JJRPIII

Thanks for the tip. Luckily I have not yet attempted to whack the pots with a mallet. I was considering doing a truss rod adjustment when I switched to flat 12s from the stock 10s but so far the neck doesn't seem to need it.

Well since the 336 has the semihollow thing covered a full hollowbody makes most sense as a further acquisition. Tonally, the 336 does a contemporary jazz tone I'm happy with so it's a bit more of an old school mellow tone that I'd be looking to cover. ES-165 probably does make most sense.

That's what I figured. There was one in excellent condition on sale for £1800 recently and I was tempted, though. I have just in the last hour discovered that ES-775 guitars exist and I am intrigued. Slightly mellower neck pup placement. Not likely to see one for sale, I guess.

Quick update : I've been playing this guitar for a while now and it's fabulous. And I checked all the deets with Gibson and it really was an incredible bargain at RichTone that I stumbled onto at just the right time. The neck is really comfortable. Not too fat, not too thin. 57 classics are doing it for me. I resisted changing the gauge on the strings for ages because it was playing so nicely and I didn't want to have to mess around with the truss rod but I've finally got around to putting thomastik flat 12s on. Action still feels lovely, haven't really felt the need to adjust the neck. The nut still needs filing properly, though. Essentially, the guitar gives me just what I was hoping for. Lightweight, versatile jazz guitar that can do a load of other stuff as well. The only thing that's changed is I've gone from thinking I didn't want an actual full sized jazzbox to definitely wanting one, just for that super vintage, mellow 50s sound. My top target right now is a late 90s ES-165, from before they switched to a floating pup. Other than that I'm thinking ES-175 (L5 CES would be great but they're pricey) or possibly a 137? The 137 is kind of tempting because they tend to come up less expensive than the other options, but I think they've got LP pups in rather than 57 classics so I might want to swap those out. Couple of demos of the 336 with flatwounds here and here.

Thanks! I'll get it sorted eventually, one way or another. I can live with it for now.

He's just so goddamn tasteful. No surprise a master of taste like Paul Desmond rated him so highly. He'd have been a lot more famous if he'd recorded more in the US but I guess he was happy just doing his thing in Toronto, sounding awesome every night. I remember a story I heard about him going to buy a new amp. One of his students tagged along, expecting to gain some insight into how Ed achieved his sound. So he met him at the guitar shop and Ed hadn't even brought his guitar. He didn't even switch the amps on. He just picked them up to check the weight and walked out with the lightest.

Not presumptuous at all. I'm all ears for Gibson headstock tips. I actually found out I wanted to go full Gibson through a bit of a weird route - I bought a JTV-59 ages ago because it was discounted as B stock and I thought the modelling would be really handy for library music work. Then when I got it I completely ignored the modelling and just played the JTV's vintage style alnicos instead. After a while I realised I was playing the JTV all the time for everything and hardly touching the Fenders. I bought a new tele with humbuckers and a tummy cut with a bold plan to try and sound like Ed Bickert, thinking that was going to be my main from then on. Put flat 12s on that and put another set of flat 12s on the JTV and found the JTV was much closer to what I wanted than the tele. So at that point I knew I preferred Gibson scale with flat 12s on a small body guitar. But the JTV's neck is a bit fatter than I wanted and it's a bit heavy. So that pushed me towards an LP semi, a 339 or a 336, and it didn't take a lot of research to work out which body shape was most comfortable for me and which I preferred out of the 336 and 339. I did consider Ibanez / D'Angelico / Eastman - and I'm probably going to get an Ibanez AG95 before too much longer - but the 336s are just so pretty.

Thanks for your reassuring reply! It's hard to measure accurately with the curvature but I think mine is just under 14 if I measure from side to side in a dead straight line. I've found another source citing the 336 lower bout at 13 3/4 inches, and that might be in the right sort of ballpark. And that's another really lovely quilted top you've got there. I'll get something similar when fate allows. I'd be happy to have a second one. Or a third. When I was first learning to play I thought my ideal was owning 3 high end strats - 1 black, one white blonde and one brown sunburst, with 8 hole 1 ply scratchplates and modern C necks. It took me a long time to realise my playing had gone in completely the other direction and that my true ideal instrument was a 336 or 356. Good spot on the nut, as well. It does seem to have some extra taper on that left hand side for some reason. I think Gibson have been threatening to open a Gibson Garage in London sometime soon and if that happens I'll go there to ask about adjusting the pot height or anything else I want done. I do much prefer the height on yours. I've done a fair bit of DIY but only on much less expensive guitars and I can't say I would recommend myself as a guitar tech, although a bit of basic setting up and work on the nut shouldn't be a huge problem. Beyond that though I've always been a bit too prone to experimenting in sudden moments of inspiration and then regretting it afterwards. I have 2 strats that need replacement parts and new wiring jobs thanks to that. Better to keep myself on a short leash in this respect, I think.

