NGD! "Hell must have frozen over....."

MichaelW

MichaelW

Well-known member
....which is what a good buddy of mine said when I told him that I bought a new.......

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For REAL this time, no it's not a Chibson.....heh.

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Some of you that know me (or have read my long rambling posts) know my disdain for Gibson Corporation. Not the guitars, I love Gibson guitars. But I detest the company that is the epitome of a corporate bully. To the extent that I had refused to ever considering buying a Gibson for decades. (Don't try explaining to me that Epiphone is owned by Gibson and that my lack of compunction for buying Epi's amounts to the same thing.....my little brain can't handle the logic...... :ROFLMAO: )

Anyway, I absolutely and totally blame this purchase on Chris @Guardians of the analog . He's been sending me GAS inducing pictures of his Les Paul, SG and 335 for the past couple years. I finally broke down. What can I say? It's a Gibson, it's got the typical Gibson foibles, which boggles my mind in this day and age. But it sounds phenomenal! The Gibson T-Top replica pickups in it are absolutely killer and wound to perfect low wind specs for me. (7.6k, 7.6k)

I bought it from Dave's Guitar Shop off Reverb. I can tell you that ANYTHING they list as "Used - Very Good" means "Pretty much mint...".
I've bought quite a few "used" guitars from Dave Rogers over the years and most of them look like they were wall hangars in the shop. This guitar is no exception, it had zero fret wear.

It played pretty well out of the box but the FB was dry and the frets had some oxidation. (It's a 2021 model). So did my "fluff and buff" on it yesterday.
Really didn't need much, a slight tweak to the nut slots, slight tweak to the truss rod to my liking, and a fret polish and a FB treatment. I put a set of StringJoy Broadways on it and now it's just simply heavenly. Super resonant and this thing sustains forever.

A few pics...

All taped up for a major fret polishing. I started with 800 grit and worked my way up to 3000 grit, than Maas metal polish.....
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The end result, frets that feel like glass.
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My favorite fretboard treatment goop. It's got the orange oil to penetrate deep and mixed with beeswax that leaves a dry, non-oily finish.
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After treatment.....ahhh....it needed a drink.....
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a coat of Brazilian Carnauba.....
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Buffed to a mirror finish......
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Pickup covers had a little bit of oxidation, nothing a little Never Dull couldn't handle....
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She's a beauty. And sounds lovely. Gotta hand it to Gibson, this is literally an "off the shelf" guitar and sounds like a.....well....a Gibson:) Classic sound of an ES-335 that's in my head from a lifetime of listening to Larry Carlton, Lee Ritenour, etc.

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Note to self... NEVER go 'window' shopping with Chris and Mike...


started out nice, ended at oooof won't forget that beauty ;) Dave's shops tend to have some decent stuff and won't lie about it's state. I'm glad they're pretty much local to me. Looking forward to any demos you use it.
 
Whoo hoo, that is a beautiful guitar! I just played a lefty just like that in a local shop and I loved it. I am however nowhere near being able to to justify a purchase like that currently!

I also am interested in the "typical Gibson foibles." I have heard of many complaints about Gibson but never gotten the exact story (not as a company, I get that, the guitars). I am a 5x Gibson owner going back to '92 so I may just be used to them.
 
joelorigo said:
Whoo hoo, that is a beautiful guitar! I just played a lefty just like that in a local shop and I loved it. I am however nowhere near being able to to justify a purchase like that currently!

I also am interested in the "typical Gibson foibles." I have heard of many complaints about Gibson but never gotten the exact story (not as a company, I get that, the guitars). I am a 5x Gibson owner going back to '92 so I may just be used to them.
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At the risk of pissing off any Gibson owners (of which I am again now, heh)

For example.....

Those dark spots are UNDER the finish on the binding in that spot....
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On the last couple of Gibsons I owned, most recently a Les Paul Standard somewhere around 2002-2003, they seem to "stop" dressing the frets and fingerboard above the 13th or 14th fret. Check out the file chatter marks on the rosewood and binding in the next pic. This is from hand filing the "nibs" but they didn't go back and scrape it with a razor in a couple of places. It took me all of 5 minutes to fix it with a razor blade.

For a guitar that lists at $3500 you'd think they'd be a bit more detail oriented in the fit and finish.
But I already knew all this this going in with my past experiences with Gibsons. They haven't changed:)

Note: The exception being the frets themselves, since they PLEK everything now, the playability and fret leveling is excellent.

Now compare this with a Tokai, Eastman, or an FGN, or any number the better Gibson copies. Let alone a PRS. You'll never see this sloppiness even on the PRS SE line of guitars. All part of the Gibson charm I suppose, hahaha.
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Having said that, I've owned probably half a dozen semi hollows over the years (decades) including a couple Eastmans, Epiphones, Ibanez, PRS Core Hollow-body and probably a few I've forgotten about trying to chase that ES-335 tone & vibe. None of them had it, not even the expensive ones. This is the first time I've had "tonal satisfaction" right out of the box. It is what it is........:)
 
Gordo said:
I don't "get" the Gibson QA policy but I'm still jealous.
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I KNOW how you feel, @Guardians of the analog worked hard to make me jealous. Jealous enough to pull the trigger hahaha.

Honestly though, this is one of the best sounding guitars I’ve bought in a long while. In Gibsons defense, this was literally an “off the rack” guitar and not hand picked or anything. And it slays….
 
I had a friend in college who played a Heritage 335 and that thing was luxurious to my ibanez artcore playing ass. One of the few 335s that I've handled that rivaled the pair of early 70's gibbeys that my old guitar teacher used.
 
People have been bitching about Gibson's QC for as long as I've been playing, probably longer. It's part of a Gibson to have finish flaws and sloppily finished fret nibs! I have played a LOT of Gibsons over the years, from the '50s to the present and all have some "issue". But most have sounded excellent and some sublime.

That 335 looks fabulous, Michael! Especially now that you've become a (paying) Gibson employee. The 335 is a great guitar, and I play mine all the time. It's a great lounge guitar played acoustically, it sounds amazing straight into an amp and has a huge range of sounds. I love mine. I have a '59 VOS in vintage sunburst. It has a better finish than most and is a joy to play. Nothing sounds as good as a 335 on the neck pickup.

I'm often tempted to get a 335 like yours, because the regular 335s are built a little differently from the '59 VOS. Mine has more centre block; there is no cut out next to the bridge pickup. Just a hole for the bridge pickup wire to exit. On yours there is a large cutout next to the bridge pickup (you can see it through the lower F-hole) and this seems to give the sound a bit more air, which I really like. It's a bit "woodier" or semi-acoustic or something...
 
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