With instrument factories in China literally churning out thousands of guitars a day, the typical 3 - 4 week build time on Gibson’s illustrious ES-335s is craftsmanship from a bygone, golden era. Across its exacting build time, premium feature after premium feature was incorporated into this six string wonder, inside and out:-
AAA figured Maple/Poplar/Maple top, back and sides
Thermally engineered, (kiln-baked), chambered Maple centreblock*
Nitro “Heritage Cherry” finish
Thermally engineered, (kiln-baked), quartersawn Adirondack Spruce braces**
Quarter-sawn, bound Mahogany neck, (rounded C-profile)
Premium, rich, dark Rosewood fingerboard
Pearloid block inlays
Grover Rotomatic tuners (vintage style nickel)
Bone nut
ABR-1 bridge, with titanium saddles
Aluminium stopbar tailpiece, with locking studs
Memphis Historic Spec
And then there’s the electronics! The revised Memphis Historic Spec (MHS II) humbuckers were specifically developed for the ES range, with slightly underwound and matched coils, (42-guage wire), with Alnico V magnets. There’s no wax potting, so every potential semi-hollowbody tone is there at your fingertips.
Exclusively for the ES series
Having been developed from scratch, exclusively for the ES series of guitars, the MHS IIs avoid the pitfalls of most other designs – they don’t sound like solidbody pickups dropped into a hollow or semi-hollow.
Memphis Tone Circuit
Finally, the famous Memphis Tone Circuit. Our Cherryburst model benefits from the hand-wired “Premiere” MTC, featuring matched 550K pots and orange drop capacitors. The 550k pots don’t just provide more headroom, they also deliver better balance and tone matching between the pickups.
Road-testing
While our guitar here was completed on mid-October 12 of 2018, in readiness for the launch of the company’s 2019 range, Gibson had sent pre-production models out for a full twelve months beforehand, with artists across all genres, requesting feedback and suggestions, before they launched into full production mode. The end result of this exhaustive road-testing was the simply stunning ES-335 Figured – one of the very finest instruments ever to come out of the Gibson Memphis plant.
Free courier delivery
You may have heard people speak of guitars that changed their lives – this is one of them. Complete with its original Gibson hard shell case and paperwork, condition is Excellent- – professionally played, but certainly not abused. Our famous FREE COURIER DELIVERY is included to any address in Australia. ($100 airfreight to New Zealand, and $175 to the US, Canada, UK and mainstream European countries)
NOTE: however many may have been finished in Cherryburst nitro, (officially “Heritage Cherry” in the catalogue), there’s precious few around five years later – in fact, we believe this is the only one of these first year Figured models currently for sale anywhere in the world.
*/** 2018/19 represented the first year for Gibson’s kiln-baked centreblock and braces, bringing an extra element of chiming tone to their legendary ES models
Weight: 7lb 8oz / 3.41kg
Just Guitars