Ok, well a bit of googling got me some plans for a 356 listing the lower bout at 35.2 cm, which seems to match mine exactly. And then I saw an old 2017 post from Twang Gang saying his 336 was 14 inches at the lower bout. And the handwriting on my COA seems to match the handwriting on some other 336 COAs I looked up. But there a few sources quoting "13 inches wide, 16 inches long and 1 11/16th-inches deep" - notably authorised Gibson dealers and wikipedia, so I assumed it was direct quote from Gibson's own product info. I've dropped an email to Gibson's support to try and help me definitely authenticate but I guess they're not going to get back to me in a hurry over the weekend, and meanwhile I have a slightly sinking feeling that maybe my bargain dream guitar really is too good to be true.

Lovely! I just think the CS-336 is such a pretty guitar. There's something about the proportions that looks exactly right to me. And I love the headstock with the crown logo, just straightforwardly classic. I always found the 335s just a touch bigger than I want and never liked the jack coming out of the top. And I've never liked the more triangular headstocks you get on straight strung guitars like the PRS or the original ES-336 from the 90s. Just didn't quite fancy that on my 'forever guitar' sort of thing. There's one thing bothering me about mine now, though. I just measured the lower bout. Isn't it supposed to be 13 inches?

Yeah I'm not going to switch them unless I have issues. I think the strings got changed yesterday so that probably accounts for the little bit of instability I've perceived today, although the feel isn't quite as firm as I'm used to so I did wonder. Thanks also Farnsbarns for the tip about nuts and pot length. I would like to get them sitting a bit lower so if I can accomplish that in a zero risk sort of way I might give it a whirl.

I wondered the same thing. I'd been monitoring 336s in stock all over the UK for over a year (there weren't many). Then suddenly in the last few weeks this one - in stock at Richtone in Sheffield - dropped 1000 bucks off the price. I asked them what was up - was it 2nd hand or B stock? Did somebody try it out and drop it? Dings in the neck? Scratches in the finish? They told me they'd done their end of year inventory and this one had been sitting in a glass case in their showroom for over a year and they wanted to move it on to make way for new stock - and that prospective buyers were much keener on 339s, seeing the 336 as basically the same thing but at a much steeper price point. I noticed a few guitar shops not replacing 336s in stock but always having 339s available. And it tallies with some conversations I've had with colleagues, even the guys who have been playing Gibsons their whole careers. I'd tell them I was interested in a 336 and they'd ask me why 336 and not 339. And I'm like, the positioning of the hardware and the neck is different and the neck itself is different and it's a carved instrument with a different tone ... and they're just looking at me like I've lost my mind. The serial is CS 10 something or other which I think means it's a 2021 Nashville. I can't see any noticeable defects but maybe the top wasn't quite flawlessly beautiful enough to persuade the guitarists of North East England to drop the extra cash during a time of high economic anxiety and ballooning utility bills. Maybe the metal tuners on the 339s looked like a better bet than the old style tulips. Yours is stunning, of course. Love the quilts. I've been monitoring 356 stock as well and I don't think there's one anywhere in the UK at the moment. Not sure if I want to try the rubber mallet plan. So far I'm handling this guitar like it's a holy relic. If I ding it somehow I'll have to ring the guitar police and turn myself in.

Hi JO'C, thank for replying. Gorgeous 336 you've got there. I think if I'd designed my own spec I'd have gone for a quilted lemonburst with an ebony board but I just couldn't pass up the discount when I knew a 336 was exactly what I needed. I've attached a few pics. The knobs sit significantly higher than the 2000s era 336s I've seen, which all seemed to look like yours. One other question - I think the tuners I've got are Gibson deluxe. Can I replace them with Klusons without having to drill new holes? I've seen a couple of 336s with Grovers where the original screw holes are visible and that's not really somewhere I want to go. I do definitely want flat 12s but truss rod adjustments are also a bit of an anxiety inducing prospect. Seems to need a bit of work at the nut as well. The 10s it came with are not really sitting properly at the bottom end.