15MAS

Your 355 sounds gorgeous. Please post a picture so I can look at what you’ve done. Thank you for your reply. It sure is a nice group of folks on the Gibson Forums. I hope you have a great weekend and get in some playing time.

Not much to add to the excellent reply from mihcmac, but I did have a related situation. I recently bought a Custom Shop 1959 ES-355 Reissue that came with the Grovers mentioned above. Two problems: One) It is my understanding that the ES-355 shipped exclusively with Klusons until 1963, so I guess my 1959 Reissue isn’t exactly like the original. Two) The Grovers that came on my 355 are not locking tuners and I’ve become VERY biased toward locking tuners. I tried to get the appropriate locking Grovers (502Gs) to match as closely as possible. However, they are not available anywhere. The best forecast I got was from BeyondEleven. They said they could have some in 3-6 months. I put some 502Gs on my LP about a year ago and I don’t remember them being that hard to find. Anyway, I put Ratio tuners the new 355 and they work excellently. They come with adapters, so no drilling is required (I only make modifications that are 100% reversible and I always keep the original parts). Apart from fitting perfectly and looking great, the Ratio tuners use different gear ratios for the six different strings. It surely makes tuning much quicker and more accurate. I can’t believe nobody thought of different gear ratios before. Enjoy your ES.

Your guitar is beautiful! The classic 335 look. You’re a VERY fortunate person. Enjoy it. While the guitar is truly lovely, I don’t even want to think about what a Scotsman wears in a Glam Rock band…. Have fun with your new guitar.

You’re very gracious. I appreciate your comments. I, too, grew-up with Witch Hats on my previous LPs and I really like that look. Speed Knobs take a bit of practice to change volume/tone without looking down. That said, I think I may actually like them better, from a functionality perspective. The LP is pretty much where I want it now. Probably no further changes to that one. The action is ridiculously low. I play with a soft hand, so the lower the better for me. I did change the tuners on the 355. It came with non-locking Grovers. I tried to replace them with Grover locking tuners (502G), but they can’t be sourced easily. After getting a three-month delivery estimate on the 502Gs, I started looking at other options and settled on the Ratio gold locking tuners. Not an EXACT match visually, but pretty close. Well, they’re gold colored, anyway. They installed and work flawlessly. Extremely smooth and accurate. Why didn’t somebody come up with variable ratio tuners a long time ago. I kept the original 355 Grove tuners, but will probably never use anything but Ratio in the future. Really happy with them. Sorry for the long reply……

Agreed. I am extremely fortunate to be able to play these instruments daily. I sure do appreciate your post and I hope you have a great weekend playing some music.

You’re quite gracious. Thank you for your response. I’m playing it as we text. She just met her brother (2020 Custom Shop Les Paul Custom - Ebony*) and there is considerable vying for Dad’s attention across the amps and effects. These guitars are much better at being guitars, than I am at being a guitar player, so this could take a while…. *Please see image below

Understood. For any of my guitars, I only make reversible modifications and always keep the original parts. I sure do appreciate your response and hope you have a great week. Thank you.

Noob Alert: I just got my first 355 today. It’s a Custom Shop 1959 Reissue ES-355. It plays well and sounds great through Fender, Vox and Marshall amplifiers. I play with a light hand, so I lowered the action to about 2/64, changed the strings and changed the intonation. It now plays like a dream. Other than weighing-in at 8 pounds and 10 ounces, I could easily see this becoming a daily player. I plan to leave the guitar relatively stock, but ordered Grover 502G locking tuners as my only currently-planned modification. Are there any other 355 modifications I should consider? My thanks to you all for any guidance.

Noob Alert: I just got my first 355 today. It’s a Custom Shop 1959 Reissue ES-355. It plays well and sounds great through Fender, Vox and Marshall amplifiers. I play with a light hand, so I lowered the action to about 2/64, changed the strings and changed the intonation. It now plays like a dream. Other than weighing-in at 8 pounds and 10 ounces, I could easily see this becoming a daily player. I plan to leave the guitar relatively stock, but ordered Grover 502G locking tuners as my only currently-planned modification. Are there any other 355 modifications I should consider? My thanks to you all for any guidance.