1966 Kalamazoo project

[windofdeth]

This is my 1966 Gibson Kalamazoo that my dad bought from a friend in college in 19 . He never played it much and for the longest time it sat in the attic gathering dust. I found it cleaned it up, put new strings on it and it played like new for awhile. But recently I've noticed the sound quality going down and traced the problem to the pickup. I researched it and found that the KG-1, has 1 single coil "melody maker" pickup. I love the sound of this guitar and would love to replace it with another melody maker, though if there is a newer pickup that has the same tone quality as the original I'd like your opinions on if I should have a new pickup installed or an older one. I really love this guitar it was my first and I'd hate to not be able to play it anymore. Help! - Mike

[mrblanche]

What exactly is the sound problem? You may be able to solve the problem yourself, perhaps by wax potting it or by making sure all the connections are good.

[simonm]

Getting the pickup rewound isn't necessarily hugely expensive, but there are a Melody Maker pickups on ebay quite regularly as a lot of people removed them in the past and routed the body for a humbucker or p90...

[windofdeth]

[simonm]

[Michael Ambrose]

I don't think re-winding is going to be your answer.

Is the pickups still strong? The bass tone is the only issue? NOT the treble?

Double-check the connection on the tone cap/pot before anything.

I had one of these for a while, and it too was super jangly... which was what i wanted, incidentally... even when i flattened the tone, it didn't get toooo mellow. you're playing with a single bridge pickup there. from my experience with this model, its just the nature of the beast to be on the brighter side.

[cheepaxes]

It looks to me like you could put pretty much any single coil Strat-type pickup in there. If you wanted to keep the white cover you could search for an old Lace Sensor on eBay. If it were me I think I'd try a Bill Lawrence L-290S or L298S. Or, if you want to spend less, try one of these:

http://store.guitarfetish.com/5albostpi1.html

Obviously you're not preserving collector value this way, but that's sort of only a concern if you're planning on selling it, no?

But I'm kind of with Michael -- I'd check to make sure that everything is wired correctly, and consider the possibility that that's just the way that pickup sounds.

-Scott

[windofdeth]

I have checked the connections again but it still is a little too jangly also the has been a huge problem with static feedback from the guitar, I'm thinking of buying a newer melody maker pick up and see if that works