1964 Gibson Melody Maker D Left Handed

This vintage 1964 Gibson Melody Maker D was factory made for left handed players! I'm always a Gibson guitar buyer but especially for left handed vintage Gibson guitars. Gibson made left handed guitars but only in very small quantities and usually by custom order. Many of them will have odd specifications because of the small quantity of guitars that were made for left handed players. 

Gibson guitar experts will spot a major oddity on this 1964 Gibson Melody Maker D just by looking at it: the offset post and uncompensated wrap tail bridge. Gibson utilized the uncompensated offset post wrap tail bridge on vintage Gibson Les Paul solid body guitars beginning in 1953 and lasted until 1962. In 1962, Gibson began drilling bridge posts even with each other in order to use a pre-compensated wrap tail that many collectors call the lightning bar tailpiece. It's likely that a compensated tailpiece for left handed guitars was never made. The old style wrap tail design didn't require a left handed part so it was probably easier to use up the stock of old bridges in this way. 

The other interesting feature of this guitar that I found was reverse mounted volume and tone control knobs. Gibson wired right handed guitars with two volumes close to the bridge and two tones close to the outer edge of the guitar. This vintage 1964 Gibson Melody Maker D Lefty was made with two volume knobs close to the edge of the guitar and two tone knobs close to the bridge.