Introduced in 1959, the Melody Maker was Gibson's flagship entry-level solid body guitar. Initially offered in three iterations-- a standard model with an lone single-coil pickup, a 3/4 sized model, and a Melody Maker 'D' dual pickup model--, early Melody Makers featured a single-cutaway sunburst slab mahogany body redolent of a Les Paul Junior. The body transitioned to double-cut in 1961, and in 1967 two additional models-- a three-pickup Melody Maker III and a 12-string model-- were introduced. The original run of Melody Makers was discontinued in 1971.