Anyone use 335 with tons of gain?

marcg71

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Anyone use a ES 335 with a decent amount of modern rock gain? I am curious if you experience feedback issues? I am looking into getting a 335 and am a bit worried about feedback issues. Any help would be appreciated!
 
Re: Anyone use 335 with tons of gain?

Anyone use a ES 335 with a decent amount of modern rock gain?

I used to use one but eventually starting using single coils more and ultimately sold the 335.


I am curious if you experience feedback issues? I am looking into getting a 335 and am a bit worried about feedback issues. Any help would be appreciated!


Well, it depends on volume and your (the guitar's) position relative to the speaker cabinet. I always found the feedback manageable and fun. It tends to howl in directions that at first seem outside the chord but adds some serious flavor.

This may not be exactly what you'd consider tons of modern rock gain and is obviously not a 335, but it's a good demonstration of the feedback and the ability to harness it ...... approximately 3:00 - 4:15.

 
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Re: Anyone use 335 with tons of gain?

Well, it depends on volume and your (the guitar's) position relative to the speaker cabinet. I always found the feedback manageable and fun. It tends to howl in directions that at first seem outside the chord but adds some serious flavor.

Yep . . . this has been my finding as well . . . I've used an Epi Dot at volume to cover Guns N' Roses, Black Sabbath, Ozzy, and the rhythm for some Satriani songs. Where you stand and even how you hold your guitar can make a big difference in the amount of feedback that you get. It's controllable once you work that out.
 
Re: Anyone use 335 with tons of gain?

I use my ES 335 with either my Marshall or Mark 5. Even with lots of gain I've never found feedback to be a problem. No more of a problem then with any of my other guitars. To be honest, I get more feedback from the single coils in my strat.

I wouldn't worry about it at all. Even if it does feedback, its still manageable. I'm willing to bet you'd like it. :wink:
 
Re: Anyone use 335 with tons of gain?

I do.

I run a chinese 335 into a peavey JSX with distortion and delay. I either use the clean channel with BOSS GT8 gain. Or I use clean signal with the amp crunch and distortion channels.

It soudns good.

THe pickups are 59 in the neck and custom 5 in the bridge. Since the guitar is semi hollow, it has more sound coming out, but at the same time it's kind of bassy sounding. This is probably one of my bassiest guitars. I also am not sure about the wood. It might be plywood. I enjoy playing it a lot though. A very beefy sound. But it's not as defined. Kind of mushy, but sounds allright to my ears. Definitely lacks articulation though. If you play clean though, and with finger style - gently, you can still get very articulate tones, especially in the middle pickup position. Sorry my descriptions are kind of all over the place but hopefully soon I can jam out a demo with it, and post it on youtube, since I use that guitar pretty much every day now.
 
Re: Anyone use 335 with tons of gain?

I don't have a 335, but I do have a 135 and have never had a lot of problems. I don't use probably so much gain, but I do compress the hell out of the signal before it hits the amp, so it might be similar. My old business partner used to do roadie stuff for the Marshall Tucker Band, though, and Toy Caldwell, he said, had to do some dialing in on his 335 because of the high gain/compression thing.
 
Re: Anyone use 335 with tons of gain?

If you want the best of both world, and you want to be super cool, you should totally get a ES339. Those are where it's at.
 
Re: Anyone use 335 with tons of gain?

Not a 335, but I use my ES-339 to play Devils of Belgrade music through a 100-watt high gain amp at gig and band practice volumes, and it stays pretty well under control as long as I'm handy with my volume controls.
 
Re: Anyone use 335 with tons of gain?

If you want the best of both world, and you want to be super cool, you should totally get a ES339. Those are where it's at.

When you're a big guy, let's say 6'5", a 335 looks and feels a lot better than a 339.
 
Re: Anyone use 335 with tons of gain?

When you're an average guy, let's say 5'-11", a petite woman looks and feels better.
 
Re: Anyone use 335 with tons of gain?

Erm, yes, Eric something. Sixties, Afro hairstyle, said that he went down to de Crossroads.
 
Re: Anyone use 335 with tons of gain?

I have both a 335 & a 359 as stated earlier it depends on how loud you play and where the speaker is in relation to the guitar. Make sure you have a fairly long chord and can point the axe away from the amp. You should be fine.

I usually practice at gig volume & don't really have too many issues with either of my semi hollows. I have my 335 stuffed with foam so it doesn't squeal on me, but to be honest I really don't feel it is doing anything. I'm just too lazy to pull it out. The 359 is as stable as a Les Paul or any other guitar( I just think it sounds better)
 
Re: Anyone use 335 with tons of gain?

warren haynes plays a 335 thru his 100w soldano all the time, granted he doesnt have the gain up more than like 4 but on an slo100 thats still pretty gainy, and he plays LOUD!
 
Re: Anyone use 335 with tons of gain?

I play my 335 with gain pretty frequently, and gigged it for about a year in light gain territory.

It is my belief that the "semi-hollows feed back more" is false / fabrication that is regurgitated by people who don't gig semi-hollows.

In the interest of full disclosure, I was gigging with a small combo; not a half stack.
 
Re: Anyone use 335 with tons of gain?

I play my 335 with gain pretty frequently, and gigged it for about a year in light gain territory.

It is my belief that the "semi-hollows feed back more" is false / fabrication that is regurgitated by people who don't gig semi-hollows.

In the interest of full disclosure, I was gigging with a small combo; not a half stack.

Eh, it's not false. It's true. It's just also largely dependent on the circumstance.

A I've gigged both my 339 and my old ES-137 with DoB and found that those designs are more prone to the kind of one-note, howling feedback you can't really make musical if you don't very diligently control the guitar though body positioning, hand placement, volume knob / tuner pedal manipulation, and the old turn-my-neck-pickup-off-so-the-3way-works-like-a-mute trick.

Certain rooms are worse than others too.

but

all that considered

it's still doable.

Some would say worth it, too, when weighed against all the benefits of using semi-hollows for high gain.
 
Re: Anyone use 335 with tons of gain?

A lot of it has to do with the pickups being fully potted. Unpotted PAF's may be a problem, but the 57 Classics that come in a Gibson ES-335 are potted, so it's never given me any squeal. The howl you might get from the body is easily controlled by your proximity to the amp, and everything sosomething mentioned.
 
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