craigh Posted October 31, 2009 Share Posted October 31, 2009 If I remember, Ted McCarty get the credit. But think about it. It's a solid piece of wood with a neck, pickups, a bridge & 2 wings attached to it to make it look like a guitar. Sounds alot like the log. I could be wrong & this might have been mentioned before. Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lpdeluxe Posted November 1, 2009 Share Posted November 1, 2009 Ted McCarty and his team of engineers, who were mostly Gibson employees who had been promoted up from the ranks, designed the 335. Their experience in woodworking shows up in a lot of places -- and in places that nobody will ever see without taking a chainsaw to their 335. It was (and is) a complicated guitar to build, with more components than a typical archtop acoustic or electric and also with more processes required than the Les Paul. One example of their care: the maple center block is cut flat on the front and back, and kerfed spruce spacers are glued on to fill the area between the maple and the inner curve the top and back. Most builders of semi-acoustics skip that step, but it's one of the features that make the 335 a robust design. There is a school of thought that Les Paul's Log contributed to the 335, but I think that comes more from his trumpeting his involvement with Gibson than with any direct inspiration. The Gibson guys were 'way better craftsmen than Les (take a close look of photos of the Log, and you'll see a hack job), and, after all, there are only so many ways to construct an electric. I have seen photos of the famous Merle Travis Bigsby guitar with the back plate removed, and its construction was actually a lot closer to that of the 335 than to the other guitar it was supposed to have inspired, the Telecaster. I'll add that Chet Atkins had the idea of a solid center block circa 1955, when the first Gretsch 6120 was being developed (he couldn't talk Gretsch into incorporating the idea, however), so it wasn't exactly revolutionary. Gibson (at least during the McCarty era) knew their guitars and knew their manufacturing processes, and the 335 reflects that. McCarty had a degree in commercial engineering, and is credited with the tune-a-matic bridge, among other things. Credit his team with not merely taking a good idea (which was nothing more than an idea, and apparently common knowledge at the time) and developing the sophisticated tooling to turn it into reality. In my opinion, the 335 is as good as electric guitar design gets: handsome, well made, and with a distinct and useful sound. And, yes, I own a 335. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murph Posted November 1, 2009 Share Posted November 1, 2009 And, add the laminating/bending process which I understand changed a few times as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lpdeluxe Posted November 1, 2009 Share Posted November 1, 2009 And' date=' add the laminating/bending process which I understand changed a few times as well. [/quote'] The 335 wasn't the first laminated top Gibson. As far as I can tell from what's available to me, the post-WWII ES-350 had a laminated top. It was a full-body electric, best known for its use by Chuck Berry in the early years. I'd bet that the technology was developed from the war materiel contracts that Gibson had during the war. If I remember correctly, Gibson was building navigation inertial instruments enclosed in laminated wooden cases. Gibson used a press that required a lot of pressure and heat to form and bond the plies, and I imagine they went through two or three generations of machinery to optimize the process. These days, laminate is common in American and offshore guitars alike. Problems seem to be rare, which is a good thing, given that the entire guitar is scrap if the body delaminates. Apparently the lamination has always been three-ply, with maple on the outside plies and various other woods in the middle. The original 335 had the "Micky Mouse ear" upper bouts, which, in addition to their rounded shape, belled outward quite a bit. This seems to have caused production problems when the the bodies were being belt sanded and machine buffed, with "burn-throughs" from the sanding/buffing through the top ply or the finish more common than Gibson liked. The later 335 body had a less pronounced bell and less-rounded ears, and that shape remained until the Dot was reissued in the '80s. Norlin-era 335s suffered from other finishing problems, which was traced to improperly dried wood in the laminates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murph Posted November 1, 2009 Share Posted November 1, 2009 I thought they are now 5 ply. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murph Posted November 1, 2009 Share Posted November 1, 2009 I also remember reading the Kalamazoo press is in Memphis today. The same machine. Please correct me, if I'm wrong........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockstar232007 Posted November 2, 2009 Share Posted November 2, 2009 The Spaniards! lol Well? Doesn't ES stand for "Electric-Spanish"? Just a thought! