glider Posted September 6, 2013 Share Posted September 6, 2013 I am looking at a Gibbie es335 tomorrow . It's from 2011. I am aware that this was not the best time for gibson production.. Is there any specific things I should pay close attention to when inspecting? How are the neck for this year any noted issues with twists io bows... Fret board are they rose board or baked maple? Thanks.. Gonna be potentially trading a les Paul trad pro. The guitar I am looking at is full gloss heritiage cherry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimmyl51 Posted September 6, 2013 Share Posted September 6, 2013 Just don't trade/buy anything made by Gibson in the late 1970's.........that WAS the worst time for Gibson........everything made in todays world and that includes 2011 are really nice instruments compared to the Gibsons of the late 1970's as I've owned them all...........jim in Maine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoonful Posted September 6, 2013 Share Posted September 6, 2013 My 335's are not from 2011. One is a 2009 and one from this year. I think 2011 would still be a rosewood fretboard. I did own a 2012 59 Reissue for a while. No real concerns about the build quality on that one. Had a lot of low end sound to it. You hit an open low E and it kinda overpowered everything else. Not as balanced a sound as I was looking for. But that was a 59 Reissue too. I haven't read anything anywhere to indicate that 2011 was a bad year for 335's. Play it, check it out. If it plays well, sounds good and doesn't have any quality issues, I think it would be a good trade for a LP Trad. Pro. Of course, you gotta want a 335 vs. an LP for this to make sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spitball Posted September 7, 2013 Share Posted September 7, 2013 I doubt that you should consider 2011 to be particularly bad. My 2011 ES-345 is the hands down best Gibson I have ever owned, including guitars from the late 60s, 70s, 90s and 00s. Some of those were great, but the '11 sounds and feels the best. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4Hayden Posted September 7, 2013 Share Posted September 7, 2013 I have a 2011 ES335 had have no problem, I did replace the nut with a bone nut Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L5Larry Posted September 7, 2013 Share Posted September 7, 2013 Just don't trade/buy anything made by Gibson in the late 1970's You need to be specific on this statement..... Just what EXACT years do you define as the "late 70's", what guitars have you owned from that period, and just what was wrong with them? Or..... is this another instance of "I read it on the web, it must be true". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IanHenry Posted September 7, 2013 Share Posted September 7, 2013 I have a 2011 build 335 including Rosewood fretboard, and there are ne faults on it whatsoever. Is 2011 a bad year for Gibson's? It's the first time I've heard that. Ian. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glider Posted September 7, 2013 Author Share Posted September 7, 2013 Wasn't 2011 the year they experience a shortage of woods? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lblack Posted September 7, 2013 Share Posted September 7, 2013 To the OP -- are you saying that 2010 and 2011 was tough for Gibson? Do you remember the Nashville Flood? Do you remember the Feds raid on the Nashville plant? But the ES335 is made in Memphis. I would agree that those two years were tough on Gibson from a business perspective. But through it all Gibson kept making excellent product. I have a 2011 Les Paul Studio 60's Tribute that was made in Nashville at the time of the raid (serial number just a few days before). I have a 2012 ES335 that was made in Memphis. Both are excellent! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunburst PB Posted September 9, 2013 Share Posted September 9, 2013 I have an ES-355 made in Nashville and I have experienced no issues with it and totally love it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundjunkie Posted September 17, 2013 Share Posted September 17, 2013 There are only five great guitar manufacturers in the world .... Gibson, Fender, Gretsch, RIC and Martin acoustics. Accept no immitations! I'd play any of them and do! Gibson's especially! Any year, any model. If you like the guitar, the way it plays, sounds and looks, buy it and enjoy it. Don't listen to anyone on guitar forums. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Versatile Posted September 17, 2013 Share Posted September 17, 2013 There are only five great guitar manufacturers in the world .... Gibson, Fender, Gretsch, RIC and Martin acoustics. Accept no immitations! I'd play any of them and do! Gibson's especially! Any year, any model. If you like the guitar, the way it plays, sounds and looks, buy it and enjoy it. Don't listen to anyone on guitar forums. Au Contraire mon ami... There are hugely many more great guitar builders in the world than said very limited view list... Pick On... V Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimmyl51 Posted September 17, 2013 Share Posted September 17, 2013 L5CES, ES-175CC, ES-335PRO all from 1978-1979............jim in Maine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimmyl51 Posted September 17, 2013 Share Posted September 17, 2013 Since I was living in Chicagoland at that time and Gibsons were relatively cheap in comparison to todays market..............overall quality especially the necks were typical of Gibson necks of that period i.e. Norlin cheap, cheap tuners and in the case of the ES-175CC which as I had mentioned previously was the NAMM show guitar from 1978 - absolutely DEAD tone...........I don't care for Henry J's personality having met him at NAMM in Anaheim a few years back and believe he is putting out way too many weird models these days to keep market share HOWEVER I would say in comparison to Gibsons 1970's guitars the Gibson guitars made today are overall maybe not great but are pretty decent albeit the prices for them are ridiculous................jim in Maine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capmaster Posted September 17, 2013 Share Posted September 17, 2013 Just don't trade/buy anything made by Gibson in the late 1970's.........that WAS the worst time for