Anyone who is even a little fond of guitars is probably familiar with the Gibson brand. These guitars are recognized as the best guitarists from all over the planet and have perhaps had the greatest impact on the industry as a whole, striding on a par with another giant in this field - Fender. The company's tools are a premium product designed for professionals of different genres, providing a diverse, but always deep and rich sound. Versatility, beautiful design and attention to detail have become the hallmark of guitars bearing the proud name of Gibson. In this article, we will talk about the guitar that won the hearts of all musicians of the last century - Gibson Memphis ES – 335. This is a universal semi-acoustic guitar that has given new life to rock and roll and rock music in general.
Features Gibson ES-335 Studio
The case is half solid (solid case), half acoustic (hollow version).
Fingerboard - glued.
The pin holes in the Gibson ES-335 were standard, with the Kluson Deluxe as the pegs themselves.
Mensura - 24.75 (629 mm).
The guitar deck is made of maple (there is also a core of maple).
The neck is made of mahogany.
The fingerboard is made of rosewood.
Type of bridge - Tune-O-Matic.
Pickups - two humbuckers (dual sensors).
Colors vary, the most common and popular option is the Gibson Memphis ES-335 Vintage Sunburst.
Guitar story
The first guitar from the ES-335 series appeared back in 1958 and was designed on the basis of Les Paul's own guitar - The Log, which was created at Epiphone. The new model was significantly different from that guitar, primarily due to its sophisticated and more thoughtful design. Company President Ted McCarthy decided to place the maple core in a regular hollow guitar to preserve the properties of the acoustic instrument and the whole body. The basic model came in a natural color scheme with two sensors and efs. Many musicians liked the guitar in the basic configuration, but there were many who started manually modifying the Gibson ES-335 guitar in their own way, adding additional sensors and other electronics. In the course of history, official modifications and various variations of the instrument appeared, which will be discussed below.
Model 330
Simultaneously with the base model ES-335, a cheaper version of this guitar - ES-330 - was released. Despite the fact that visually the two instruments look almost identical, they have a number of design features that dramatically affect their sound. The first important difference is the absence of a maple core in the guitar, which makes it much lighter, and the “unsplagged” sound (without amplification) is very bright and saturated. As pickups, single P-90 sensors are used. The sound of this model is impudent and at the same time gentle, closest to the sound of The Beatles. And this is no accident, because it was The Beatles with the whole composition who bought an analog of this tool under a different name - Epiphone Casino.
Model 345
Another modification, released in 1985, but already more expensive. In fact, this is one and the same; the design of the guitar is no different. The difference lies in the presence of an additional multi-position switch, which allows individual coils to be activated. This, in turn, makes it possible to diversify the sound of the guitar. Other interesting details include a stereo output jack and gilded fittings. One of the owners of the guitar was the famous musician Freddy King, who inspired Eric Clapton.
Model 355
And this, as they say, is the top model in the base line. This semi-acoustic guitar had a number of minor differences and one important element that distinguishes it from other variations on the ES-335. We are talking about the Bigsby tremolo, which gives musicians even more room for creativity just due to the possibility of changing the tone right during the game. Thanks to this feature, the guitar has become the most popular in the series. Guitarists from around the world have responded to this new product. One of the most famous musicians who preferred this particular model was Johnny Marr, as well as Bernard Butler and Noel Gallagher, who were fans of Marr.
King Lucille model - famous “custom”
The famous guitarist BB King played his life on various Gibson guitars until he acquired his own instrument. Later, in 1958, King discovered an updated line of tools from the Gibson ES-355 series. This tool was most suitable for his requirements. Slim neck, light weight, easy access to high frets. These elements became fundamental when choosing a guitar. Later, it was this guitar that served as the main for the appearance of a joint development of Gibson and BB King - Gibson ES King Lucille. In one of his interviews, King said that he has hearing problems and doesn’t hear low notes, but he distinguishes the high notes very well and loves them much more, which is why the choice fell on the Gibson ES-355. A few years later, Gibson representatives rushed to King and asked him to develop a personalized model of the ES-355. King asked the designers to remove the resonator holes, since he did not really like excessive returns and wanted to independently control the noise level. The string holder, which scratched the musician’s hand during the game, was also replaced with a more convenient version, which also lacked a micro-tuning mechanism. King was old-fashioned and loved working with pegs while tuning the instrument.
There is a beautiful legend that says that at one of King's concerts, a fire occurred. The culprits were men who, during the fight, hit a barrel filled with kerosene. The building ignited, evacuation began, and King left his favorite guitar in it. The next day, the musician found out that the skirmish between the men began because of a girl named Lucille. This is where the name came from for the instrument.
Model Trini Lopez
This model was created by order of Trini Lopez in 1961, just in the era of its greatest popularity. Lopez asked to replace the efa on the guitar with diamond-shaped cutouts. The same thing was done with marking frets. The head of the neck was replaced and resembled a hockey stick (like Gibson Firebird) in shape. Noel Gallagher played the same guitar , using it at Oasis since 2000.
Model Tom DeLonge, or ES Series in metal
Speaking of guitars from the ES-335 series, we first of all imagine blues musicians and jazz fans and certainly not metallers or rockers. The reason for this, of course, is the image of the guitar and the musicians themselves, and not some design features or inappropriate electronics. Gibson tried to change the situation by releasing Tom Delong's subscription model, which was equipped with only one sensor in the area of the string holder, clearly designed to "cut" metal on it. Other modifications appeared, even more “evil”, with the same smooth features, but a completely different character. Similar at the time used the founder of the group Nine Inch Nails. Of the innovations applied in these guitars, it is worth noting the presence of a new fingerboard, very smooth, resembling a rosewood, giving a great attack compared to the classical version of the guitar.
Many homegrown musicians were outraged by the fact that someone was trying to extract heavy sound from a classic semi-acoustic guitar. Allegedly, the instrument is intended for a completely different one, and you should not torment him with heavy music. In fact, all their arguments and fears are unfounded, and you do not need to go far beyond the example of the successful use of semi-acoustic guitars in hard rock. Suffice it to recall Wes Borland from Limp Bizkit, who produced a bold sound on his semi-acoustic Yamaha. Another stone in the garden of "metal" Gibson ES-335 samples is the lack of a sensor, but isn’t that what a real metalhead needs? Playing with an overload, no one thinks about a certain sensor, as well as about all sorts of subtleties of setting the tone. For a metalhead, the main thing is louder and more driving.
Instead of a conclusion
So what do we get in the end. The legendary guitar, which originated as a good solution for bluesmen, eventually became an imperishable classic, suitable for many styles and directions in music, including unexpected ones like metal and hardcore, no matter how hard it is to believe. Gibson ES-335 is a unique, impressive instrument, the dream of all guitarists and just an excellent “workhorse” for all occasions, which also opens up great scope for musical experiments.