MichaelW
Well-known member
So I made it a full six weeks since I swore off buying anymore guitars......(my last purchase was my Tokai Les Paul)
This was a much less expensive guitar and something I've been eyeing for quite some time.
I've always struggled with the size of an ES335 (or anything other semi-hollow with a 16" bout)
When I bought my Eastman TM185MX (15" bout) I almost bought the 14" version (TM184MX) but I couldn't find one with a decent top and color.
They don't seem to sell a lot of the TM versions here in the US. It's also not a semi hollow but rather a true hollow body patterned after the Collings I-35.
It's got a carved solid maple top and a carved solid mahogany body. So tonally it's a bit more refined than a true ES-style guitar.
Eastman also makes a true ES style with laminated maple top. back and sides in 14" (T484) but they're scarce to find and also not inexpensive.
So aside from getting the Gibson ES339 the only other option that had my interest was the Epiphone version from their "inspired by Gibson" line.
Having had some very positive experiences with the new Epiphones this past couple of years, I watched a bunch of reviews and decided to throw an offer on one I saw on Reverb. I got a new Epiphone ES339 in natural finish from the Music Zoo for $450 shipped. Kinda hard to pass that up.
My first impressions out of the box is that this might be the nicest of all my Epiphones so far. (I've recently purchased the Firebird, the SG Special and got a Les Paul Junior last year sometime).
The next carve is the most "C" shaped and has the least amount of "shoulders" to it out of all my Epiphones. Not sure if this is how they do their 50's Les Paul necks or not but it's in that same ballpark. Like a 50's carve and very comfy to play. Not that I can't play my other Epiphones but that "D" shaped neck profile on most of them is not my favorite feature.
I decided on the Natural after going back and forth between the Cherry red and the Pelham Blue. I don't have a natural colored guitar right now, but I do have a Pelham Blue and a Cherry Red so I went with it.
Build quality is once again, very impressive. Hard to believe this is a sub $500 guitar. The fret work, fret leveling, fret dressing were all perfect and didn't need any additional work from me aside from a high polish with the Dremel.
As you'd probably expected, the first thing I did was tear it all apart and rewire it.....
.
I installed a set if Durbano Magnetics 59 PAF's in it. I think these pickups, after having been in 3 or 4 different guitars have finally found their forever home. They sounds fantastic in this guitar. The stock pickups weren't necessarily bad, but like most Epiphone pickups, they sounded muddy to me.
The Durbano 59's sound like a good set of PAF's. Lots of clarity and definition yet also has a good punch to them. They come in as a close second to my all time favorite PAF, the Wolfetone Legends.
While I absolutely detest working on wiring in semi-hollows, it was something that had to be done. Epiphone uses CTS pots on these guitars but they use Metric sized CTS's and also use B500k's in all 4 positions. Bleah. While I was building a new harness for it anyway, I also upgraded the toggle to a Switchcraft as well as the output jack.
Here's a shot right out of the box before I started my surgery.
The Indian Laurel fingerboard looks nice. Uniform grain and on the darker side. It could definitely pass for rosewood.
I don't have anything against Grover tuners, but I don't care for them in Gibson style guitars. I much prefer the classic look of Kluson's.
So the first thing I did was swap out the Grovers.
I had to use "conversion bushings" to make the Gotoh Kluson style tuners work.
They required a slight bit of reaming to press fit.
Usually on F style guitars I tap these in with a plastic hammer, but since I couldn't lay the neck flat on this guitar I used a C-clamp to press fit the bushings.
There wasn't too much of a "halo" left from the Grover bushings that's very noticeable.
Ahhh much better......
There's a tiny bit of "footprint" from the Grovers showing if you look hard enough, but I think for the most part the tuner swap was a success.
Even though the fingerboard was a decent color already. I'm still experimenting a bit with staining Laurel fingerboards. So I decided to try using finishing touchup pens on this fingerboard.
Continued in next post....
This was a much less expensive guitar and something I've been eyeing for quite some time.
I've always struggled with the size of an ES335 (or anything other semi-hollow with a 16" bout)
When I bought my Eastman TM185MX (15" bout) I almost bought the 14" version (TM184MX) but I couldn't find one with a decent top and color.
They don't seem to sell a lot of the TM versions here in the US. It's also not a semi hollow but rather a true hollow body patterned after the Collings I-35.
It's got a carved solid maple top and a carved solid mahogany body. So tonally it's a bit more refined than a true ES-style guitar.
Eastman also makes a true ES style with laminated maple top. back and sides in 14" (T484) but they're scarce to find and also not inexpensive.
So aside from getting the Gibson ES339 the only other option that had my interest was the Epiphone version from their "inspired by Gibson" line.
Having had some very positive experiences with the new Epiphones this past couple of years, I watched a bunch of reviews and decided to throw an offer on one I saw on Reverb. I got a new Epiphone ES339 in natural finish from the Music Zoo for $450 shipped. Kinda hard to pass that up.
My first impressions out of the box is that this might be the nicest of all my Epiphones so far. (I've recently purchased the Firebird, the SG Special and got a Les Paul Junior last year sometime).
The next carve is the most "C" shaped and has the least amount of "shoulders" to it out of all my Epiphones. Not sure if this is how they do their 50's Les Paul necks or not but it's in that same ballpark. Like a 50's carve and very comfy to play. Not that I can't play my other Epiphones but that "D" shaped neck profile on most of them is not my favorite feature.
I decided on the Natural after going back and forth between the Cherry red and the Pelham Blue. I don't have a natural colored guitar right now, but I do have a Pelham Blue and a Cherry Red so I went with it.
Build quality is once again, very impressive. Hard to believe this is a sub $500 guitar. The fret work, fret leveling, fret dressing were all perfect and didn't need any additional work from me aside from a high polish with the Dremel.
As you'd probably expected, the first thing I did was tear it all apart and rewire it.....
.I installed a set if Durbano Magnetics 59 PAF's in it. I think these pickups, after having been in 3 or 4 different guitars have finally found their forever home. They sounds fantastic in this guitar. The stock pickups weren't necessarily bad, but like most Epiphone pickups, they sounded muddy to me.
The Durbano 59's sound like a good set of PAF's. Lots of clarity and definition yet also has a good punch to them. They come in as a close second to my all time favorite PAF, the Wolfetone Legends.
While I absolutely detest working on wiring in semi-hollows, it was something that had to be done. Epiphone uses CTS pots on these guitars but they use Metric sized CTS's and also use B500k's in all 4 positions. Bleah. While I was building a new harness for it anyway, I also upgraded the toggle to a Switchcraft as well as the output jack.
Here's a shot right out of the box before I started my surgery.
The Indian Laurel fingerboard looks nice. Uniform grain and on the darker side. It could definitely pass for rosewood.
I don't have anything against Grover tuners, but I don't care for them in Gibson style guitars. I much prefer the classic look of Kluson's.
So the first thing I did was swap out the Grovers.
I had to use "conversion bushings" to make the Gotoh Kluson style tuners work.
They required a slight bit of reaming to press fit.
Usually on F style guitars I tap these in with a plastic hammer, but since I couldn't lay the neck flat on this guitar I used a C-clamp to press fit the bushings.
There wasn't too much of a "halo" left from the Grover bushings that's very noticeable.
Ahhh much better......
There's a tiny bit of "footprint" from the Grovers showing if you look hard enough, but I think for the most part the tuner swap was a success.
Even though the fingerboard was a decent color already. I'm still experimenting a bit with staining Laurel fingerboards. So I decided to try using finishing touchup pens on this fingerboard.
Continued in next post....
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