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Trade ES 335 for Class 5 LP?

willdguitar

By willdguitar
in Gibson Custom

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willdguitar

willdguitar

Posted
Posted

So, I have the opportunity to trade a 335 for a LP.

 

This is my 2008 figured top ES-335:

 

http://imgur.com/74xiO

 

http://imgur.com/zFFJD

 

 

This is the LP:

 

http://austin.craigslist.org/msg/3507851395.html

 

 

 

I'm a jazz guitarist, so losing the jazz part of the ES would lead me to invest in an L4, but the LP is tempting.

 

I think the LP is more expensive than the ES 335; $4,700 to $3,100.

 

Of course, I'd have to play it, but if I find them equal, would it be smarter to grab this LP, then get another 335 down the road?

 

What do you guys think? Is it an investment worth doing?

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Jabberwocky

Jabberwocky

Posted
Posted

The classified ad also appears here: http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=1193230 .

 

You gotta ask yourself if you need a Les Paul when you're a jazz guy.

 

It is not an investment. You buy it because you enjoy it. If it appreciates in value, great. If it does not, are you gonna be bummed about it? If you enjoy it, there is your value regardless of price paid or price realised.

 

I don't know. You're buying it because it looks "nice". The trouble with nice looking axes is that after a week, it starts looking familiar and then it starts looking as tiresome as a fancy maple topped coffee table. That is what comes from buying an axe that you do not really need for your genre of music. Then you think about flipping it and you find out for yourself, LPs are a dime a dozen, even Custom Shop whatevers. Trying to move it means finding that one other person who thinks that it is worth as much as you do. The seller has got no takers after 2 weeks and 4 days. What does that tell you?

 

Why not use the $2700 and buy the L-4CES that you really want. You'll have your ES-335 AND your L-4CES and you'll be jazzing between the 2 axes. You can never have enough jazz guitars. But a plank...not unless you mean to play jazz on it.

 

Good luck.

 

(Look, you can play jazz on the LP too but that is not the genre it is most associated with. Who plays jazz on a Les Paul but Les Paul? Nothing like cuddling a big fat archtop or a semi-hollow.)

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  • 2 weeks later...
Woollymonster

Woollymonster

Posted
Posted

The classified ad also appears here: http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=1193230 .

 

I don't know. You're buying it because it looks "nice". The trouble with nice looking axes is that after a week, it starts looking familiar and then it starts looking as tiresome as a fancy maple topped coffee table. That is what comes from buying an axe that you do not really need for your genre of music. Then you think about flipping it and you find out for yourself, LPs are a dime a dozen, even Custom Shop whatevers. Trying to move it means finding that one other person who thinks that it is worth as much as you do. The seller has got no takers after 2 weeks and 4 days. What does that tell you?

 

 

Very well said ad so true IMO.I have found in my later years that I tend to gravitate toward plainer, more generic instruments that play and sound stellar. Like this one:

 

1959 ES-335 Custom Dot Reissue

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Versatile

Versatile

Posted
Posted

Personal 0.03...

 

Many people hereon extol the virtues of the ES 335 for very good reasons... [thumbup]

 

I only have LP Juniors as a fun and well usable diversion

 

The ES 137 Classic is a hugely competent meld of ES 335, ES 175 and Les Paul elements...

 

Enjoy the chase... [thumbup]

 

V

 

:-({|=

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FennRx

FennRx

Posted
Posted

The classified ad also appears here: http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=1193230 .

 

You gotta ask yourself if you need a Les Paul when you're a jazz guy.

It is not an investment. You buy it because you enjoy it. If it appreciates in value, great. If it does not, are you gonna be bummed about it? If you enjoy it, there is your value regardless of price paid or price realised.

 

I don't know. You're buying it because it looks "nice". The trouble with nice looking axes is that after a week, it starts looking familiar and then it starts looking as tiresome as a fancy maple topped coffee table. That is what comes from buying an axe that you do not really need for your genre of music. Then you think about flipping it and you find out for yourself, LPs are a dime a dozen, even Custom Shop whatevers. Trying to move it means finding that one other person who thinks that it is worth as much as you do. The seller has got no takers after 2 weeks and 4 days. What does that tell you?

 

Why not use the $2700 and buy the L-4CES that you really want. You'll have your ES-335 AND your L-4CES and you'll be jazzing between the 2 axes. You can never have enough jazz guitars. But a plank...not unless you mean to play jazz on it.

 

Good luck.

 

(Look, you can play jazz on the LP too but that is not the genre it is most associated with. Who plays jazz on a Les Paul but Les Paul? Nothing like cuddling a big fat archtop or a semi-hollow.)

 

well since the Les Paul was designed by some jazz dude,I'm sure he'd be fine. [biggrin]

 

I agree with a lot of what you wrote though. Too often trading or selling to get something else results in regret.

 

Personally, I would not make this trade and I am a Les Paul guy through and through.

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EllenGtrGrl

EllenGtrGrl

Posted
Posted

My thoughts are similar to some of the other replys. Unless the guitar looks absolutly hideous, I'll take sound and playability over looks any day. You like your jazz tones. Can you do jazz with a Les Paul? Of course, after all the man himself (Les Paul) played jazz with them, so did Sonny Sharrock. But, will a Les Paul have the sound and the playing/ergonomics feel (such as in how it feels to sling or sit with a larger bodied guitar vs a smaller bodied guitar), that you like? At the very least try it out first, instead of buying it for the looks, and the investment potential. It goes without saying, that different guitar models play and sound different - the same holds true for even different examples of the same model guitar (I love my ES-137C, but it was a case of the 2nd time [trying one out] being the charm - the first one I tried, felt & sounded nice, but nowhere near as good to me as the one I now have).

 

Just Some Food For Thought,

Ellen

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Pin

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Posted
Posted

Nice Les Paul but also a nice 335.

 

You can play jazz on a Les Paul just as well as you can on a 335 or a devoted "jazz box". It is all a question of where your fancy lies.

 

IF I had a wad of money and the choice lay between that Paul and your 335 personally I'd go for the Paul but my choice would change if the 335 were transformed into a varitone equipped 345 or 355.

 

Go where you heart lies!

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Twang Gang

Twang Gang

Posted
Posted

I couldn't get the link to the LP to work (it said it had been removed by seller?) so couldn't see the LP you were talking about. Off hand I would say don't do it. Guitars are made for playing and you state you are a jazz player so I'd stick with the semi hollow 335. Mabye trade to even a more traditional archtop hollow like a 175 or the L4 you mention. Sure you can play jazz on a LP, but it's going to have an entirely different feel. As to the investment side of guitars, that is a whole different animal and has little to do with how a guitar sounds or feels. From your post it sounds like you are more of a player than an investor so keep how the guitar sounds and feels in your hands at the top of the decision making.

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