epi?? Posted February 26, 2016 Share Posted February 26, 2016 Hello all can you help please? I bought an Epiphone 335 for a ridiculously cheap price a few months ago and I'm struggling to identify the model. Tiny pics added. Imagine a 335 Block in gloss natural finish with gold hardware. 2 x gold humbuckers, 2 tone, 2 volume controls and no coil taps. Stop tail piece and abr bridge. Clear light honey coloured speed knobs. White toggle switch tip. Grover machine heads. Black split diamond headstock with "Epiphone", inlaid in pearl - looks skew whiff to me! Plain black bell truss rod cover. Black scratchplate with metal "E" stuck on it. W/b/W/b/W ply body binding (front and back) and headstock binding (front only). Scarf jointed neck behind 2nd/3rd fret. All looks to be original build and not a bitsa. Plays a dream and sounds good. No labels, no numbers - in fact nothing to ID it at all. I've looked everywhere, the wiki, the lot and can't find this spec. Can anyone tell me what it is, please? I reckon it's a fake...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MichaelDH Posted February 26, 2016 Share Posted February 26, 2016 I'm no expert, but anyway.... The split diamond would suggest a custom, but I did a quick search and didn't come across any Epi 335's with that type of head stock. No label inside one of the f-holes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
epi?? Posted February 26, 2016 Author Share Posted February 26, 2016 I'm no expert, but anyway.... The split diamond would suggest a custom, but I did a quick search and didn't come across any Epi 335's with that type of head stock. No label inside one of the f-holes? No label anywhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidblast Posted February 26, 2016 Share Posted February 26, 2016 this thread is useless without pictures... :) Go to photobucket, get an account, upload a few picks, post the IMG link in the box on the right when viewing the photobucket images, that copies the link which you can post here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
epi?? Posted February 26, 2016 Author Share Posted February 26, 2016 NBG Privacy. Did the Photo Bucket thing and got 50 spam mail notifications within 1 minute. Never had that before. Not using it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidblast Posted February 26, 2016 Share Posted February 26, 2016 never had that problem myself, been on PB for years now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
epi?? Posted February 26, 2016 Author Share Posted February 26, 2016 never had that problem myself, been on PB for years now. I will take some more low MB pics tomorrow and post them. I'm sorry to have sounded grumpy but my brother had exactly the same problem with PB last month. There's an oik out there somewhere playing games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
epi?? Posted February 26, 2016 Author Share Posted February 26, 2016 Having had another trawl of the interweb the closest I can find is this: http://www.epiphone.com/Products/Archtop/ES-355.aspx The same except mine is in Natural, no Bigsby and a stop tailpiece. Any ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
epi?? Posted February 28, 2016 Author Share Posted February 28, 2016 this thread is useless without pictures... :) Go to photobucket, get an account, upload a few picks, post the IMG link in the box on the right when viewing the photobucket images, that copies the link which you can post here. Pics now added along with some more comments from me. Please see my first post above. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parabar Posted February 28, 2016 Share Posted February 28, 2016 The gold hardware, split diamond headstock, block fingerboard inlays and multi-ply binding all identify it as an ES-355 reissue. The only puzzlers are that I can't find anything listing the ES-355 as available in Natural finish, nor with a stop tailpiece --- they all seem to have had Bigsbys. It may have been a prototype, or one of a limited run ordered by a dealer somewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve112 Posted February 28, 2016 Share Posted February 28, 2016 Hello all can you help please? I bought an Epiphone 335 for a ridiculously cheap price a few months ago and I'm struggling to identify the model. Tiny pics added. Imagine a 335 Block in gloss natural finish with gold hardware. 2 x gold humbuckers, 2 tone, 2 volume controls and no coil taps. Stop tail piece and abr bridge. Clear light honey coloured speed knobs. White toggle switch tip. Grover machine heads. Black split diamond headstock with "Epiphone", inlaid in pearl - looks skew whiff to me! Plain black bell truss rod cover. Black scratchplate with metal "E" stuck on it. W/b/W/b/W ply body binding (front and back) and headstock binding (front only). Scarf jointed neck behind 2nd/3rd fret. All looks to be original build and not a bitsa. Plays a dream and sounds good. No labels, no numbers - in fact nothing to ID it at all. I've looked everywhere, the wiki, the lot and can't find this spec. Can anyone tell me what it is, please? I reckon it's a fake...... [/quote I don't believe it's a fake, it's got so many "correct" things. Unfortunately I'm not able to pinpoint its exact ID. Ultimately, you have a darn fine guitar there. I'm gonna call it a 355 custom, it's rare without question, if not a one-off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parabar Posted February 29, 2016 Share Posted February 29, 2016 The thing about it that seems wrong to me is where the neck joins the body. The fingerboard extends much farther into the body than an ES guitar should. It's more like a Casino. Note this pic of an Epi ES-355: See how the neck joins the body at the nineteenth fret. On the OP's guitar, the neck appears to join the body at the 17th fret, which would be typical of a Casino, but not an ES-335/345/355. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmendoza Posted March 2, 2016 Share Posted March 2, 2016 Keep in mind that photos, like the one above of the Epiphone Re-issue ES335, are often taken before production begins, so the pictured guitar is often a prototype or pre-production model and may not be exactly like the ones they eventually build in mass production. Catalogs, manuals, and brochures are prepared long before the actual production runs begin, so there are often changes made but they have already printed up the literature and therefore the pictures of the original prototype guitar used for the photos may not look exactly like the guitar you purchased. We find this all the time in motorcycle and car literature as well, it is very common. No mystery, just how it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobinTheHood Posted March 5, 2016 Share Posted March 5, 2016 The one thing everyone is overlooking is that the guitar in question has the wrong headstock for an Epiphone archtop. I would have to say that the neck and body are from two different guitars. That looks like an Epiphone electric guitar neck to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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