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4Hayden

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Very nice lifeson335!

 

Thank you. I have been putting quite a bit of time in each day with it. Such a fun guitar to play, the clean tones are fantastic, and I love the growl it gives with some gain. Sweet, sweet sounding leads with lots of gain using the neck pickup, and this is the first guitar where I have found myself primarily playing with both pickups (middle switch position). I find for clean tones in particular that having both pickups selected, after dialing in each on it's own, is providing a very nice, warm, wide tone with nice highs great mid range and good tight lows.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I am the proud owner of a 2014 plain top dot neck Memphis ES-335. I've had the new baby for a couple of days, and have only a few hours playing around with it, but I have to say it's a fantastic guitar. I have 10's on it right now as I do a lot of very wide bends (3 and 4 semi tones), and I wanted to see how it felt before considering a move to 11's. I've got a replacement harness from Martin Six Strings with the 500K pots and bumble bee caps that I intend to swap out down the road, but I'm going to give the stock electronics a roll for a while before deciding to change anything. I will likely make a few recordings with the stock electronics and then swap and do the same recordings again to see if there is really a difference coming through on disc, but my first impression of the tones and various tapers on volume and tone are pretty positive. Judging by the chatter on the internet, I was expecting a muffled, tone depleted guitar that could never please me with the stock electronics, but in the short time I've had with this guitar, I was able to dial in a wide variety of very nice usable tones with no effort. I'm sure the honeymoon just needs to come and go before I get the itch to mod anything. I plan to stick with the Classic '57's for quite some time, I like what I'm hearing… today.

 

At any rate, I know what you all really care about… guitar porn. So here it is (granted, it's just a brand new Memphis plain top, so it's not going to blow you away):

 

IMG_3941_zps30321dc7.jpg

 

IMG_3946_zpsf39ec787.jpg

 

IMG_3929_zps0161fe26.jpg

 

More pics if you want:

 

http://s968.photobucket.com/user/lifeson355/library/ES335

 

That's a sharp guitar lifeson355

 

IMG_3941_zps30321dc7.jpg

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Thank you. I have been putting quite a bit of time in each day with it. Such a fun guitar to play, the clean tones are fantastic, and I love the growl it gives with some gain. Sweet, sweet sounding leads with lots of gain using the neck pickup, and this is the first guitar where I have found myself primarily playing with both pickups (middle switch position). I find for clean tones in particular that having both pickups selected, after dialing in each on it's own, is providing a very nice, warm, wide tone with nice highs great mid range and good tight lows.

 

 

Thank you for your comments and pictures;

the sunburst is really gorgeous

Gibson folks know how do a nice sunburst for sure, not guitar porn as you said but a fine and elegant Jazz look [thumbup]

This guitar is 2014;so I have a few questions:

 

how is 2014 quality ? since when the Pleck machines have been used on all 335 ( JAN 2014 ?) ?

 

do you think it 's a good idea to wait for the arrival of the 2014 batches in Europe to get one? ccould take months :(

 

Thank you all for the informations and pics

 

Greetings from a French colleague ( Guitar+Electrical Engineering =; )

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Thank you for your comments and pictures;

the sunburst is really gorgeous

Gibson folks know how do a nice sunburst for sure, not guitar porn as you said but a fine and elegant Jazz look [thumbup]

This guitar is 2014;so I have a few questions:

 

how is 2014 quality ? since when the Pleck machines have been used on all 335 ( JAN 2014 ?) ?

 

do you think it 's a good idea to wait for the arrival of the 2014 batches in Europe to get one? ccould take months :(

 

Thank you all for the informations and pics

 

Greetings from a French colleague ( Guitar+Electrical Engineering =; )

 

I have two recent experiences with brand new Gibson guitars, my 2014 ES-335 and my 2013 J-45 Custom. In terms of fit and finish, I'd put the J-45 ahead of the ES. Not to say there is anything wrong with my ES, but the J-45 I got is an amazing guitar. I've been amazed with the quality of the J-45 since the day I picked it up in local guitar shop. I think Gibson is putting a lot of effort into the Acoustic lines.

 

Having said that, I do love my ES-335. The quality of my ES is very high, but there are a few things I will pick on. The first is that the nut had some dark substance on the surface facing the fretboard. At first it almost looked like some of the rosewood from the fretboard had not been leveled down, but when I got a close look at it, it just looked like some kind of adhesive. It came right off when I scraped it with a razor blade. I think the nut was poorly cut for the G and B strings too, but this is a really easy fix in my case. Just needed to file the two slots just a tiny bit as the strings would ping in their slots with an aggressive bend. I also had some very noticeable bridge rattle (unplugged) going on with the G string in between the 10th and 15th frets. That noise was only detectable with the original set of strings. After I changed the strings (.10's) and inspected the bridge, I have not heard the rattle. That's the extent of my issues with the 335.

 

In terms of the fret job, I think it is one of the best I've played from a new Gibson without a after market setup, but there are a few high points, typically up around 20th fret, but a nice level, crown and polish and truss adjustment will get that sorted out.

 

From a tonal standpoint, I absolutely love this guitar. It is capable of a very wide set of usable tones, and I'm still using the stock harness. I am very close to installing my Martin Six String Customs harness in to see what changes that brings. But I'm very happy with the stock tones, and am surprisingly happy with the stock Classic '57's, so I have no plans to swap pickups anytime soon.

 

One thing I am curious about is the fretboard. I've read a number of posts about boards being two pieces, sort of a veneer approach, but I'll have to wait until I replace the nut to verify if my fingerboard is just one piece of rosewood. I guess it really doesn't matter to me since this guitar plays and sounds so good to me, but I'm still curious. I do plan to replace the stock nut with unbleached bone pretty soon. Just my preference.

