I got hold of this Grabber copy dead cheap on eBay a few months back, and today I finally got it playable, so I'm proclaiming this a NBD. It's supposedly from the 70s, made by Melody (no serial number). Anyone know anything more about them? All I really know about Melody is that they were in some way related to Eko and built in Italy until the late 70s.
The bass has needed a huge amount of work. Working in a guitar store with an incredible tech helps - so far it's had the neck glued back together in at least three places (see the photo to see where it's split right down the middle), a refret, new wiring and a new bridge. I went for a Fender HiMass since I use that on everything, and the original two saddle lump of rust was shockingly bad. The original pickup has survived, and I threw some Bare Knuckle pots in there. Sounds great! I've moved the strap button to the horn too because it was hanging really weirdly, as tends to be the case with these things. The tuners hold up surprisingly well. Given the weakness of the neck I don't think I'm ever going to go heavier than 45-100 strings in flat tuning.
I only grabbed this because I'm in a Green Day tribute band and needed something for the Dookie-era look. There are conflicting reports on what Mike used on Dookie (I'm reading a lot about a PJ), but the Gibson he used live was a G-3, not a Grabber. Since the enormous scrachplate is pretty much all cavity underneath there's definitely space to go for the three single coils if I want, but this pickup sounds so much like the Dookie tone I don't think I'll bother.
Weighs a ton, and beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I LOVE this thing. I'd probably never use it for any kind of big event where I need to know it won't fall to bits, but it makes a change from my ever-growing collections of P Basses.
The bass has needed a huge amount of work. Working in a guitar store with an incredible tech helps - so far it's had the neck glued back together in at least three places (see the photo to see where it's split right down the middle), a refret, new wiring and a new bridge. I went for a Fender HiMass since I use that on everything, and the original two saddle lump of rust was shockingly bad. The original pickup has survived, and I threw some Bare Knuckle pots in there. Sounds great! I've moved the strap button to the horn too because it was hanging really weirdly, as tends to be the case with these things. The tuners hold up surprisingly well. Given the weakness of the neck I don't think I'm ever going to go heavier than 45-100 strings in flat tuning.
I only grabbed this because I'm in a Green Day tribute band and needed something for the Dookie-era look. There are conflicting reports on what Mike used on Dookie (I'm reading a lot about a PJ), but the Gibson he used live was a G-3, not a Grabber. Since the enormous scrachplate is pretty much all cavity underneath there's definitely space to go for the three single coils if I want, but this pickup sounds so much like the Dookie tone I don't think I'll bother.
Weighs a ton, and beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I LOVE this thing. I'd probably never use it for any kind of big event where I need to know it won't fall to bits, but it makes a change from my ever-growing collections of P Basses.
