An Original Early Sixties Melody Maker for "Small Hands".

1961 Gibson Melody Maker 3/4.

This super light guitar weighs just 5.40 lbs. and has a nice, fat nut width of slightly over 1 11/16 inches and a short scale length of 22 3/4 inches. Solid mahogany body, one-piece mahogany neck with a medium-to-thick profile. Brazilian rosewood fretboard with 19 medium-small frets and inlaid pearl dot position markers. Gold silk-screen "Gibson" headstock logo. Open-back strip tuners with white plastic oval buttons. Serial number ("14422") stamped in blind on the back of the headstock. Black plastic "all-on-one-plate" pickguard with seven screws and the words "Melody Maker" in white by the end of the fretboard. One Melody Maker pickup (black plastic-covered single-coil without adjustable polepieces) with an output of 6.95k, two controls (one volume, one tone) and jack input, all mounted on pickguard. The potentiometers are stamped "134 6041" and "134 6043" (Centralab, October 1960) and the capacitor is of the Sprague black cylindrical type. Gold plastic bell-shaped knobs with white markings and metal tops. Combination wrap-over bar bridge/tailpiece with two adjustable 'intonation' worm screws. This guitar has been expertly re-fretted with medium guage fretwire. There is some general surface wear - especially on the body edges and some fine surface checking but overall this forty-nine year old "little gem" is in excellent plus (8.75) condition. Housed in the original Gibson 'soft-shell' alligator case with green felt lining (9.00).

Very few 3/4 size Melody Makers were produced in comparison to the full size version. The actual percentage of 3/4 guitars is thought to be less than ten percent of the full-size version.

"The Melody Maker was originally released [in early 1959] as a single pickup model, available with either a regular (24 3/4") or a short (22 1/2") scale neck. The favourable response to the model led Gibson to list a dual pickup version on November 1, 1959 but the Melody Maker D was not shipped in quantity until 1960. Unlike the single pickup model, the MM-D was exclusively offered with a full-size neck at a price fractionally higher ($135.00) than the single pickup Junior and TV models" (A.R. Duchossoir, Gibson Electrics -- The Classic Years, p. 88). The Melody Maker D is structurally identical to the single pickup Melody Maker except for an enlarged pickguard supporting two pickups, four controls, and a three-way toggle switch.

Between 1959 and 1965, the Melody Maker kept the same basic specifications but went through two successive body redesigns. When introduced in 1959, the Melody Maker had a single rounded cutaway body shape identical to the original Les Paul Junior, but thinner. In early 1961, this was modified to a symmetrical double cutaway with rounded horns and slightly rounded body edges. The last change to the Melody Maker came in 1965, when it adopted the body style of the SG, with pointed horns and with the body edges slightly more rounded. This body design lasted until the Melody Maker was dropped from the Gibson line in 1971.