Static

You're quite welcome, Doug. They're pretty comfortable couch guitars! Just play one at a store and make sure you like the Memphis Tone System and the Burstbucker Pros. If you've played guitars with 50s wiring or a treble bleed, thats kind of what you're getting with the 235. And just make sure those Burstbucker Pros are able to be tamed down enough for the kind of Jazz you play, they lean towards the hotter side of the spectrum. They got sort of a chunky 50's neck on em that I love and they can certainly pull off the brighter jazz sounds. If you wanted warmer jazz sounds I would seek a semi hollow or hollow with Classic 57's and no Memphis Tone System.

Gampadoug, the ES-235 doesnt really compare to the body size of the ES-335. The ES-235 is what I would describe as a ES-125 shrunk down to around slightly thicker than Les Paul thickness, with the upper and lower bout less wide than an ES-125 by a little bit but not quite Les Paul proportions. And as mentioned before, the guitar is balanced. I noticed no neck dive or dipping at the body.

No, the neck is maple, actually.

I play sitting with it 100% of the time. I found it very balanced. If you are a jazz guy, make sure you try one out in a store. It has a bit of a hollow body ring to it but I'm not sure how much of that 'ring' you require for the style of jazz you play. It's a minute amount of chime when compared to the 335 or the 355, but it has it. Like noted above..it does freakin' everything. But I wouldn't say it is the holy grail for one genre particularly. If that makes sense. The pickups on this sound hot but their output is similar to the 57 Classics.

So I picked up an ES-235 Ebony in gloss finish and haven't been able to put it down in 4 days. The neck is extremely comfortable, the Burstbucker Pros work really well with the wiring (Memphis Tone Circuit Plus...kind of like 50's wiring with a treble bleed), you get a lot of response and control from the tone and volume knobs. Action is really great on this one and its really comfortable to hold and so light. Beautiful sparkling cleans, fat crunch sounds and the most cutting gain-driven tones imaginable. This guitar would be a surgical tool in a band. It would really cut through. Because of the maple neck, maple-poplar-maple back and sides and maple centreblock, and somewhat bright BBPros, this cannot quite get the low, dark growl of the Les Paul but with tone down, it has a growl of its own, more in the upper mids of the spectrum. It can do that slapback echo rockabilly thing and it can do reverb drenched twang as well. The bridge pickup can get you anywhere from Gretsch to Tele tones if you play around with your amp and guitar dials. The neck pickup could sound like a really fat Strat sound at times. I know some have their issues with Burstbucker Pros but I really feel like they go over well in this particular guitar and are well suited. I was getting Duane Eddy and Bill Kirchen tones with reverb, everything from Duane Allman, to Skynyrd to Clapton tones in crunch, and big fat Malcolm Young, George Thorogood, Billy Gibbons tones when adding more drive. You should really check one of these out if you see it in your travels. It is as if a bunch of iconic guitars got together and made a baby. So many tones hidden in this thing. Well worth the price because it is actually a fun little guitar and feels unique. It does every style well and has its own thing going on and lots of mojo in my opinion.