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Gibson ES-355 2014 - Historic (Limited Run)


Hype

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So I walk into a local guitar store and I see an ES-355 hanging on the back wall. Immediately I get drawn as I thought Gibson discontinued the ES-355 in 2012 (after the raid which left them without the ebony fretboard materials). So naturally I thought it was a brand new Custom Shop 2011 Antique Cherry with Bigsby. To my surprise, it had a 2014 Serial Number and was stamped on the back of the headstock as 2014.

 

I checked out Gibson's website but can't find any Gibson ES-355's listed anywhere....

 

Anyways, I did a search on eBay turns out there are 2014 ES-355's....I think the difference being that the fretboard is Richlite as opposed to ebony and instead of the standard black 'Gibson Custom Shop' case the new ones ship with a brown case....

 

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/2014-Gibson-ES-355-w-BIGSBY-Antique-Cherry-w-COA-tags-MINT-UNPLAYED-es335-/191377321638?pt=Guitar&hash=item2c8efa2ea6

 

This would look great next to my 2011 Ebony one....

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Yeah, I saw that a while back. The ebony is one of the things which makes it a 355 in my book.

 

Others may feel differently but no thank you, if I'm buying a premium guitar I want the real thing.

 

Ditto.

 

A richlite fingerboard (I don't care how "good" they might be) would put the stop on me even considering buying one.

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I'd imagine that we'll see ebony on the Gibsons sooner or later. Maybe this year?

 

More on topic, there's a whole slew of 2014 ES-355s on eBay at the moment.

 

I notice that the 2014 versions don't have the Varitone (I don't care about the stereo) but no Varitone would also do it in for me. No thanks.

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I think Gibson have a tombola in the office filled with tickets saying 'historic', 'classic', 'traditional' etc and simply dig their hand in whenever a new run of guitars needs a title.

 

Personally, the black paint on the lettered section of the Bigsby is the killer for me, which on a sliding scale of ridiculous reasons to dislike a reissue must be pretty much top of the list, but there you go.

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[thumbdn]

 

Not a fan of laminated tops either.

 

Solid maple tops, ebony fretboards and 57 PUs or nothing!

 

Jazz

 

Ok, this might be a comment too far: the 335 family guitar have been made from inception with laminated, and it's part of the dna of that design. Not wanting a 335 with laminate top, back and sides is like saying you like Strats but the bolt on on the current models is a deal breaker: if you don't like 335s with laminate tops then you don't like 335s!

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