Larry Mollard

I'm still waiting on my check to arrive, and deals on ES 330s keep coming and going and I can't do a thing about it. Ha! It's hard to wait.

Thanks Alan! Both look great to me. I think I'll go for the 330L still, I get the idea I'll like the 60/30 neck a little better. Can't say I'm not a little jealous at the idea of having both of them, though!

No, it's not too late... I am using some inheritance money for this and it hasn't arrived yet. It's one last present to me from my grandmother, who I was very close to. I think I'm pretty sold on the 330L at this point, but I'd love to see some pictures and if you had any way to photograph or measure the thickness of the necks that would be great. I like a lot of things about the VOS models, mainly the pickups. I like the thought of the underwound ones with the '59 reissue. My fear is that the ones with the 330L might be kind of overwound for me... it's crisp and clean I'm wanting out of this guitar, not a bluesy growl. Of course, changing the pickups is not impossible. Let me ask you, do you notice any real difference in the sound of the two? Thanks for all your help!

I'm on it! I just need a little more time to put the money together... I'll put up pictures once I have her.

OK... that'll probably do it. Thanks for verifying what I had suspected! It'll be the 330L then, likely in the Beale Street Blue, but maybe the sunburst. On that I'm a little flexible. Thanks for the thoughts!

Hi all, I've been looking at this purchase for a long time now and think I have figured it all out, but I thought I'd throw it out there since it's a big purchase and (officially) the last guitar I ever intend to buy (it'll be my fifteenth). I'm probably going to get one of the 2010 or so Custom Shop reissue 330L models that are new but have been sticking around for a while. The main reason for this is the 60/30 neck, which I think I will enjoy more than the '50's neck that is found on the current '59 reissue models. Otherwise, I would probably prefer the current reissues, since I like the thought of the underwound pickups as well as the neck joining at the 16th fret. But I'm a little leery of the bigger neck. But to be honest, my experience in guessing which of these two I would like is based on other Gibsons: I have a current Les Paul Junior which has the '60's Slim-Taper neck that I absolutely love, and a current Melody Maker that is said to have a generically described '50's profile (no idea which one from that decade) that is OK for what I use it for. But that's mainly for playing in open C tuning, which means that I don't do a lot of chording, mainly fingerpicking. And I really can't comprehend what the '59 style neck would be like, exactly, and no way to find out. I am skipping the thought of a vintage instrument for two reasons: first is, I don't want to feel a sense of dread if I use this as just a guitar, and also I understand that the width of the neck as measured across the nut can vary quite a bit. I recently gave away a Casino because it measured a full three millimeters narrower than what my other Gibsons did, and I was just stumbling over simple chords on there. I knew I'd never play it enough to actually get used to it, so I let it go. I seem to read over and over on forums that the ES-330s in which the neck joins at the classic 16th fret have the best sound, but the ES-335 is never said to lack in tone due to the longer neck join, so I'm not sure how much it'll really matter. Any thoughts? I'd love to hear from other ES-330L owners, if possible.