Need advice on vintage pickup repair

[casey73]

A friend asked me to repair his 63 Gibson Melody Maker. I has an SG style body with two single coil pickups mounted to the pickguard which is screwed to the top. The problem he had was all kinds of nasty scratchy static. I took it home and I wasn't getting any grief from the pots or slide selector switch. But I started tapping on the pickguard and I heard it. When I played it, the bridge pickup was clearly weaker than the neck pickup.

When I opened it up, I immediately saw the problem. There are two alnico bar magnets attached to the bottom of each pickup on opposing sides of six the poles. On the bridge pickup the rear magnet (closest to the bridge) had become detached and was sitting on top of the front magnet. The noise was caused by the loose magnet sliding around.

My question is, how do I re-attach that magnet to its original position? My first thought was contact cement, but I thought I'd check here first since this is the first time I've ever seen this type of pickup. And, the guitar is pretty valuable and I don't want to do anything that would decrease it's value.

[marku52]

good question--can you see what gibson used? Tho I think contact cement would be a fine solution

[salvarsan]

Good choice.
Contact cement can be cleaned off with the right solvent, i.e., the pickup can be re-repaired later if necessary.

Superglue (cyano-acrylate) would work well enough ... once. Acetone dissolves it, but also dissolves the wire insulation.

-drh

[casey73]

Thanks to all for replies. I decided on contact cement, because, as mentioned, it can be removed and re-applied if it ever drys out. Not sure what the original glue was, but it was fairly thin. And it was also 49 years old. I put it back together a while ago and that cured the problem.

On a side note, this guitar is almost all original. It's kinda cool because it's so old, but the tuners are for crap with lots of slack, making tuning it a challenge, the neck is huge (by my standards) and the fingerboard is almost flat. I know vintage guitars are the real deal for some folks, but I prefer my modern guitars with smooth, accurate tuners, fast necks and more versatile bridges.

[David Schwab]

That was also a cheap vintage guitar. There's nothing wrong with replacing the tuners for newer ones. He should be abel to get some that drop right in. That's what I did with my '72 Fender Mustang. The cheap tuners that came with that were crap. Got a set of vintage looking Schallers, to retain the look of the guitar, and I didn't have to ream the holes larger.

[casey73]

Good point. I'll mention it too him if he's interested, although I think he likes it more as an investment than a regular player.

[David Schwab]

Good point. I'll mention it too him if he's interested, although I think he likes it more as an investment than a regular player.

Then he shouldn't be playing it. Not sure how much of an investment those guitars are. The vintage guitar market is very particular.

I see one here for $999

1963 Gibson Melody Maker Pelham > Guitars : Electric Solid Body - Mikes Music | Gbase.com

[Jim Darr]

Casey73

A couple of thoughts - 63s did not have an SG shaped body, Gibson went to the SG shaped body several years later in about 66. Also, all of the Melody Maker pickups I’ve see from this era had a white nylon bobbin with an Alnico bar magnet inserted into the slot in the bobbin. In effect, the bar magnet served as the pole pieces. They had a solid plastic cover which was black. The cover color was changed to white on SG shaped MMs.

I’ve seen modifications where steel pole pieces were inserted into the slot in the bobbin with spacers and two small Alnicos were used to charge the pole pieces – very similar to a standard P-90. This mod creates a better sounding MM pickup IMO.

If you could post some pics it would be helpful to determine if your pickup has been modded, is an aftermarket, is orginal, or even a newer design.

Jim

[52 Bill]

I agree, with Jim on both points. It sounds more like a P-90 construction. A photo would help.

[fieldwrangler]

Casey73

A couple of thoughts - 63s did not have an SG shaped body, Gibson went to the SG shaped body several years later in about 66. Also, all of the Melody Maker pickups I’ve see from this era had a white nylon bobbin with an Alnico bar magnet inserted into the slot in the bobbin. In effect, the bar magnet served as the pole pieces. They had a solid plastic cover which was black. The cover color was changed to white on SG shaped MMs.


I’ve seen modifications where steel pole pieces were inserted into the slot in the bobbin with spacers and two small Alnicos were used to charge the pole pieces – very similar to a standard P-90. This mod creates a better sounding MM pickup IMO.

If you could post some pics it would be helpful to determine if your pickup has been modded, is an aftermarket, is orginal, or even a newer design.

Jim

I, too, emphatically agree with all of this.