 

Based only on my experience, I'd say that getting a 2014 ES is worth it. I couldn't tell you how it compares to a 2013 or earlier.

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This is my "new" Gibson ES335 from 1978. I bought It two weeks ago..

It has a coil split switch factory installed.

The colour is walnut (a very dark walnut, almost transparent black)

A real beauty and a GREAT sounding guitar.

I hope you like..

DSCN0840_zps9e86449b.jpg

DSCN0846_zps6e34ccc1.jpg

Is this a factory finish on your guitar ? I've never saw it before

 

DSCN0846_zps6e34ccc1.jpg

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4hayden, walnut was introduced as a standard colour in 1968 - previously it was used for the back and sides of cheaper sunburst models such as the ES330. It varies quite a bit, from a horrible dung brown to the lovely dark chocolate colour seen in the two examples on this thread. It seems to have been pretty popular at the time, although the cynic in me suspects it was easy to apply and good at covering up the appearance of cheaper pieces of maple. Still, I love the look of mine and the 335 you commented on.

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I have two recent experiences with brand new Gibson guitars, my 2014 ES-335 and my 2013 J-45 Custom. In terms of fit and finish, I'd put the J-45 ahead of the ES. Not to say there is anything wrong with my ES, but the J-45 I got is an amazing guitar. I've been amazed with the quality of the J-45 since the day I picked it up in local guitar shop. I think Gibson is putting a lot of effort into the Acoustic lines.

 

Having said that, I do love my ES-335. The quality of my ES is very high, but there are a few things I will pick on. The first is that the nut had some dark substance on the surface facing the fretboard. At first it almost looked like some of the rosewood from the fretboard had not been leveled down, but when I got a close look at it, it just looked like some kind of adhesive. It came right off when I scraped it with a razor blade. I think the nut was poorly cut for the G and B strings too, but this is a really easy fix in my case. Just needed to file the two slots just a tiny bit as the strings would ping in their slots with an aggressive bend. I also had some very noticeable bridge rattle (unplugged) going on with the G string in between the 10th and 15th frets. That noise was only detectable with the original set of strings. After I changed the strings (.10's) and inspected the bridge, I have not heard the rattle. That's the extent of my issues with the 335.

 

In terms of the fret job, I think it is one of the best I've played from a new Gibson without a after market setup, but there are a few high points, typically up around 20th fret, but a nice level, crown and polish and truss adjustment will get that sorted out.

 

From a tonal standpoint, I absolutely love this guitar. It is capable of a very wide set of usable tones, and I'm still using the stock harness. I am very close to installing my Martin Six String Customs harness in to see what changes that brings. But I'm very happy with the stock tones, and am surprisingly happy with the stock Classic '57's, so I have no plans to swap pickups anytime soon.

 

One thing I am curious about is the fretboard. I've read a number of posts about boards being two pieces, sort of a veneer approach, but I'll have to wait until I replace the nut to verify if my fingerboard is just one piece of rosewood. I guess it really doesn't matter to me since this guitar plays and sounds so good to me, but I'm still curious. I do plan to replace the stock nut with unbleached bone pretty soon. Just my preference.

 

Based only on my experience, I'd say that getting a 2014 ES is worth it. I couldn't tell you how it compares to a 2013 or earlier.

If your 335 is a 2014, it's a one piece fingerboard. 2012 was the year of the laminate boards. Agree, Gibson is putting out some fine 335s but they do need to be set up, like you mentioned. Other thing I've noticed is the tail pieces usually seem to be screwed all the way down and the strings end up resting against the back of the bridge. You mileage my vary, but for me the tone and sustain is better if the strings only rest on the saddles, so in lieu of raising the tailpiece, I top wrapped the strings to get them off the back edge of the bridge.

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There are many appalling looking walnut finish guitars from early to mid 70s, but they really improved it by '78-'79, from dung brown to dark chocolate. The finish on my 355 (the one earlier in the thread) is a dead ringer for Dylanita's when seen in decent light, and is one of my favourite Gibson finishes.

 

I went back and looked at your '79 ES-355. I used to have a 1970-72 ES-355 that looked just like yours, with the very dark Walnut finish...not the tepid dung brown. Beautiful, but unfortunately, the tone of my guitar was pretty sterile, so it's long gone from my possession.

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Since others have dared muddy the waters here with their respective 345 and 355 cousins, I will display my 345 too. :)

 

This not a Historic, Reissue, Signature, etc...just a stock 2011 ES-345 made in the Memphis plant. It is the best Gibson electric I've had out of a dozen or so.

post-339-074211100 1400679686_thumb.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Since others have dared muddy the waters here with their respective 345 and 355 cousins, I will display my 345 too. :)

 

This not a Historic, Reissue, Signature, etc...just a stock 2011 ES-345 made in the Memphis plant. It is the best Gibson electric I've had out of a dozen or so.

Spitball that's a nice guitar portrait!

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Spitball that's a nice guitar portrait!

 

Thank you... Although it is a touch blurry, it came out great, especially considering that I didn't try hard to compose the picture. I think it may have already been leaning there when I decided to take a picture.

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Thank you... Although it is a touch blurry, it came out great, especially considering that I didn't try hard to compose the picture. I think it may have already been leaning there when I decided to take a picture.

Blurry or not I think a ES335 is the best playing/looking guitar made,just my two cents worth.

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Blurry or not I think a ES335 is the best playing/looking guitar made,just my two cents worth.

I agree. I have an ES 347 that after I play it, I always lovingly look at it for a while before I put her away.

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