I have identified a guitar i bought on EBAY 4 years ago for about $200, case and all as being an Epiphone es335 Deluxe VS made at the Saien plant in 2000. Serial number is I00011952. That said: this guitar was barely if ever played and certainly never abused. This is no matched grain plus top, pretty much working mans grain on top and back but it sure reminded me of the two matching Gibson es335s the lead and rhythm guitar players owned (both now sadly deceased) in a band I played in back in 66-71 in Vermont, just outta high school and into college. I was the bass player then The only guitars I'd had til then were two Martin ( '52 model 0-18 which I still have ) and a '61 D12-20 that I bought used and sold when the neck went, no receipt for a free reset and i was a poor colletch kid) and that's my story. Grainy cosmetic issues aside this one I can play unplugged and it has a sweet voice and vibe all its own.
I have a few more guitars now that I play at age 72, this being one I bought mostly for nostalgia and because I knew it would be OK for playing both jazz and blues and I was right: the neck is perfect, frets same, nice tone from those old gold Humbuckers... My issue was those questionable old gold "Grover tuners" not staying in tune at all, at least the B and E not holding the bends. The more I played the worse it got until I finally bought some Kluson Gold locking Revolution 3x3 tuners to replace all the originals. Then there was no problem at all: that guitar I started pulling off the rack more than the others when I felt like working on some progression or learning some YouTube lesson or just noodling on the couch instead of hanging out in my small music studio getting all serious. This one looks, plays and sounds like those two Gibsons my old friends had except for two things: the binding on those was a bit deeper "yellowed by age" but not much ....and theirs as I remember had plain truss rod covers, old school Kluson non locking tuners and that was pre SNARK, pre-BOSS Tune pedal . The organ player would run a riff in E or A, we'd ear check...Mine has the name GIBSON etched on it which makes me think that Gibson in 2000 still cared enough about products which carried their name and "patents, characteristics" even though Gibson planned to spin off Epiphone in the near future to identify it as their own below an EPIPHONE headstock brand . Glad I bought it when I did.
I'm about to put a Bigsby B3 and Towner down bar on it because I dislike the tremolo and its action on the '86 Fender Strat (Texas Hots mod) I own ( too stiff, too much effort and it's standard bottom mount installed whereas SRV's top mount arm makes more sense) and I have played that one until it looks like a real relic .... I am not inclined to put a tremolo on the 2019 Epi LP Standard Plus Top Pro I like just the way it is.
Maybe some of you have been there and beyond, can get a few grins from reading this. I still do a 9-5 and really love playing.