Gibson........everything made in todays world and that includes 2011 are really nice instruments compared to the Gibsons of the late 1970's as I've owned them all...........jim in Maine The only problem of my 1978 SG Standard were the stock 100 kOhms tone pots. The wax-molded Super Humbucking pickups were severely loaded down this way, and turned out to be the perhaps best humbucking pickups I ever heard after replacing the tone pots with 500 kOhms ones. They still are the best sounding pickups of any SG I played up to NOW (!), including the Frank Zappa "Roxy" and Supra SGs of mine with Dual (four-lead wired) '57 Classics resp. '57 Classics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundjunkie Posted September 17, 2013 Share Posted September 17, 2013 I owned / played a Norlin '76 LP Custom "pancake" guitar, 13 pounds, mostly glue weight, for years. Played and sounded like a dream. I recently demo'd a ES-335 Norlin era with bus frets that sounded better than ANY ES-335 I ever heard or played at any price point. Please don't hate Henry. Henry bought the brand and saved it from extinction. I could care less about his personality or his prices. I have no need to ever meet the man, but love his company! To me the name Gibson, alone is worth a thousand buck premium. I wish all the manufactures would stop offering so many models of the same freaking guitar and just make one good model, but people buy into it, so they are just giving people what they want. It's either that or go out of business and that would be sad. Fender is worse in this degree. So, for the young man buying or looking at a 2011 ES-335, again I repeat, buy it if you like it. There is no right or wrong jury here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimmyl51 Posted September 17, 2013 Share Posted September 17, 2013 I have to admit that these days I am a big Guild vintage archtop guy, but I would have all of you who have not taken a look at the Guilds that are being produced by that company these days do take a look at them..........yep I know that the lower price point Guilds are being made in Korea but to be honest one of their A-150b's is gorgeous for an out the door price of $1200 including case with the necks being really, really nice as well as the overall build quality. Gibson could be doing that but chooses not unfortunately for we cost conscious players in our wonderful economy these days.....jim in Maine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoonful Posted September 17, 2013 Share Posted September 17, 2013 Getting back to the original question - I think a 2011 ES-335 is very similar in quality and construction to the years leading up to it. One thing I remember discovering after I had my 2009 Dot Reissue for a few months is that the bridges can tip forward a bit which will affect tuning stability. Keep on eye out for this. It can often be remedied a couple different ways. First, raise up the stop tail to relieve some of the downward pressure on the bridge. If that doesn't help, replace the bridge posts (someone out there sells stainless replacements that are stronger than the stock posts). As I mentioned earlier, you are probably looking at a 60's neck profile. Make sure that is what you want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundjunkie Posted September 18, 2013 Share Posted September 18, 2013 I have to admit that these days I am a big Guild vintage archtop guy, but I would have all of you who have not taken a look at the Guilds that are being produced by that company these days do take a look at them..........yep I know that the lower price point Guilds are being made in Korea but to be honest one of their A-150b's is gorgeous for an out the door price of $1200 including case with the necks being really, really nice as well as the overall build quality. Gibson could be doing that but chooses not unfortunately for we cost conscious players in our wonderful economy these days.....jim in Maine Hey Jimmy. I demo'd one of these and your assessment is dead on. Very fine guitar indeed! I could not find a single flaw in fit and finish, but it isn't a 335 by any stretch of the imagination, pickups, neck profile and as I remember, didn't it have a floating bridge? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don335 Posted September 21, 2013 Share Posted September 21, 2013 My 335 is a 2011 model..who is saying that 2011 is a bad year? My 335 is awesome,just changed the nut to bone and now have the tone! 2011 is a good model year in my book! Don335 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badbluesplayer Posted September 22, 2013 Share Posted September 22, 2013 I think the OP may be wondering if the board is rosewood and if it is one or two piece. Gibson was having some wood problems and making some high end guitars with laminated rosewood boards. Some of the other posters may not be aware of that. As far as I know, the 335's always had one piece boards during the time when some of the boards were two piece. But you may want to check specifically somewhere more authoritative. Maybe Customer Service can help. There are a lot of 335 owners on here, so somebody may be able to help on here. You may have to wade through lots of posts before somebody can tell you for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimmyl51 Posted September 22, 2013 Share Posted September 22, 2013 Yep you are right in that the A-150b has a floating bridge. That is exactly the point that I am making really. Asia is killing us as they have the ability to exactly replicate our guitars. When I was doing some contractor work in Shanghai I went into a shop that actually sold REAL Gibsons. Down the street there was another shop that sold the fake Gibsons that you will see on the internet. Most of the fake ones were easily discernable by anybody with a brain. However quite a few of the fakes were damn good and I mean DAMN good...........which is scary...........! jim in Maine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powerwagonjohn Posted September 23, 2013 Share Posted September 23, 2013 Jim, I am with you 100% Old Guilds and old Gibsons the best of both worlds. Heck.. I just sold my Strat, I never played it. Thanks john Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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