ES-335 love..anyone?

[lex666]

Re: ES-335 love..anyone?

Howdy,

Lex and The Chris: Those are lovely! Ebony is so "dressy" and classic; simple. The Lightburst or Honeyburst ES-335 is almost 3 dimensional with that flame. I'll bet they sound great through Marshalls.

Do ya'll just plug straight into the "Clean" channel and turn it up? I don't use pedals. For "Beano" tone, I simply plug my 1980 ES-335 (w/ SD 59s) into my '68 Vibro Champ, turn it up and wail! Of course, my wife and Airedale Terrier may not always appreciate my brilliant guitar playing

Eggman

I usually play alot of heavy stuff with lots of gain, but the semi hollow sounds so sweet, i've been using the clean or very low crunch channel so you get more of the great tone coming thru. No effects necessary, except I'm going thru a boss ns-2 noise suppressor and a little bit of amp reverb...

 

[eggman]

Re: ES-335 love..anyone?

Howdy,

I've posted here on this forum several times about how odd an ES-335 looks with uncovered P/Us. Les Pauls, otoh look perfectly acceptable this way..Hmmm
Today I was viewing a clip of The Hollies from the old Shindig program. Tony Hicks had an ES-335 with the coils exposed! LOL. I think the song was "Look through any window". Now I don't feel so self conscious about the uncovered '59s on my 1980 ES-335.
Eggman

 

[FBloke]

Re: ES-335 love..anyone?

Here's mine - it was a 2004 wine red dot which I had mod'ed to a block and outfitted with BKP Stormy Monday's. I'm very proud of it.

 

[MikeS]

Re: ES-335 love..anyone?

Ugh, the rash of 335 related threads in the last week is killing me! It's making my wallet sweat... what's a man to do to combat the GAS? Some nice looking guitars, fellas. Hopefully in the coming months I'll be able to join the club.

 

[eggman]

Re: ES-335 love..anyone?

Howdy,

That moded Cherry ES-335 is gorgeous, FBloke! How does she sound with the bare knuckles (Stormy Mondays)? My 1980 model is quite similar, save for the vintage Tobacco sunburst and coil-split on the lower cutaway.
What amps do you favor for getting your tone? What do you think of the neck, et al?

Eggman

 

[FBloke]

Re: ES-335 love..anyone?

Howdy,

That moded Cherry ES-335 is gorgeous, FBloke! How does she sound with the bare knuckles (Stormy Mondays)? My 1980 model is quite similar, save for the vintage Tobacco sunburst and coil-split on the lower cutaway.
What amps do you favor for getting your tone? What do you think of the neck, et al?

Eggman

Hi Eggman,

The Stormy Mondays are fantastic - they're Alnico II and give me every tone I could want. Amp wise I have been getting very good results with my Rivera Chubster 55, however last week I bought a Mesa Boogie Express 5:25 which helps me to sound much more like "me" as it's pretty unique and doesn't seem to replicate classic amps as much as create it's own sounds.

The neck is fine but the fingerboard and frets were awful straight from the factory, razor-sharp ends on the fret wire, top e string kept slipping off the board an so on. When I got the blocks put in I also got a re-fret done which made all the difference. It's cost me a little bit of money, but still has cost a lot less than buying a 335 Block re-issue and in my opinion the hardware is now better than stock by some margin.

What amp (s) are you using?

Mike.

 

[eggman]

Re: ES-335 love..anyone?

Howdy,

FBloke: Thanks for sharing with us all the info about your killer ES-335 and your amps.
I've posted before how i enjoy my '68 Vibro Champ for living room duties; for getting my "Ya-Ya's Out" with my 'Stones CDs. Those SD 59s really overdrive that tiny British Brimar NOS 6V6 power tube. Great guitar/amp combination for low-volume raunch!
For clean duties I turn to my red knob Fender "The Twin". That pair of of 12-inch speakers really beefs up the tone and it's necessary to turn the Bass knob to "1" or even "0" with my ES-335. As you may know, 6L6s are Bassy already.
Keep those ES-335 posts coming everyone.

Eggman

 

[eggman]

Re: ES-335 love..anyone?

Howdy,

Yesterday I decided to break out my Norlin-era ES-335 at a C&W gig. Playing clean through my Fender Super 112, she sounded similar to George Harrison's tone on some of those early Beatles Carl Perkins covers.
"Tiger by the Tail", "Amarillo by Morning" and "Green River" were among the numbers. "Everybody's tryin' to be my Baby" was another.
The drummer remarked that there's no rule that one must use a Fender for C&W, and that it sounded good. Nobody in the audience reported me to the "Twang Committee" , either
Anyone else use a 335 for C&W or non-Blues duties?

Eggman

 

[butnut]

Re: ES-335 love..anyone?

Got the 335 bug a while ago, but it was always slightly outta my range. Picked up a real nice Epi Sheriton with Seths from TC, sounded great, but when I found out the dude from the Strokes uses a Epi Riviera with Gibby P94s, I got a nice one on ebay, very early Japan model, stuffed in the P94s and it really rocks. I play close to my stack of amps so gotta watch the feedback, but the Semi-hollow honk and P94 mid-rich goodness really sound kool, I can feel the notes in the body....freaky!

 

[ES350]

Re: ES-335 love..anyone?

