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Old 01-22-2017, 06:11 AM
HNS HNS is offline
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Default New Electric guitar choice

Howdy folks !
Blessed Sunday for everyone

I have a new electric guitar GAS related question, but before I begin, I'd like to say that I've been more of an acoustic guitar player than an electric guitar guy. I just play at home for fun since the mid 70's. It's my hobby really.

I have a Strat and Gibson Les Paul std, I usually play for fun over backing tracks after work, or over my DR 880.

Lately, GAS struck again, I always wanted an es 335 and a PRS custom 22.
Honestly, I'm unsure what to do, the difference between these guitars and the Les Paul - although clearly audible to me- may not be enough to "pays your money and make your choice"

What would you do, if you were to choose the first of the two?

Sounds like a strange question, but I'd really appreciate your opionions here....
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Old 01-22-2017, 06:44 AM
the architect the architect is offline
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The PRS won't bring a huge sonic difference from what you've already got with the LP.

The 335 will offer you an alternative to both of your current guitars.

It also depends on what you're looking to play. If metal is your cup of tea, the PRS is the only real choice. If it more clean guitar, the 335 rules.
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Old 01-22-2017, 06:49 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by the architect View Post
The PRS won't bring a huge sonic difference from what you've already got with the LP.

The 335 will offer you an alternative to both of your current guitars.

It also depends on what you're looking to play. If metal is your cup of tea, the PRS is the only real choice. If it more clean guitar, the 335 rules.
Thanks ! Metal is not my thing, any particular model you prefer for the 335, I've noticed a big difference between the memphis dot, the memphis 63 335TD "custom" and the more expensive Nashville models (not all though), more so than with the les Pauls

Cheers
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Old 01-22-2017, 08:54 AM
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Bob Womack Bob Womack is offline
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If it is a different tone you are looking for, the ES-335 is the guitar that will deliver it.

There's no doubt that the PRS Custom 22 is a gorgeous guitar to behold. Paul has gotten the whole physical aesthetic down marvelously. The sound? It is a 25" scale guitar and that scale has its own sound. It is also a PRS, and they just have a different midrange to them. Finally, it has a floating vibrato tailpiece which will change the feel of the guitar - bending will require more effort than a solid tailpiece guitar requires.

The ES-335? That basic design style of a molded maple plywood body (maple/poplar/maple) with a solid maple center block and mahogany neck provides an airiness and resonance that none of the solid body guitars duplicate. The thick midrange that is a feature of the Les Paul and the Custom 22 is missing in the ES-335 as well. I'm not sure any guitar can cover more stylistic ground than the ES-335.*

By the way, I've written up a page about my quest for the semi-hollow sound that took me to the ES-335, and you can find it HERE.

Bob

* Probably the second most flexible in my book would be the Telecaster which has a far different sound and covers a different territory with some overlap. As a diehard Les Paul lover, those two guitars have been a revelation to me.
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Old 01-22-2017, 09:31 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob Womack View Post
If it is a different tone you are looking for, the ES-335 is the guitar that will deliver it.

There's no doubt that the PRS Custom 22 is a gorgeous guitar to behold. Paul has gotten the whole physical aesthetic down marvelously. The sound? It is a 25" scale guitar and that scale has its own sound. It is also a PRS, and they just have a different midrange to them. Finally, it has a floating vibrato tailpiece which will change the feel of the guitar - bending will require more effort than a solid tailpiece guitar requires.

The ES-335? That basic design style of a molded maple plywood body (maple/poplar/maple) with a solid maple center block and mahogany neck provides an airiness and resonance that none of the solid body guitars duplicate. The thick midrange that is a feature of the Les Paul and the Custom 22 is missing in the ES-335 as well. I'm not sure any guitar can cover more stylistic ground than the ES-335.*

By the way, I've written up a page about my quest for the semi-hollow sound that took me to the ES-335, and you can find it HERE.

Bob

* Probably the second most flexible in my book would be the Telecaster which has a far different sound and covers a different territory with some overlap. As a diehard Les Paul lover, those two guitars have been a revelation to me.
Thanks Bob

A telecaster has been on my list as well. long enough. Both the tele and the 335 have this common openness about them.

I played a 335 the other day, in Bourbon burst... it was some kind of Memphis custom shop... it blew me away ! I a/b it with a normal dot, and the dot was just dead, dead plugged and unplugged. Something was wrong with the construction. There's something in that first 335 model that was substantially different from any 335 i played. The 336 and 339 much less so.

So many models to choose from. Any experience with the wildwood Memphis customs ?

Cheers
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Old 01-22-2017, 10:11 AM
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While I have experienced custom shop Es-335s I haven't experienced a Wildwood spec guitar. Wildwood is three-quarters of the way across the continent from me. If you read the article I wrote you'll see that I had access to a bunch of ES-335s of every level including custom shop and historic at the time I was in the market. I think I spoke in terms of seven or eight in the article but before my lovely wife bought the one I liked it was more like ten or eleven examples. I used the same amplifier model while I tried them out.

I decided to approach ES-335s from a standpoint of a sound I was looking for rather a than price point. I didn't check the hang tags until the close of the comparison. I've long maintained that due to the amount of handwork in the Gibsons, there is a large amount of variance in sound between examples and consequently I didn't buy the first one I tried. The sound I was looking for was a sweetness in the neck pickup and an airiness and snarkiness in the bridge pickup. In my search I found all sorts of guitars: bright, dark, hard, soft, and eventually a sweet one, just what I was looking for. That guitar turned out to be a standard old Memphis Dot reissue, the basic ES-335 for the year 2005. No one could be more surprised than I was.



