Gibson SG Melody Maker Review

Recently I found myself in Guitar Center browsing Gibson guitars when I saw the Sg Melody Maker. I'm a huge fan of the SG body shape and I knew I had to try out an SG such as the Melody Maker model which only had a volume control knob and a single humbucker pickup in the bridge position.

I brought one down from its display stand and plugged it into a Peavey 6505+ and turned on the Lead Channel. I turned the volume knob on the guitar all the way up and I commenced to play some very distorted power chords. The sound coming out of the amp surprised me. Even though it didn't have a tone control it had a very great sound for rhythm playing. The chords were fat, but also had a great crunch and the neck was thick which allowed for more sustain and made playing chords satisfying.

I played some basic power chord progressions for a little while and then I proceeded to play some lead guitar. Bends were easy to execute because of the thicker neck and even with the different bridge setup it was easy to bend and keep the guitar and tune.

I dialed in a scooped tone for metal and aggressive punk and it handled the tone very well.

In all it's great instrument for anyone who is looking for a great rhythm guitar axe, someone who doesn't care about tone, or wants to have a guitar where they don't have to switch pickups. However, regardless of if you prefer to play lead, it's better suited to be a rhythm axe.

Final Verdict:
Great if:
you want to play rhythm guitar
Don't like tone knobs on guitars
if you hate guitars with lots of controls

Bad if:
You want a 24 fret guitar
Want to switch or use two pickups for soloing