The versatile ES-335: Is it really?

[pieterh]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

My two most-used electrics in the studio: ES-335 and Tele. They are both very flexible and can sort of overlap in tonalities. The ES-335 is my favorite instrument that I have to force myself not to play all the time. We are mates. If I could find a Tele with a Gibson-scale neck that still sounded like a Tele I'd be in pig heaven. Round and full? ES-335. Wiry? Tele.

Bob

My 335 studio has become my go to guitar for so many styles and needs. Who would have thought it?

Still love my G&L ASAT Classic hollowbody for sheer playability and versatility but in a shootout I don’t know which would win…!

[Pickcity]

The 335 is my favorite Gibson electric, and one of my all time favorite guitars. I don't think there is anything more versatile. I played one for many years. In fact, I'm playing one in my avatar. I mostly country, southern rock and rockabilly, but the 335 can do anything. My 2 cents.

[jseth]

I have owned and played a Gibson ES-345 for decades... got it in '76, slightly used, for $600... since then, I've pretty much "Frankensteined" the thing so that it makes all the sounds I want...

Coil taps on the two Seymour Duncan pickups (Jeff Beck for the bridge, PAF '59 for the 'board). Yanked the Varitone thing out of there and put in a "bypass" toggle that routes the pickups straight to the amp, bypassing tone and volume controls... I had fat fretwire put in, as well as a Kahler locking nut vibrato system - the guitar would NOT hold tune for more than 1/2 a song until the Kahler went into it, and now it holds tune for months!

It's a heavy beast, but it plays and sounds the way I want my one electric to play and sound. I can get everything from a nice fat jazz tone to a decent approximation of Tele-twang... and everything in-between!

[Pnewsom]

Originally Posted by cosine

Well, since this would be my first foray into the electric world I would need to get an amp too. Could save up for a while and go all out right away!

What Fender amp do you have and play your 335 through? What do you recommend?

I like to play my Gibson 335 through a Fender Vibrolux Reverb Amp(35watts), along with a Sparkle Drive for a little boost on solos. Awesome combo that is good for any Country, R&B, Jazz, or Pop gigs. Plenty of power un-mic'd in small pubs and bars, but loud enough on bigger stages. It only weighs about 30lbs so its an easy one hander to haul as well.

It's an older one, 1967, but it works and sounds great. Pretty good for a 54 year old amp! I usually keep a spare set of tubes in the car just in case one should fail, but that is a very rare occurrence.

[nightchef]

One thing that strikes me about the 335-style guitars I’ve played and owned is how different they all are—much more so than different examples of any other guitar model I’m familiar with. My late-60s 335 12-string (now sold) had a raw, intense jangle on the bridge pickup, a la the Plimsouls’ “A Million Miles Away”, and a neck pickup that was round but kind of light-bodied, almost like a Tele stock neck pickup. A friend of mine owns a 70s 335 that’s the antithesis of that, with a very warm, woody bridge sound and a big fat neck sound. My Sheraton II is much more middle-of-the-road than either of those—in fact, I find the tone a total snooze, though the neck is supremely playable. (If I’d ever been able to get it to sound like, for instance, Ezra Koenig’s in “Oxford Comma”, with all that juicy midrangey character, I’d feel very differently about it.)