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I was recently (the past year or two) hunting and saving up for a 335 to use as a recording and playing-out Jazz guitar. The past few months, cash finally in hand, made the rounds to the various guitar stores here and played a bunch of 335s, finally ending up at the Gibson Garage where they had many to play and choose from. I've probably played 50 or more in the past 6 months as I looked to buy.
On a slight aside, I played some late 80s and 90s 335s and they were really excellent instruments - I might get one of those eventually when I can save a bit more, but they are quite affordable compared with vintage and modern custom shop models, and I think they sound and play great.
Anyway, the big surprise for me was that I ended up waking out with a '64 Trini Lopez reissue. I found the trapeze tailpiece + nylon saddles to work very well for jazz vs the stop tail, it made the sound airy and, to my ears, changed the attack to a bit of a softer feel and sound and warmed it up a bit vs the stop tail 335s. I think this has been said before by many people, but it gave the guitar a bit more 'hollow' and a bit less 'solid' sound, bringing it further away from a Les Paul and toward a hollow body guitar. Overall, the 335s all felt and sounded a bit 'tighter' and more compact, whereas the TL felt and sounded more open and airy and felt a bit bigger.
This individual guitar is exceptional, and every guitar is its own thing, but the other element that surprised me was the neck. The neck on the Trini is bigger and feels wider that the 335, but I'm not sure of the exact measurements. Again, maybe this is just a slight variation on this guitar but it's very comfortable and feels more spacious for chording than on any of the 335s I played (included original 1960s, '59 RI, '64 RI, '61 RI, 80s and 90s models, etc.).
I don't see a lot of people using a TL model for jazz, but I was wondering if anyone else here is using one or has done a similar comparison? Maybe you found a completely different result from myself, but I would be curious to hear about it.
Also, if you have a TL let's see it!
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03-28-2025 05:49 AM
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Just for the information of the OP there was a period when ES335s were made with trapeze tailpieces. I'm not looking at references right now but it was around mid-sixties to early 70s. And you can always replace the stop tailpiece on an ES335 with a trapeze. And from experience I agree that a trapeze-tailpiece ES335 does not sound quite the same as a stop-tailpiece ES335. Similarly, you can replace a metal-saddle bridge with a nylon-saddle bridge, which also makes a change in sound compared to the archtypical ES335.
That said, if you find a guitar you like and can afford, buy it. Don't worry about what other players think.
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Thank you - I'm intimately familiar with the vintage specs on those, I've been playing and collecting old Gibson's and Fenders for about 35 years
In my experience, you should never change a bridge (or many other changes) on a guitar you really love b/c it will change the sound and not always for the better. This would include moving from a trapeze to a stop tail and vice versa.
I very much like the trapeze + nylon saddles on this particular Trini, so I won't be swapping them but I wanted to discuss more generally people's use or non-use of the Trini model for jazz and what people think of the differences between a stop tail 335 and trapeze. It appears to me that not many people talk about or use a TL model for Jazz, but in my quest I found the features of the TL (big, wide neck, trapeze & nylon saddles) actually worked much better for jazz than any of the 335s I played.
This could be just my experience or could be down to the individual guitars, but I wanted to ask and get opinions either way. Maybe there are other reasons people don't use a TL model (scarcity, tradition, aesthetics, personal preferences...)?
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Is that a 'pink over 3TS' finish? It looks nice!
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It’s I believe what Gibson calls an Antique Pink finish but it isn’t over 3TS, it is a heavily aged murphy lab aging over the typical undercoat.
It’s a beautiful finish that looks a pale pink and fits so well with the aged nickel and the walnut and black in the tailpiece and knobs, etc!
This was a one-off ‘made-to-measure’ guitar hence the color and aging combination.
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My first ( basically ' one and only ' ) guitar teacher sold guitars, and I'm sure paid some bills doing that through the years. I started lessons w/ him in the '60's of course, and for some reason, he always seemed to have one or two for TL"s for sale. He'd also have an SG and of course 335's. He'd done the wedding thing and cocktail hour gigs for a while.
I never dug in to the spec's - - - did they have 335 style blocks ? Curious....
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In 1964 Gibson started shipping most 335s with the nylon saddles and trapeze, and the Trini, which debuted in ‘64, got this new feature set as well.
The TL is identical to the 1964 version of the 335 with the exception of the headstock (Firebird style w/ six-in-a-line tuners), bound diamond-shaped ‘f-holes’ vs the unbound 335 style, diamond fretboard inlays vs the blocks on the 335, and a signature tailpiece plaque on the trapeze for the Trini Lopez.
So, aside from the headstock the other changes are really more aesthetic vs functional. I don’t know how much the headstock style and f-hole design changes the sound, but I would guess it would be minimal or even imperceptible considering the building blocks and scale length are the same.
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The switch from stop t.p.'s to trapeze on 335's was in '65, roughly concurrent w the switch to chrome parts and narrow nut widths.
Originally Posted by Marker
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And I had a walnut ~'74/'75 with trapeze and a newer 1-11/16 nut. Originally Posted by wintermoon
Last edited by Woody Sound; 03-28-2025 at 08:37 PM.
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My mistake I thought the 335s got the trapeze in ‘64.
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