es335 satin idiosyncrosy

[bleggoe]

Notwithstanding the fragility of the satin finish and the absence of 'bling', a poorly filed nut and nashville bridge, my satin es 335 continues to weird me out in a way that neither my es 339 nor epi dot manage.

For example, cheapo Dunlop 10 strings work very well tonally on the 335, but less markedly so on the other guitars. Snake oil vintage 11's are superb on the other guitars but much less so on the 335. In general, it's difficult (nigh on impossible) to

tune my 335 when it has pure nickel strings like the Snake Oil vintage, or the vintage Gibson strings. UK Rotosound 10 yellows sounded so tonally 'dead' on the 335 as to need changing as soon as they were installed. Flatwounds are not particularly inspiring on this guitar either.

Overall, it seems that nickel coated strings work better on my satin 335 as far as tuning and sweetness of tone are concerned. As noted, I've not experienced this with other Gibson's or Epiphones. Does anyone else experience comparable quirkiness with their satin 335 ?

 

(p.s. While my chinese made epi dot seems acoustically dead compared with the ES 335, mounting the Snake Oil vintage 11's on the Dot genuinely transformed its sound and coupled with the somewhat softer sounding epi pu's the dot now works very well as a jazz guitar.)

[CR9]

I have had similar results with every guitar I have owned especially the Gibson Custom Shop guitars like my 1960 Chambered reissue, CR0, and the Chambered CR6 that I have now and the 339's that I used to have. (I am in the process of getting another 339.) I have never had a 335 but each guitar is so unique in tone because of the woods, it seems that only some strings work on some and not on others. I can not get Snake Oil strings to sound good on my CR6 or CR0. They did not work on the previous 339 either. My CR0 sounds fantastic with D'Addario flatwounds but not the CR6. My CR6 sounds best with Gibson Vintage strings. Your situation is not unusual and the reason there are so many different types and brands of strings.

[bleggoe]

many thanks for the comforting reply. But the really good news is that, compared to the cost of cars here in scandinavia, Gibsons are CHEAP ! ( the cost of having a leather seats option in a new VW golf is greater than the cost of a new 335 (satin or dot re-issue).

 

I have had similar results with every guitar I have owned especially the Gibson Custom Shop guitars like my 1960 Chambered reissue, CR0, and the Chambered CR6 that I have now and the 339's that I used to have. (I am in the process of getting another 339.) I have never had a 335 but each guitar is so unique in tone because of the woods, it seems that only some strings work on some and not on others. I can not get Snake Oil strings to sound good on my CR6 or CR0. They did not work on the previous 339 either. My CR0 sounds fantastic with D'Addario flatwounds but not the CR6. My CR6 sounds best with Gibson Vintage strings. Your situation is not unusual and the reason there are so many different types and brands of strings.

[rlan52]

I do not have a Satin 335 but I do have the Satin ES-333 which differs in that the 333 has Fret Board binding but the inexpensive headstock appointment. I also own an ES-339. The only set of strings that I have found to sound good on both is the D'Addario X110 10-46 set. I do not care for the lighter low strings but this set does sound very balanced on both guitars. I am of course speaking of the way they sound unplugged. The only issue is that I feel they tend to go dead rather quickly. The Gibson Bright Wire strings that came with the ES-339 sound way to bright/electric for me and do go out of tune easily, especially on my ES-333.

 

Of note, both the ES-333 and the ES-339 have very different sound palettes. Given the pickups in my ES-333 (Duncan 59's) I do like it as well if not better than any of the ES-335's I have had the pleasure to play. The ES-339 is a replacement for my Les Paul Standard and, it does a great job. Frankly, I do not get the Gibson ES-335 satin. Why did Gibson decide to not include the fretboard binding? Surely this could not have made that much of a difference in price. For me, I would not own a guitar without Fret Board binding. I really don't care about the logo's on the headstock but after years of Les Paul's, that Fret Board binding is a must for me. It speaks to the feel/playing comfort while the headstock appointments are purely aesthetic. I think that is what makes the ES-333 such an all around attractive ES option...