It's one upgrade is that it offers figured wood on front, back, and sides. There was a lot of blowback about the figured wood not being like the early ones until the ES-335 site started publishing pics of the first years of the model. There were all sorts of figured guitars in the first two years (1958 and 1959) including quilt and birdseye maple. The first flame maple top I found was in 1960:



The objections have since turned to the horn styles and neck carves of the Memphis Dots. You will have to decide if those factors are important to you. I've found the neck to be incredibly fast and comfortable.

My Dot has played numerous recording sessions since I was given it and in fact it usually goes with me to every session because I so often fall back on it. Here's a studio shot from 2010:


Red guitar day!

So I'd try as many as I can get my hands on.


Bob
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Old 01-22-2017, 10:27 AM
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"The sound I was looking for was a sweetness in the neck pickup and an airiness and snarkiness in the bridge pickup"

That's exactly what I'm looking for, the "vowel sounding" sweet neck pickup, in addition to the quacking/"skatting" sound in the middle position, but tamed not like in an LP.

I agree with your approach, Guitar hunting for me was never about price tags, It's about the organic build of the guitar. Unfortunately, I've only played four till now...and can't reach a comprehensive opinion based on the limited experience I have. I will have to do what you did to feel content with the decision to buy.

Thanks for your input, I read the article, but will read it again.. no need to reinvent the wheel I guess
Cheers
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Old 01-22-2017, 10:58 AM
FrankHudson FrankHudson is offline
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As this tread has developed, it looks like you really want a 335 and not just a guitar that sounds most different from your Strat and Les Paul. In which case, you should get a 335. It's your money and your enjoyment and a 335 can make a wonderful sound.

You've played examples, so the one thing that sometimes bothers folks about the 335 has probably been addressed. The body size is large, and some people feel it's too large, particular for couch playing. This is somewhat analogous to how some folks feel about jumbo and dreadnaught guitars. The 339 (a 335 with a scaled down body) is the answer to that body size thing.

That said, a popular and very valid answer to the question you first posed (something that sounds most different from a LP and a Strat) would be a Telecaster. Another reason to consider a Tele: in my experience a Telecaster responds to typical acoustic guitar techniques more like an acoustic guitar does than most any other solid body electric guitar.

Another answer to someone who likes the idea of a 335 and would be a semi-hollow or thinline hollowbody with something other than Gibson-style humbuckers. A Gretsch (DeArmond or Filtertron pickups) or Epiphone Casino type guitar (P90 pickups) would be the thing to look for there. The knock against hollowbody vs. the 335 solid block guitars is that you can have feedback issues on messy stages, and home players have less issue with that. Similarly the P90 pickup (which sounds great) got a bad rap in the old days when it picked up bad hum from old style bar electrical fields.

I have little experience with current high-end electric guitar models, electrics I've bought in the past decade or so have been in the sub $1000 range, often way below $1000, but I will throw in my observation that the timbre of a series of electric guitars, even played into a clean amp, is little impacted by details of body construction, the very thing we as acoustic players obsess over. Pickups, largest difference. Scale length, bridge design, chambered/semi-hollowbody, yes, some difference. Body woods, surprisingly small difference (I once thought this was more important). Trivial? Things like neck joint details, nitro finish, fingerboard wood, bone nut: impossible to tell by ear.

Enjoy your search. If you want a 335, get it and you'll enjoy it. If you want to look now or later for a different sound, think about a Telecaster, a P90 pickup guitar, or a Gretsch.
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Last edited by FrankHudson; 01-22-2017 at 11:02 AM. Reason: typos
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Old 01-22-2017, 11:07 AM
HNS HNS is offline
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Frank
Thanks for your answer, I tried a 336 an 339 and it's not what I was looking for, although I really liked the build quality of the 336.

I hear you with regards to a Tele or a Casino, or even an Archtop like a 175, or a Godin nylon electric with a piezo pup for a different tonal palette. I play Dreadnoughts, so size isn't the problem for me. I'm in the unsure phase of the hunt


Thanks for the recommendations
Cheers
H
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  #10  
Old 01-22-2017, 12:26 PM
Steve DeRosa Steve DeRosa is offline
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You have a Strat...
You have an LP...
Between the two you can cover nearly all of the single-coil and humbucker bases...

You need a Gretsch:

https://8thstreet.com/Product/Get/69...ow-body-guitar

- a P-90 full-size archtop:

https://8thstreet.com/Product/Get/61...-guitar-w-case

- a nice tube amp to play them through:

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/V22InfiCombo
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/V55Infinium

- and you can have them all for about $1200 less than one of these:

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ESDP16FBNH

Just do it - you'll thank me later...
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Last edited by Steve DeRosa; 01-22-2017 at 01:51 PM. Reason: typo
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Old 01-22-2017, 12:41 PM
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If you really can't choose based on sound, you could always go by ergonomics. personally I'm liking bigger electrics as I get older.

Just more comfortable playing sitting down without strap, which is almost all my playing these days.

So what "feels right" to you?
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Old 01-22-2017, 12:54 PM
MikeMcKee MikeMcKee is offline
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I've got a Heritage Prospect, which is a 15" instead of a 16" and I found it to be a better fit for me. Put Throbak pickups in it, and never looked back. Great guitar.
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Old 01-22-2017, 01:11 PM
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Another vote for the 335. The semi-hollow constructions gives you a vibe that's not already in your stable.

Gratuitous excuse for a pic, my '67:

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Old 01-22-2017, 01:34 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob Womack View Post
By the way, I've written up a page about my quest for the semi-hollow sound that took me to the ES-335, and you can find it HERE.
Nice playing and tone, btw ♫
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Old 01-22-2017, 07:02 PM
vindibona1 vindibona1 is offline
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335 all the way. It can cover anything you'd do with a LP or PRS... and yet has it's own personality that the others can't quite emulate.
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