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Just curious: what's your favorite Gibson thinline and for what type of music? State the year and anything else about it (if you'd like) and why it's your favorite.
Thanks.
C
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03-07-2015 11:17 PM
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One of these:
Danny W.
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In my gigging day my 335 was my main guitar for everything. I got it new in 1975 and put a set of real PAFs in it from another guitar I sold. Still have the guitar but play my hollow bodies or tele most the time these days. A 335 is very versatile guitar. If buying a new one today I would check out the 339 basically a 335 shrunk down to a smaller body.
Last edited by docbop; 03-08-2015 at 01:58 AM.
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Originally Posted by Danny W.
One of these:
Danny W.
just curious, do you use those whammy bars?
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Great guitars and big whammy bars colections...
Last edited by kris; 03-08-2015 at 06:32 AM.
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My 2003 Gibson ES-333 (with 57 Classic PUs) in faded (or worn) brown.
Why? Because it has all the 335-flavour at a third of the price ;-) Plus it's a great guitar that handles all styles, even with the .013 flatwound I put on it. With the right adjustment of neck relief and stop-tail height it plays like butter and sounds always right. The neck is supposed to be 60ies slim taper, but feels just right for me and not that slim actually (I'm not a tall person, maybe that plays a role?).
I think they were made in the Memphis plant? I don't know if the period and factory yields any rules in general for the quality of the guitars they put out, but I have never had any issues and fit and finish are perfect.
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Damn. That's just crazy. The guitar Gibson never made in between 2 Johnny a's. Can you post a picture of your unicorn collection too? Originally Posted by Danny W.
One of these:
Danny W.
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love your pic. Originally Posted by Little Jay
My 2003 Gibson ES-333 (with 57 Classic PUs) in faded (or worn) brown.
Why? Because it has all the 335-flavour at a third of the price ;-) Plus it's a great guitar that handles all styles, even with the .013 flatwound I put on it. With the right adjustment of neck relief and stop-tail height it plays like butter and sounds always right. The neck is supposed to be 60ies slim taper, but feels just right for me and not that slim actually (I'm not a tall person, maybe that plays a role?).
I think they were made in the Memphis plant? I don't know if the period and factory yields any rules in general for the quality of the guitars they put out, but I have never had any issues and fit and finish are perfect.
can you tell me something about the stop piece adjustement you made and its benefit on the playing? I never considered moving that
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I'm a L-5 player but, since I have understood that an L-5 works at her best in low volume gigs, I bought a "normal" 335 for other gigs.
I'm very happy with the 335 because I can cover almost every jazz tone I like: metheny-style tone, scofield-style tone, of course some larry carlton-style tone and some wse-style tone as well.
I'm still working to find my favorite setup (strings and action): at this moment I like thomastik .012 flats (which are like normal .011 with fatter E and B) and a 2mm action at the 12th fret.
In my youtube channel you can find some example of the tone I'm gettin' (there is some gig stuff as well)
335
L-5
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My '82 ES 335 DOT - well gigged:
and my Tokai:
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love my 137, sounds great for jazz, fusion, pop
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For me, it has to be the 335. But, is that a thin line guitar, a semi hollow or a semi solid? I know it's not correct, but I've always though of Gibson's *thin line* guitars as being true hollow bodies. ES225, ES125, George Gobal L5CT, ES 330 . . . etc..
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According to Gibson (Search Results: thinline (site:www.gibson.com | site:www2.gibson.com )) the term encompasses semi's, and that's the way I've mainly seen it used. I don't own a Gibson thinline (my only thinline is a D'Angelico EX DC), but among the many I've played, it's a tie between 335's and 339's. The only Gibson thinlines I haven't particularly liked are 330s and 135's, but haven't spent all that much time with them, and the ones I've tried had set-up issues, so my opinion could change. Originally Posted by Patrick2
John
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I like very much the tone this guy gets from his 330
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Gianluca, if you bring the stop tailpiece up, you reduce the angle the strings make after the bridge and they will feel looser because of that. Supposedly you loose some sustain, but I didn't notice or it didn't bother me. To me, it gives the guitar a bit more the feeling of a guitar with a hollow body/archtop tailpiece. (It won't turn an ES into an archtop of course, but it will take it more into that direction when it comes to string tension/feeling.) Originally Posted by gianluca
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Me too! This type of tone is what you get when you up the volume on the amp, and turn it down on the guitar and roll off your tone control. I like the "ploc" (or plunk, thunk) in the tone. Originally Posted by gianluca
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Originally Posted by gianluca
I "thunk" I like it.
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Originally Posted by Little Jay
roll off the guitar tone?
really?
I hear the guitar pretty bright....
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Starting from the left, my search for a 335 began with a Epi Dot studio that I modded with a pair of SD Jazz/JB (great modern sounding/playing bang for buck combo)
Next was the ES 339 when it was available down under, nice guitar but couldn’t gel with the too narrow a neck (60/40), parted with it last year.
Soon after, a Midtown Custom (BB1/2 PU), a unique flat top, very affordable, sleeper, modern sounding closer to a LP but can get you to beaut warm mellow tones with the neck PU
Finally, when you are not looking, an ’86 ES 335 Studio with Shaw PU’s, that I saw when holidaying interstate, tried it and bought it on the spot after doing some online research (re price and user reviews). Much lower output PU's but beaut woody/mellow tones right across the 3 settings.
This began about 7 yrs ago.....lol
My other guitars include a number of LP/Strat’s and Tele’s (one of which I planning to mod with a Lollar CC neck) and an Eastman for classic jazz tones.
Last edited by Deng; 03-09-2015 at 08:06 AM.
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Sure do, otherwise I would have had Gibson build them with stops. Just to be clear, I don't use these for jazz gigs. Originally Posted by fumblefingers
Although Gibson does classify them as thinlines I've always considered ES-3X5-type guitars to be semi's, but that leaves some grey areas, like the ES-330 and the four guitars in the above photo that have carved tops and backs and don't have a block up the center. I tend to classify them functionally as semi's and consider these my thinlines: Originally Posted by Patrick2
See photo above Originally Posted by Joe DeNisco
Gibson built at least two guitars like my ES-355/L-5. The other one I know of was black and might have had unbound f-holes.
Danny W.
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Like Patrick, I wouldn't consider a 335... maybe compared to a 175 they are, but a vegas, or blueshawk body I'd call thin.
Anyway I'd also go for a 335 but call it a semi-thin :-)
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My '62 ES 355 is the favorite of any I ever played. The neck is rather thin which I prefer but the collectors seem to favor the thick necks. The PAFs are the best humbuckers I ever heard and I like fooling around with the Varitone. I don't play it much anymore because I'm afraid of dropping it. Sucks to get old.
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Ok, there they go✅ Originally Posted by Danny W.
See photo above
Gibson built at least two guitars like my ES-355/L-5. The other one I know of was black and might have had unbound f-holes.
Danny W.
Magnificent collection. Thanks for sharing.
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I've got a great 2011 Midtown Custom too. Not everyone's cup of tea-- I know. I like everything about it except for some sharp fret edges -- but those will be dealt with eventually. The Burstbucker set gives great tones.
I've been hunting for a nice 335 to join the pack -- but I haven't met the right one yet
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Well....I think so, but I'm used to Fender amps and those can be very bright. Originally Posted by gianluca
I didn't mean rolled off all the way, but I think it's not fully open, P90s can be very bright!
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