new Gibson ES-339

walrus

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I took the plunge the other day and bought a 2011 Gibson ES-339. I love it!! I got the "50's style" neck, which reminds me of an early 2000's Bluesbird I had several years ago. What I am loving about this guitar is it's light weight, but it sounds like a solid body. Not as light as a true hollowbody, but more sustain and less feedback - it has the center block like an ES-335, or a Starfire IV.

I don't have access to my camera until a few months from now, but here's a clip of Gibson "propaganda" about the guitar if anyone is interested. Mine is the Antique Cherry finish.

http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/F ... 0Presents/

The guitar is very well made, and I assume no "rare woods" were used to make it, so I'm feeling confident the feds will not be at my doorstep any time soon...

walrus
 

capnjuan

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Nice 8) The man in the middle:

gibson_comparison.jpg
 

Kslam

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Great guitar and a great design concept too. There's a member of this forum (You know who you are!) who has an 82 Ibanez AS50 which I covet. Like the 339, the AS50 is a smaller bodied semi-hollow. Such a joy to play.
 

walrus

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Thanks for the pic, cap'n! That is exactly how mine looks - antique red finish, and I have removed the pickguard...

It really is a blast to play!

walrus
 
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That looks awesome - a mini 335 with all the punch. I wonder why it's only available from certain retailers?
 

adorshki

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piedaddy said:
That looks awesome - a mini 335 with all the punch. I wonder why it's only available from certain retailers?
Typically a limited production item will be offered to the outfits which have demonstrated great success with the brand, first. There's usually some demonstrable effort those retailers are putting into getting the brand sold and equally importantly, supported, with after the sale service and close factory interaction for example.
Sometimes it's as mundane as meeting certain sales dollar goals goals which entitle them to get access to limited availablity items, as a kind of reward and opportunity to make some margin back for all the low-margin stuff they probably moved to get into the "special" group.
I know for a fact this approach has been and as far as I know probably still is used for auto dealers and computer retailers.
Even some paper companies will restrict certain products to certain dealers. And I thank them for giving me an exclusive by selling their product. :D
 

Thunderface

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A 339? Sweet! Nice score, Walrus! I saw that Epiphone now has a version of the 339, including an Ultra-339 with on of those Nanomag pickups mounted in the fretboard like their Les Paul Ultra II. But I digress. I've been intrigued by the 339 ever since they were introduced. Please give us more reviews as you play it more.
 

walrus

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Sorry guys, I totally forgot I posted this! I no longer have the guitar, and here's why:

At first, and when I posted this, I loved how the guitar sounded and felt, as advertised, a sort of mini ES-335. But as I played it more I found that my fingers had a tendency to slip off the fretboard on the high E side especially. What Gibson has done on this guitar, and also I think on the new ES-335, is put the binding up and over the fretboard.

I think if I had smaller hands it would not have bothered me - believe me, I wanted to love the guitar as it really rocked and was very comfortable, but unless I really thought about it, I kept sliding off the edge of the fretboard.

Disappointed, I brought it back to Guitar Center (not available anywhere else), and they took it back with no questions.

Here's a link from a Gibson forum that has some good photos that explain it - I looked on the web for others with the same problem, because I could not figure it out at first. In a way, its sort of interesting, but again, a disappointment. Clearly, though, I'm not the only one who was/is bothered by it. The third photo down is the Es-339.

http://forum.gibson.com/index.php?/topi ... ing-query/

So I'm not sure I would recommend the guitar to everyone - try it first. I should have investigated it more before I bought it, but it is a very subtle problem, that I did not notice until I played it quite a bit. I thought it was my own lack of skill, but after comparing it to my trusty D64 and my ES-135, I finally realized it really wasn't me.

walrus
 

Jeffm

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Excuse me but that is the most silly thing i have ever seen, it must be so tiny! Size of a les paul, i would imagine it even sounding close to one
 
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