Tips on maintaining a ES335?

[RudyH]

Can you recommend any good tips for keeping an ES335 clean and happy? Is there a particular type of string you like for your ES335?

 

Thanks.

[lpdeluxe]

Can you recommend any good tips for keeping an ES335 clean and happy? Is there a particular type of string you like for your ES335?

 

Thanks.

 

I maintain mine the same way I do all my guitars: it is either in a case, on a stable stand, or being played. From time to time I go after the nickel plate with Nevr-Dull wadding polish, but that's a losing battle against tarnish in this humid area. Maybe once a year, I use Gibson pump polish on it. I don't fling my guitars around or otherwise abuse them, so it doesn't take much. In 38 years, I have never damaged an instrument other than carelessly leaning a guitar with the back of the neck against a table edge that caused a small dent in the finish (never did that again).

 

People like to gripe about quality control issues with Gibson, but if I believe that, if we were all more careful in selecting guitars, the manufacturers would soon learn that the clunkers didn't sell, and would change. I don't buy instruments without spending some time with them, and I've not found any issues with the many guitars I've owned over the years.

 

I like heavier strings: .012-.052 round wounds, with a wound 3rd. I've never managed to get along with slinky strings on semi-acoustics.

 

As long as no problems (noisy pots, hum) show up, I leave the Gibson alone except for playing it. I'm a firm believer in regular playing of an instrument, but I don't claim any particular mechanical benefit for it: there's an evolution in learning the sort of touch a guitar likes and how to make it sound the way you want it. I personally have owned various thin-body electrics for 30 years, garage-sale babies along with higher end, and it's a style that suits me and my way of playing very well.