ryan adams' guitars

[jefleppard]

i went to see ryan adams in cleveland last night. what a show. he played this guitar for most of the night, trading off occasionally for a black strat. i know its a 335, but what model? it has a tremolo and that five-way switch. i was right up close (6th row) and noticed the p/u's had 'gibson embossed on them .

i know that type of switch is used to blend a three p/u set up on a strat but how is a five-way used for on a guitar with only two p/u's?

[GuitarJunkie]

It's an ES-355 TDSV (Thinline, Double-cut, Stereo, with Varitone). The Gibson engraved on the pickups was only done from '70 to '72.

 

The 355 is a fancier version of the 335. Sort of like the Les Paul Custom vs. the Les Paul Standard.

 

As far as the Varitone switch, it doesn't select the pickups. It uses different capacitors to cut certain frequencies to vary your tone. This is copied from Gibson's website;

 

The Varitone Control (certain models)

 

This control works through a reduction of the fundamental harmonic frequencies. The higher the setting, the greater the loss of "low" frequencies. Positions 3 and 4 produce a sound similar to a single-coil pickup. The exact frequency "cuts" are listed below:

 

 

Position 1--> no cut

Position 2--> -5db at 1950hz

Position 3--> -12db at 1 100hz

Position 4--> -16db at 620hz

Position 5--> -18.5db at 360hz

Position 6--> -21db at 1 20hz

[retrosurfer1959]

Yep what Junkie said and cool guitar

 

However even though it has nothing to do with this particular guitar but Gibson made several guitars including the L6-S that used a 6 position rotary switch to select different combinations from the two pickups the factory verbiage said:

 

Position 1 – Both pickups in series in phase

(high end Bite)

Position 2 – Activates front pickup only

Position 3 – Activates both pickups in a parallel in

phase configuration

Position 4 – Activates both pickups parallel out of phase

For a dirty rock sound

Position 5 – Activates the back pickup only max treble

Position 6 – both pickups in series out of phase

[S t e v e]

that is NOT bryan adams!

 

looks nothing like him

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7b37l_B4vI

[Jon S.]

that is NOT bryan adams!

 

looks nothing like him

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7b37l_B4vI

 

 

and NEVER ask him to play Summer of 69!!!

 

The black strat he plays supposedly belonged to Mr. Zimmerman back in the day. He also breaks out a Barney Kessel every once in a while.