Quote:
Originally Posted by Tump335
Hello! Glad to have found your forum. That's exactly my plan.
I lucked out and snagged a 2014 Gingerburst ES-335 Studio on ebay for less than $800. Turned out that the existing bridge on that guitar was incorrect, so I had it replaced with the correct 12" radius old style Gibson ABR-1 bridge. Since the guitar was otherwise perfect, I added some titanium saddles (Allparts 45208 00482), installed an Allparts 5-ply short ES-335 pickguard with chrome Gibson ES-335 bracket, replaced the existing corian nut with bone nut from AxeMasters and bought a "VINTAGE UPGRADED ES-335 PRE-WIRED HARNESS" from Atlantic Custom Guitars on ebay (harness came with 500k CTS pots [audio/linear for volume/tone], switchcraft switch and jack, Sprague 200v .022mf orange drop capacitors and Gavitt Braided Wire) that my local luthier will install by drilling two extra holes under the bottom f-hole sometime next week. All of these upgrades, not counting the titanium saddles (a small extra) cost about $150.
So, since I don't work on guitars myself, after my luthier is paid, I will have a very nice, versatile near new ES-335 that looks great for about $1,250. I won't have white binding, inlaid logos on the headstock, or blocks on the neck -- not a big deal. Even so, the guitar sounds fantastic now, as is, before adding separate tone and volume controls for each pickup. As far as I can tell, Gibson only started offering the ES-335 Studio with full tone and volume controls in 2016.
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Finally got around to taking some pictures of the finished 'Studio' ES-335, besides the above I added Grover 502C locking tuners, Tone Pro SNS 1-N locking Studs, an RS Guitars forged light weight tail piece, a gold Gibson Headstock Crown waterslide Logo and Hipshot Pearloid A04 Tuner Buttons for that 'vintage' look. All additions were in nickel finish and made specifically for the ES-335. Since I can't figure out how to post the pictures without a separate web site/server, which I don't have, I'll ask another member to post them.