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lpdeluxe Posted November 2, 2009 Share Posted November 2, 2009 The Spaniards! lol Well? Doesn't ES stand for "Electric-Spanish"? Just a thought! Here's the story on that, as I understand it: in the late 19th century, an ensemble playing stringed instruments (mostly mandolins, or similar to mandolins) toured the US from Spain. They called themselves the Spanish Students. It wasn't long before local groups sprang up in imitation of them, and they all called themselves some variation on the Spanish student name. Some were Italian, because there were Italian immigrants who played the violin and mandolin who could be recruited to join the groups. Pretty soon, guitars were added to the mix, and guitar music became associated with Spain. In the 1900-1910s, Hawaii was annexed as a US territory, and Hawaiian musical groups came along, with their slack-key, lap style guitar playing. They were also popular, and led to the interesting phenomenon of steel playing guitarists appearing in country string bands. So, to the public, "Spanish" meant a guitar played in the usual position, and "Hawaiian" meant a guitar played with a slide with the guitar flat in the lap. Gibson and other manufacturers used these words as a shorthand to indicate how particular instruments were set up to be played. Gibson's usual model nomenclature was to give the type and style, then the price. So an EH-150 was an Electric Hawaiian that sold from $150. The ES-335 was an Electric Spanish that had a list price of $335. That's interesting that the original press is in Memphis -- I'd like to think so, since I own a Memphis 335. And, I'm sure you're right about the 5-ply. I didn't check my facts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobv Posted November 2, 2009 Share Posted November 2, 2009 The video tour of the Memphis Custom shop (not sure if it's still available, the Gibson links change so often) showed that old laminating press with a comment that it was indeed the same machine they've been using for years so it was definitely moved from Nashville to Memphis. The Clapton Crossroads 335 bodies are pressed and glued in Memphis and sent to Nashville to meet their necks and get finished. Not sure if that press goes back as far as Kalamazoo but I wouldn't be surprised. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Hollyer Posted November 2, 2009 Share Posted November 2, 2009 ...in places that nobody will ever see without taking a chainsaw to their 335. Speaking of which... here are a few shots... Apparently the lamination has always been three-ply' date=' with maple on the outside plies and various other woods in the middle.[/quote'] Not entirely true... the first few batches in 1958 were indeed three-ply' date=' but very soon thereafter, definitely still in 1958, they changed to four-ply, with both the two interior plys running crosswise. The shot below shows the bridge pickup route on a 1959 ES-335TDN looking towards the bridge. You can see the center block, the kerfed spruce, and the 4-ply top. [img']http://www.es-335.net/images/Construction/targets/59_blond_laminations.jpg[/img] And in this shot, you can clearly see the four plys of the back of a 1964 ES-335. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lpdeluxe Posted November 2, 2009 Share Posted November 2, 2009 Not entirely true... the first few batches in 1958 were indeed three-ply' date=' but very soon thereafter, definitely still in 1958, they changed to four-ply, with both the two interior plys running crosswise. The shot below shows the bridge pickup route on a 1959 ES-335TDN looking towards the bridge. You can see the center block, the kerfed spruce, and the 4-ply top. [/quote'] Thanks for the correction. I was typing instead of thinking. Interesting pics. So did you take a chain saw to a 335? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Hollyer Posted November 2, 2009 Share Posted November 2, 2009 So did you take a chain saw to a 335? No, the top two and the bottom pics were sent to me. Apparently, the guitar was a basket case prior to the destruction. Pieces of it got used in the restoration of another one. The other pic I took just by taking out the bridge pickup on one of my 335s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lpdeluxe Posted November 2, 2009 Share Posted November 2, 2009 A-ha! You're THAT Tom! Great web site. I visit from time to time when I'm dreaming of a mono cherry 335 with a Bigsby.... I've wondered: how do you maintain that consistency of the photography of the pics displayed? They look almost as though they were all taken by the same person. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murph Posted November 2, 2009 Share Posted November 2, 2009 Great shots Tom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Hollyer Posted November 2, 2009 Share Posted November 2, 2009 I've wondered: how do you maintain that consistency of the photography of the pics displayed? They look almost as though they were all taken by the same person. Greetings lpdeluxe. The photos are mostly just what guys send me. All I do is crop and scale them' date=' sometimes blow out a crazy background. Maybe 25% of the time, we have a conversation before they take them, and I do tell them what will work best, like don't pose it on your floral bedspread, but basically, I get what I get and do what I can to make them work. Great shots Tom. Thanks Murph, but like I said, in this case, only the one is mine. The rest came from another source, who wishes to remain anonymous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murph Posted November 2, 2009 Share Posted November 2, 2009 I wonder how the ES-339 compares, as far as construction is concerned? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lpdeluxe Posted November 2, 2009 Share Posted November 2, 2009 I see now what you've done. You have a constructed a very attractive web site. Not only is it something beyond my skills, but a side of web design that is often overlooked. Good job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigh Posted November 2, 2009 Author Share Posted November 2, 2009 Thanks everyone for the detailed responses. I never had a 335. I had an Epi Sheraton & a Casino. Now I want the real thing. But I think I could be happy with a 339. I'll have to try them both. Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.