I love mine Gibson ES335

I played my pal's 335 yesterday, never played one before. I liked it.

 

I love mine too.....

 

My number one and only.. (not counting my lap steels) One of the last Nashville A59 Dot Historics...

 

Have owned 2 - my first was a '74 cherry red that was poorly built with a too-thin neck at the nut, but sounded amazing. Second was an exceptionally built, great playing '95 (also cherry) that just never had the tone happening.

Would love to find another, but it would really need to be a '59 style neck with Klusons. I don't hate the '60's slim necks, but do hate the way Grovers rob warmth from the tone, and prefer the '59 neck to the '60's slim. For the kind of money they're getting, it would need to be right on all counts.

Beautiful Nashville '59, BTW.

EDIT: And NO Flames, please! Plain natural, cherry or tobacco.

 

Sweet Moses, that is GORGEOUS!

 

I've been getting back into jazz a bit lately. I mostly play a strat with flats but have a Hamer 335-type. It currently has round wounds but I've been thinking of putting flats on it. Might even take it into a tech to see how much better of a setup he can get.

It's funny though... I've had three 335 types, two that were/are pretty nice. I don't really want to like them and I keep trying to tell myself that they don't sound that much different than my LP but I dunno... Every time I plug it in, flip to the neck pickup and dial in a nice tone that's mostly clean with just a bit of drive from a Wampler Ecstasy (Dumble=-ish), man... it really sounds good. I don't find them quite as comfortable as a strat or even an LP but they sure sound nice.

 

During your hiatus we bought a lot of 335s around here.
You need to add one to your current list.

 

Bhodie, this is the second time I've read this in recent days.
What's the deal on that?

 

In efforts not to start a holy war.. (go to Les Paul Forum and do a search) the abridged version is that I believe Gibson diluted the brand with too many 335's that are "kind of alike" but not really. Custom Shop, Historic, 50th Anniversary, Fat Neck, Nashville, Memphis, Limited number runs.. etc. All at different (but similar) features and price points made in both Nashville and Memphis.

There are those that say that the 335 Historics from Nashville were the pinnacle of 335 production. They were also the most expensive 335 guitars (not special ordered or signature). Most collectors it seems will hold out for, or would prefer a Nashville Historic 335.. they seem to hold their value the best too and tend to go for roughly $1K more on the market.

And.. sometime in early 2009 production of the 335 started moving from Nashville to Memphis and the move was completed in 2009. So throw in a little more "rarity" in the discussion mix

I don't know about all that.. but I had a standard cherry gloss dot 335 and I sold it to buy this one.. it has the LP 1959 neck profile with the tortoise side markers, pretty beefy, upgraded electronics like the 59 LP, Classic 57's (and these are pretty hot) and a fit and finish I have never seen in another. I have played several of the Nashville Historic 335's and they are all just pretty consistent.. mine just happened to be one of those special mixes of materials and craft that produced something special.. people who have played it call it "VOG" for voice of god...

So, not to say the Nashville Historic is "better" as a class.. I just know this one particular guitar is in a class by itself.

And it's blond

Last edit: By the way.. it is not as comfy to play as the R9 I sold to keep this one.. it helps to have longer arms (I do) and I will never look really "cool" playing it.. since I carry it higher on my body (think high waders) for ease of access.. but omg the tone.....

 

I'll have to get over there.

I knew the bodies were in Memphis at least for quite a while already, if not al along, and the Historics were assembled in Nashville at at one time at least the Historic 335 necks made in Nashville.

 

Careful of the can of worms!

There are those that argue the laminate used in the historic, while pressed in Memphis and trucked over to Nashville, was different, that the forms were different in Nashville, that they had more experience in Nashville, all kinds of stuff. All of the opinions expressed with great conviction and "personal knowledge".

If you find out anything cool, let me know!

 

no doubt it is a colossal sized can of worms. i was going back and forth between a 59 historic and a 59 dot reissue 335, which is the closest of the memphis built to the nashville spec. i ended up going with the memphis 335 which will be here on monday. the guys at daves did a comparison of the memphis built i ordered v. nashville built 59 historic that they had in stock. they said really the only difference that they saw was that the 59 historic had a slightly different neck carve. the historic had slightly less shoulder. presumably gibson has matched the historic neck carve closer to the actual 59. other than that, caps, tuners, side dot markers, etc were all the same. the historic has more of a fire engine red finish compared to the darker red Vos finish on the memphis built. i couldn't justify the $800 difference in price based on their description, so went with the memphis. we'll see on monday.

anyway, for curiosity sake on the laminate body construction, next time you change strings, you should take off one of the pickups and take some pics of the body laminate construction and compare it to the photos in this thread to see if we can spot any differences.

http://www.lespaulforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=172356

 

Bump - anyone else find themselves unsubscribed to all their threads?

 

Just checked mine in the User CP and they're all there.

 

My blonde with some friends............

 

I've been thinking about going from 10s to 11s too.

 

I did that about a month ago. My 335 never sounded better.

 

i love mine as well. it doesn't rule the roost, but it sure is sweet and versatile.

 

Here's my 335 hangin' with my PRS Cu22. They get along very well.
And the 335 has IT...TONE. This one is a Memphis built, '60 Dot Neck VOS, anniversary model.

S.
j