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1960 Gibson Melody Maker single cutaway

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  • Refinished dark maroon
  • Black single ply pickguard
  • 3 way toggle pickup selector switch
  • Badass bridge
  • 2 Volume and 2 tone knobs
  • Grover tuning machines
  • 2 Humbucking pickups
    • Split coil on bridge pickup
    • Mini on/off switch mounted on pickguard

This was the first real guitar that I acquired. My first electric, an Encore SG copy was stolen so my mother bought this one for me when I was about 13 years old. I got it from a keyboard player who needed the money ($50) to make his Leslie payment. It was originally black and yellow sunburst like my other Melody Makers but when I was 14 it was in fashion to sand the finish off so I did. Years later I refinished it dark maroon. It also originally came with 2 single coil pickups with the words Melody Maker on the pickguard above the neck pickup. The pickups were extremely weak like they were burnt out or something so I replaced them with DiMarzio's (also in fashion at the time). I later acquired Ronnie's Humbuckers out of his 1971 Les Paul Custom and put those on there splitting the coil on the treble pickup and adding a mini on/off switch.
The headstock has been broken and repaired 3 times. Once in the studio during the recording of the "Cool Kids" record, once backstage in the dressing room at L'amour in Brooklyn and once when I checked it with my luggage on a plane flight from LA to Baltimore. Remarkably it didn't affect the tone.