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ES335 Studio 2


hi13ts

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I've been eyeing one since I got the news of its release, but haven't been able to find one locally to try out. Saw Greg Koch play a few on some videos, but of course, videos aren't very reliable. Unfortunately, I've received official word from a Gibson rep that the fretboard is baked maple, not rosewood. This perplexes me, as I just don't understand why Gibson can't understand what a studio model is, something I thought was pretty basic. The Les Paul Studios around the 2005-2007 kinda hits the nail on the head. They were, for all intents and purposes, a Les Paul Standard sans the binding. Now, the Studios have gone through so many changes that they resemble little of what the original Les Paul standards were. Now, I wanted an ES-335 at a slightly cheaper price. I was hoping the 335 studios would fulfill that dream, but both the 2013 studios and the 2014 studios have failed to offer me that.

 

The woods that guitars are made of are imperative of their tone. I grew up knowing that part of the tone of a 335 came from a rosewood fretboard. I know it seems trivial to be so frustrated over a switch in fretboard choice, but I've had baked maple and I know it does not feel or sound like rosewood. It's a different guitar; it's no longer the guitar I thought it would be. I had a limited edition color SG Standard from 2010 or so and could clearly feel and hear the difference in fretboard material. It wasn't what I thought an SG would play and sound like.

 

Here's to hoping 2015 brings good change.

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The woods that guitars are made of are imperative of their tone.

While your statement of course is true, generalizations about tone are a dime a dozen. Two 335s with identical construction specs can sound significantly different. Which one you personally find satisfying is all that matters.

 

I would suggest trying all the 335s you can get your hands on, including those with baked maple boards, and then start forming a first hand opinion. You never know where or when a gem might be discovered.

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I've no doubt that the fingerboard material imparts something to the overall tone of a guitar but it's a pretty small margin. I'm a huge fan of the ES355 with its Ebony board but I'd have a hard time picking out a 355 from its Rosewood board counterparts on tone alone, and I strongly suspect I'd be in the majority where true blind tests are concerned.

There are so many other variables in a 335, identifying one element such as fingerboard material would be a very tall order. Feel may well be a bigger issue for many - I'm from the school of 'play the frets, not the fretboard' so I can't really comment on that one.

 

At the end of the day, a 335 Studio II is a Gibson made 335 with a number of corners cut to keep the price low - but it's built alongside the full fat 335 with the same quality of workmanship. For those who can't accept those cut corners, you can get an Epi 335 Pro that is far closer on paper to the full 335 specs - but aside from differing build quality you'll have a neck made of something that kind of passes for some sort of Mahogany if you don't look too hard, and Maple that certainly didn't come from anywhere near the Northern US. Or you can save up and buy a full fat, US made 335 that doesn't make any compromises but charges you accordingly.

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