Before I give my due appraisal for this guitar, be informed that it's been discontinued WEF 2015. The only reason why I'm appraising it is that it's still available here as well as some international online stores if you look hard enough. However, many of us won't look too hard for one because of its novelty pedigree but we won't mind giving it due consideration if it happens to cross our path by chance (emboldened by a clearance price tag as well), so here goes.
The 'Melody Maker' tag is one adopted by Gibson to embrace deficiency for a good reason; it's meant to be a budget product aimed squarely at those who would want to bask in the brand name glory but treading the ground with limited buying power. It's one that gets the job done but asking for more would betray its lack of details. As such, we note the familiar SG body outline which is arguably the most complete attribute of this guitar because everything else- bridge, pickups, controls & headstock- are subtracted affairs. The brief details here very much contributed to the overall lightness of this guitar but it isn't toy-like upon handling, mind you. That skimpy headstock there actually does good to the SG persona which has a reputation for being notoriously neck-heavy. However, this SG would outclass some full-feature hollow body instruments because it sports a maple body & fretboard. The only traditional SG wood here is the mahogany neck.
So is this melody maker any melodic for the money? Let's understand the fact that the solitary pickup there is a rather high output, ceramic 491T & it's an uncovered model. The volume pot is a 300K version so what you get immediately upon plugging it into an angry, driven amp is something to behold, especially if you are the typical metal maniac. However, the beauty of it is that, it tames down to a crunchy beast if you lower the instrument's volume so you get a very ACDC affair & a further trimming of volume would land you quite nicely into Bonamassa territory, it just lacks the polished top end. That's not surprising because it's a bridge pickup.
Let me highlight to you the frustrations before we conclude. Firstly, that shrunken headstock there compromised the outer strings' break angle. As suspected, the low E doesn't retain tuning well & the small button tuners don't make the process pleasant either. Secondly, the wrapover bridge doesn't feature any indentations or ridges so get ready to battle intonation issues should you move on to thicker gauged strings. This also means, the metal camp would have to try a little harder when they palm mute their favourite riffs. Thirdly, the input jack is simply too near the bridge & knob area. I had a straight-plugged cable inserted there & any unrestrained right hand movements proved to be a constant slamming into what should be located away from this vicinity. Lastly, that pickguard there houses the pickup & the overall outline extends beyond the bridge posts. That's right, you need to remove the bridge unit in order to access the guitar's cavity should a pickup swap be considered.
So what is a guitar of this ilk good for anyway? It's good for singular intentions. If you are bent on just dishing out molten hot riffs without thinking too much about switching pickups or reaching out for the tone control to mess with the frequencies, this should give you 100% focus. From the looks of it, if you set the action up properly, it should be a formidable slide guitar for not much money. This MM SG is certainly not for the squeamish when details are concerned.
Overall rating: 70%
Product availability: Swee Lee Co.
Price: $449 (clearance), bag included
Thanks to Master Faizal, David & Ms Yeo for the assistance.
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