BossAreaForum

Not a thrift store find this time... not even close. Most expensive guitar I've bought in years. But I've been wanting one since I sold my old ES335 10 years ago.

1995. Almost mint.
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Wow! I don't like Gibson guitars per se, but their Jazz models have always been nice.

Stunning guitar mate !

Pepe wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 26, 2022 4:55 am

Wow! I don't like Gibson guitars per se, but their Jazz models have always been nice.

My feelings exactly. I've had about 10 of them over the years... SG, Les Paul, Les Paul Jr, Flying V, ES335. Always found it hard to bond with them.

I currently have a Les Paul standard in a really nice "root beer burst" that rarely comes out of the cupboard. Lovely thing, but it is telling that the description in the previous sentence is about how it looks, not how it plays . I generally always prefer my strats.

And now the ES335. This one came up at a price that was too good to ignore. It's not my favorite guitar, but when you want a hollow-body vibe I haven't found anything better.

The_Doc wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 26, 2022 7:43 am

Stunning guitar mate !

Thanks!

Man, that's beautiful! I'd love a sunburst ES335.

Oh that's a beautiful guitar!

Spent a bit of time with it tonight. Did some A-B comparisons with the Harley Benton and my trusty 30+ year old Heavy Metal strat.

The HM strat is rewired to vintage Gibson specs, with a vintage spec PAF in the bridge.
The Harley Benton has new Chinese pickups (allegedly “vintage”, but actually very hot).

The ES335 walked all over the other two. Tone, clarity, everything. Just a nicer guitar.

I wasn’t surprised by it being better than the Harley Benton, but way better than my trusty old strat? Wasn’t expecting that.

The strat and Harley Benton have their place of course. But for the “pick it up and play”, it might be the ES335 in the future.

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Next thing is to give it a good clean, change the strings, and do a full setup (intonation at least needs work).