The guitar now has three separate sounds and a unique look thanks to the addition of two metal control knobs – each with a ruby red centre – and a vintage yellow selector switch tip.

I like to think it looks like a Pirate’s guitar and have even contemplated adding a skull and crossbones mother-of-pearl inlay. Either way, I feel I’ve succeeded in making a good guitar great and enjoyed myself in the process. Can’t say fairer than that!