Mod or restore, 65 Melody Maker D

Bringing your older offset back to life.
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Which path

Poll ended at Wed Apr 18, 2018 12:01 am

New Neck
5
31%
Old Neck
7
44%
Short Scale Bass
4
25%
 
Total votes: 16

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oid
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Mod or restore, 65 Melody Maker D

Post by oid » Thu Apr 05, 2018 11:54 pm

I have had this old Melody Maker Kicking around that has had a troubled life, mainly the neck. The head stock looks to have been broken and repaired at least three times and now, has a large maple patch and the head is abit off. The heel has been broken at least twice, once losing a good amount of wood and was patched in with the neck being epoxied on at a completely wrong angle. The truss rod access was filled with epoxy, and the screw that was put through the body was drilled through the other end of the truss rod. So the neck was largely a loss and attempting a removal of the neck with all the epoxy would have likely damaged the body, so I removed the finger board and hack sawed the neck off at the body, chiseled out the wood/epoxy.

The question is, what next, I have been debating this for over a year now, I could make a new neck and restore the guitar. I could splice on a new heel and let the old neck tell its story, or I could do what I have been itching to do for one reason or another, make it into a short scale bass. I can do it without any changes to the body, so I am not making matters worse and it would be better then it was when I received it, not to mention an EB-0 head stock would look nice up top.

Where do you fine folk stand on my options here, and why, help find my direction on this thing, I am getting sick of looking at the unplayable pieces.

I will take some pictures after the sun comes and post em.
Logic gates based on billiard-ball computer designs have also been made to operate using live soldier crabs of the species Mictyris guinotae in place of the billiard balls.

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oid
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Re: Mod or restore, 65 Melody Maker D

Post by oid » Fri Apr 06, 2018 4:30 pm

The head stock is a pretty good mess, but should not be difficult to make presentable, body is quite nice, shows its age, tough to get a good photo of though.

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Logic gates based on billiard-ball computer designs have also been made to operate using live soldier crabs of the species Mictyris guinotae in place of the billiard balls.

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Re: Mod or restore, 65 Melody Maker D

Post by mgeek » Sat Apr 07, 2018 1:02 am

If this was mine I'd just grab a nice fat neck from one of those makers that do like, LP Junior kits etc and stick it on there via a spot of headstock reshaping.

That original neck is MUTILATED, deffo one of the worst 'repair' attempts I've seen

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Re: Mod or restore, 65 Melody Maker D

Post by oid » Sat Apr 07, 2018 1:44 am

I will just make a neck if I go for new, carving a neck is a great joy, especially if that neck happens to be mahogany or Spanish cedar.

The repair job is actually quite well done considering what they had to work with, and far from an attempt, it was a success, it may not be pretty, but it is functional, and certainly better than the complete hack job that the heel was. Someone attempted to dress it up along the way and hide the repairs with the worst bit of lacquer work I have ever seen and the nice bit of work that is the face of the headstock. I removed the lacquer and gave it a coat of oil to keep it happy while I figured out what I would do. The head stock face, ugly as it is, is not much work to make right, probably around an hours work.

I have seen far worse then this, probably a repair done for someone who could not afford a new neck, just make it play, make it strong and do it cheap.
Logic gates based on billiard-ball computer designs have also been made to operate using live soldier crabs of the species Mictyris guinotae in place of the billiard balls.

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Re: Mod or restore, 65 Melody Maker D

Post by mgeek » Sat Apr 07, 2018 4:35 am

oid wrote:
Sat Apr 07, 2018 1:44 am
The repair job is actually quite well done considering what they had to work with, and far from an attempt, it was a success
Oh...I must have misread, thought you said the neck had been glued on at the wrong angle, the truss adjuster filled with epoxy and so on...though to be fair I was largely judging it on that horrible bit of maple. ;)

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Re: Mod or restore, 65 Melody Maker D

Post by oid » Sat Apr 07, 2018 11:04 am

its neck and neck! three votes all around.