Anyone else use a 335 for C&W or non-Blues duties?
Eggman

335's and Sheratons were the weapons of choice for most of the Bradley's Barn and Nashville session guys from the 60's to the late 70's...

 

[blueman335]

Re: ES-335 love..anyone?

335's and Sheratons were the weapons of choice for most of the Bradley's Barn and Nashville session guys from the 60's to the late 70's...

In the videos of Brit pop/rock bands in the mid & early 1960's ("British Invasion") that I've seen, most bands had a 335 or two. It seemed to be one of the dominant guitars then. After Hendrix & Page, Strats & LP's zoomed in popularity as solid bodies became the official tool of soloists. A big semi-hollow would have been too bulky for Jimi to play behind his back, or for Jimmy to hang by his knees. This also coincided with the introduction of more powerful amps & the popularity of the new 100 watt heads and big outdoor concerts, when feedback reduction become an issue again (although Alvin Lee did fine at Woodstock).

With most of us playing at small bar gigs, 335's make a lot of sense again. We really should be seeing more of them.

 

[butnut]

Re: ES-335 love..anyone?

Adam Seymour of the Pretenders plays only plays 335s on the Loose in LA DVD, gets all kinds of great tone through a Marshall and Orange, excellent player. The 335 works perfectly for him and his sound in the band.

 

[SouthpawGuy]

Re: ES-335 love..anyone?

How about one of these, built the old fashioned way by the boys in Kalamazoo

Heritage H-535 / Duncan '59s

 

[Fresh_Start]

Re: ES-335 love..anyone?

I can't believe this thread's been around for 6 months without me adding pics of my Heritage 535 which came with Antiquity's:

I bought this guitar from Jay Wolfe after touring the Gibson factory in Memphis. Draw your own conclusions

As far as amps go, what's not to like with a 335-style guitar? Haven't played my clone through a Marshall but will some day...

Chip

 

[eggman]

Re: ES-335 love..anyone?

Howdy,

SouthPaw and Fresh Start: Those Heritage 535s are stunning! I've been hankering for a 535 for years now. Southpaw, is it possible that your 535 is made of White Limba, instead of the standard Maple? After examining the photos of your Blonde beauty, I just couldn't help but wonder..

Eggman

PS: I'm disappointed with Southpaw and Fresh Start. All of the ES-335 crowd demands, yes expects a sonic evaluation of your beautiful guitars! Seth Lovers..59s..how do they sound?

 

[Hot _Grits]

Re: ES-335 love..anyone?

I played a red 535 a few months ago and it was an incredible guitar.

 

[SouthpawGuy]

Re: ES-335 love..anyone?

Howdy,

SouthPaw and Fresh Start: Those Heritage 535s are stunning! I've been hankering for a 535 for years now. Southpaw, is it possible that your 535 is made of White Limba, instead of the standard Maple? After examining the photos of your Blonde beauty, I just couldn't help but wonder..

Eggman

PS: I'm disappointed with Southpaw and Fresh Start. All of the ES-335 crowd demands, yes expects a sonic evaluation of your beautiful guitars! Seth Lovers..59s..how do they sound?

Eggman ... As far as I know it's the standard Maple, a lot of the Heritages exhibit that type of wood pattern, the finish is Goldem Amber, if you look at the middle pic you can read the label ! That's not a finish that is listed on the Heritage website though, but I have seen a couple of others in that finish.
As for the sound well it is very resonant unplugged and plugged in classic rock and blues tones abound, it's great for clean tones too. I use it through a Blues Jnr, a Cube 30 and a Cyber Twin, it works great with all.

Here's a few more pics ....

 

[eggman]

Re: ES-335 love..anyone?

Howdy,

Southpawguy: What a pretty guitar! After examining the pics, I agree with you; it's Maple. I think the large format pics threw my old eyes for a loop. I agree that 335 type guitars can sound nice unplugged. Of course they sound even better better plugged into our favorite tube amps.

Eggman

 

[Fresh_Start]

Re: ES-335 love..anyone?

I'm disappointed with Southpaw and Fresh Start. All of the ES-335 crowd demands, yes expects a sonic evaluation of your beautiful guitars! Seth Lovers..59s..how do they sound?

It sounds better than a couple of $3,000+ Gibson 335s that I tried? The acoustic sustain on this guitar is great. The Antiquities aren't very powerful, which is fine by me. The bridge pup can bite & be a bit too bright at times, but that's what the Tone knob is for. The tone from the neck pickup is sweet & warm & ... Very pretty clean and sounds great through distortion too.

Some day I've got to go inside and put in treble bleed caps but I'm not looking forward to that particular adventure. Probably swap in a 500K tone pot for the neck pickup while I'm at it.

Does that help any?

Chip

 

[mattstratocaster]

Re: ES-335 love..anyone?

I have a Epiphone sheraton ll and for a $600 guitar that thing is awesome. my friend happened to score a deal on a 1984-85 es-335 and there are almost no tonal differences at all. any way i feel that es-335 are my favorite gibson. It just has a little more tonal complexity to me than others like the les paul. You almost get subtle overtones because of it being hollow. It just feels more alive and less flat sounding that some of the others. Its got the extra oomph that still keeps me playing. as for the amp i play it through a 59 fender bassman. not the RI, but rather a hand wired copy i built. It really sings