JO'C

Are you sure about the year? Serial# suggests 1966. Also 1966 is the year that Gibson switched to the 1 9/16" narrower nut, so if your Dad wanted the wider 1 11/16" nut in 1966 he would have had to order it special. A 1965 would already have the wider nut unless he wanted it even wider, which I'm not sure if Gibson would even do back then. They certainly wouldn't nowadays. A measurement of the nut width could clear that up. The different serial#'s are likely an employee error. I don't know enough about the differences between right and left handed guitars to know if the neck/fretboard profile would be the same for both. I'm right handed so I never put much thought into lefty guitars and if they are any different other than being upside down. Maybe they put the wrong neck on the body originally and switched to the correct one when it was returned. I'm guessing that you are right handed too based on the strings being installed upside down. Good luck in your quest for answers, JO'C

My go to source for Gibson serial numbers puts it as a 1965. A 1961 would have a 3 to 5 digit serial number.

If you put a stop tail piece in, you'll need to drill two additional holes in the body. The three that are there for the trem are too far back and straight in line. The stop bar holes are angled a bit. Then you'll have 3 extra holes further back. The good news is that it's black. And black is black, so filling the 3 holes and touching up shouldn't be too difficult. You may want to remove the control panel to get a look at the back of the pickup to see what it is. It might be quite valuable if it's an original PAF or Pat No. sticker Humbucker. Just don't leave the plastic panel off too long as it might shrink and be difficult to reattach. I had this happen on a 1966 Fender Jazzmaster that I had. Got it back on but it was a scary few minutes. Old and aged plastic does funky things.

Looks to be a 1965 based on the serial#. I believe these came with P90 pickups originally so someone in the past likely routed it for a humbucker. Knobs have been changed to speed knobs. It was originally a tremolo model, not a stop tail, hence the 3 posts. Here's a link to one on Reverb: https://reverb.com/item/71818472-gibson-melody-maker-with-vibrola-1964-1965-cherry Finding the missing pieces could be tough... and expensive. Good luck getting it back into shape.

Just found one online with a similar 8 digit S/N to yours. No Made in USA stamp either. They must have discontinued that when they switched to the new 8 digit S/N scheme in 1977.

I don't have any 70's Gibsons but my 1969 ES-335 has no dot in the "i" and the "o" is not a complete circle, open at the top.

Your pics do not show up. Based on the S/N it dates to 1977, the first year the 8 digit serial# pattern was used. First and 5th digit designate the year.

No disrespect to Dickey's memory but since the conversation has shifted to Duane and Fillmore East, I decided to share this: This pic was taken by my late friend and guitar tech extraordinaire Bob Winters. He took the pic at the Lowell (MA) Memorial Auditorium two days before the legendary Fillmore East show. About 25 years ago he gave me an 8x10" print which I framed and hung on the wall in my music room. At the time he told me he also sent a print to the Allman Bros. Museum in Macon, GA. and supposedly it is on display there. I've never been so I don't know for sure. Anyhow, lots of emotion over Dickey's passing. Jaimo is the only original member left. Might pull Les Brers in A Minor out of my skull this weekend. I first learned it about 50 years ago and still use it sometimes as an intro to my acoustic Whippin' Post. Rock on ABB fans!

This one hit especially hard. When I got home from work yesterday my wife was out and my first thought was to have a chance to play in the empty house. I thought about grabbing my 336 and plugging in but it was locked away upstairs. So I grabbed my acoustic and sang and played Blue Sky, Melissa and Stormy Monday, all of which I do solo acoustic versions of as well as the electric versions with the band. Years ago while playing Melissa, I tossed some of the Blue Sky leads in and they worked, same key and all. Ever since, those two songs belong together. And at least for me, Stormy Monday is the gem of the Fillmore East album. I love the haunting minor cliche and Memphis swing rhythm turn in the middle. And I do the Dickey solo with the band. . I felt a lot better after playing and felt blessed for the gift of wonderful music that Dickey and the rest of the Allman's gave us.

Yeah he definitely held things together for the band in the 70's. I was too young to see Duane live but caught most of the shows in the late 70's when they came around. Saw some cool iterations of the band including when they had Chuck Leavell on second keyboard and Bonnie Bramlett on vocals. Bonnie and Dickey had great chemistry on Crazy Love. Forgot to mention Jessica and Southbound earlier, two more of Dickey's great songs.

Cool. One of my favorite albums from the era is Taste: Live at the Isle of Wight. Rory Gallagher is one of my guitar heroes; along with Jimi of course. I'm happy that there is a lot of great video footage of that festival, the UK's answer to Woodstock. I was just 12 at the time. I remember hearing Clapton's Let it Rain in 1970 and the outro guitar solo is what made me want to become a guitarist. I just loved the high, tinny Strat tone and I played Strats for many decades before switching over to Gibsons in the last dozen years or so.

So sad, I agree. A major influence in my playing style. I love how he used country-style major scale phrasing in southern rock songs. Blue Sky, Revival, In Memory of Elizabeth Reed and of course Ramblin' Man. And he was the perfect compliment to Duane and later as the headliner he kept the band together while Greg was a mess, before he became a mess himself and got booted. A favorite memory is the acoustic set they did at Great Woods in 1992 with Dickey and Warren Haynes along with Gregg doing electric songs acoustically. RIP Dickey!

Hi Andy, Yes that serial number is correct for 1967. Finding a period correct pick guard will be quite expensive. Good luck getting it playable again. Many years ago I had a '66 ES-330 and I currently have a 1969 ES-335.

You beat me to it by a minute!

I'm calling the eclipse my Woodstock experience. As I was only 10 at the time of the first Woodstock so I was too young to go. But seeing the movie and having older friends and uncles tell me the horror stories of the closed NY State Thruway always stuck with me. My sister-in-law lives in Jericho, Vermont in the area of totality and she invited anyone who wanted to to come up for the weekend. We took the RV up on Saturday and it took 3 1/2 hours to drive the 189 miles to get there. There was snow on the ground but it was gone by Sunday afternoon. Eclipse day was perfect; sunny in the 60's. The eclipse was awesome! Definitely in the top 10 experiences of my life. The temp dropped at least 10 degrees and mosquitoes started coming out like crazy about 10 minutes before totality. Once it got dark we heard roosters crowing and owls hooting. Totality looked like this: My nephew's friend took the pic. We could look at it without the protective glasses for a couple of minutes. The coolest thing was the Prominence (my new vocabulary word) at 7:00. Wild purple colors moving around in a twisting loop. Totality was at 3:26 pm. We hung around until 4:45 and hit the road. A few others left right after totality and let us know that the interstate was clogged so we took low roads for the first 35 miles, which took 4 hours. It was like leaving a stadium concert parking lot that never ended. We sent texts to others for updates but they didn't send. My wife sent me a test text and even though we were 3' feet apart, it took 2 hours to get to me. Altogether it took 9 1/2 hours and it was bumper to bumper except for the last half hour. Definitely worst traffic experience I ever had but at least we have food and a bathroom right in the rig. And it was worth it! I did have to take an extra day off yesterday to unpack and unwind.