I did say the neck was glued on wrong and the truss rod epoxied, I think the pictures show fairly well that the neck is no longer attached to the guitar and the truss rod is no longer buried in epoxy. All I meant with my response is that "MUTILATED" is a tad extreme, nothing here beyond repair here.
Logic gates based on billiard-ball computer designs have also been made to operate using live soldier crabs of the species Mictyris guinotae in place of the billiard balls.

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Re: Mod or restore, 65 Melody Maker D

Post by oid » Sat Apr 07, 2018 3:44 pm

Old neck pulls into the lead.

Some details regarding salvaging the old neck. the plan at this time is a combined scarf/dovetail. The scarf will start at the 16th fret being about 1/4" thick there and feathering to nothing at the 12th, on top of this scarf will be the male side of a dovetail going through the neck. If cut well this should pull everything tight and lock it all together, making clamp up a simple matter, just needing downward pressure. The new heel will likely be maple to reflect the neck patch and should look halfway decent. The original fingerboard would get used with the two extra holes filled with what ever whim takes me when that time comes.

If I go the bass rout I will modify or make a pair of stop tailpiece posts to be like the Nashville bridge posts, so I can make and drop a bridge on them. Strings will either be anchored at something mounted on the old vibrola holes if I can manage to figure out an elegant looking way that reflects the rest of the guitar well. If I can not figure out a way I will most likely make a trapeze tailpiece mounted off the stap button which should work well with the body and is likely to look better then anything I can come up with for the vibrola holes.
Logic gates based on billiard-ball computer designs have also been made to operate using live soldier crabs of the species Mictyris guinotae in place of the billiard balls.

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Re: Mod or restore, 65 Melody Maker D

Post by wproffitt » Sat Apr 07, 2018 4:37 pm

I voted “old neck” on this, but only because I happen to have a great deal of affection for the neck shape of rhe 65 Melody Maker. They taper from a tooth pick at the nut (easy breezy for cowboy chords for me, at least) to pretty chunky at the 12th fret. There’s not much shoulder on them, either. Does what’s left of this neck conform to this description or, at the very least, please you? If so, I say save it. If not, let your imagination run wild!

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Re: Mod or restore, 65 Melody Maker D

Post by oid » Sat Apr 07, 2018 5:02 pm

I would say that is an apt description of this neck, if I do make a new neck I will more or less just copy it, take some rough measurements, get it down close and bring it to finish by feel.

In the end I do not notice much differences in necks for the most part, my fingers tend to find their way and figure out what is what after a few minutes of playing.
Logic gates based on billiard-ball computer designs have also been made to operate using live soldier crabs of the species Mictyris guinotae in place of the billiard balls.

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Re: Mod or restore, 65 Melody Maker D

Post by Don_Karnage » Sun Apr 08, 2018 3:41 am

oid wrote:
Sun Apr 08, 2018 3:18 am
Don_Karnage wrote:
Sun Apr 08, 2018 2:58 am
My only concern about that is that you'd have to make some changes to the body
Wrong thread! No changes to the body needed, see my thread for details.
Stealing these quotes from my Rick-thread then! :)

Actually I was mainly thinking about pickups and the routing you'd probably have to do to fit some more appropriate bass pickups in.

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Re: Mod or restore, 65 Melody Maker D

Post by oid » Sun Apr 08, 2018 3:56 am

but that would make it sound like any other bass...

The pickup routes are actually about 1/2" larger then the pickups on all sides, so I could make fatter coiled pickups to be more bass like and a new pickguard, so still no changes. While the guitar was still in one piece I threw a set of Bass VI strings on it, I suspect I would be perfectly happy with these pickups as bass pickups with the needed changes made to the electronics. If you did not know the Melody Maker pickups use a humbucker bar magnet for the core instead of individual poles, so no worries about strings not lining up.

But I do have some humbucker magnets sitting about, so perhaps some Melody Maker inspired bass pickups are in order if I go that route.
Logic gates based on billiard-ball computer designs have also been made to operate using live soldier crabs of the species Mictyris guinotae in place of the billiard balls.

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Re: Mod or restore, 65 Melody Maker D

Post by Don_Karnage » Mon Apr 09, 2018 1:23 am

In that case I vote for short scale bass! Would make for something completely unique and I love short scale basses! I think all of the ideas would make for interesting projects though :)

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