What Happened to the Gibson ES-335?

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:01]Hey, what's up everybody? Justin Myers back here with another video. So, I've got here this reissue 335 and I wanted to talk about what all is wrong with these reissue 335s in today's video.

[00:00:14]Um these prices on these reissue Gibsons have just gotten absolutely out of control and it's just crazy how different that these instruments are in comparison to the pre-65 335s that we all know and love. Um I've been fortunate enough to have owned several of these guitars. I've had my hands on a lot of these instruments over the years and um I know a lot of players that have big collections that have a lot of old 335s and um I've just been around this stuff for a long time. So, I'm very used to how these instruments sound and how they play and how they feel.

[00:00:51]Um So, the very first thing that I wanted to talk about is the neck.

[00:00:55]The neck is the most important thing absolutely hands down to me on any guitar, whether it's vintage or reissue.

[00:01:03]It does not matter, man. The neck is the most important thing no matter what instrument I'm going in to go play. Um for me, I have very big hands, so I can make literally any neck profile work just fine. Nothing really bothers me. Um you know, I do tend to like a little bit of a chunkier neck in comparison to a really like thin neck. But, you know, the big thing with these reissue necks is that they are just too wide. They're way too wide and what I mean by this is the transition from the neck to the board is way too wide and depending on how this transition is done, it's going to change your perception in how thick or how thin that this neck truly is. And I don't care if this profile is laser scanned like you hear them say all the time, the scan is not correct. And with all of my experience with these reissue instruments, I would say that maybe less than 5% of all of the reissue instruments that are made today actually have vintage correct necks. They are very hard to find. They are out there for sure, but I would say that the overwhelming majority of these reissue guitars have the incorrect neck profile.

[00:02:19]And the main thing is the transition from the neck to the board. It is way too wide. So, I can just simply grab the neck and I can tell you everything that you need to know about the instrument. For me, I don't even bother with plugging in the instrument or taking it off the rack or taking it off the wall um if the neck does not feel right. I don't even bother with it whatsoever. So, the very first thing I do whenever I'm shopping around for a new guitar is I grab the neck and I feel the neck immediately.

[00:02:48]Um and I would say that 95% of them all have incorrect neck profiles. They're all wrong. Um this guitar here feels pretty good. I really like it. Um it's a nice um profile.

[00:03:02]But, you know, it's just amazing to me how with all of the technology that we have today, they still cannot get this right. You know, these vintage necks are a lot smaller in size. They are nowhere near as wide. You know, they have a lot more shoulder and they're a lot smaller and they're very comfortable to play. Now, these vintage necks are all a little bit different, you know, because those instruments back then were all made by hand. So, every single one is going to feel a little bit different, but I would say in general, there is consistency with that transition and how these older necks have shoulder. They're smaller feeling.

[00:03:44]It's just the way that they were done back then. You know, and these necks are just not as big as what they are saying that they are, you know?

[00:03:53]This here is a '59 reissue 335 and I'm telling you, man, like I've played a lot of '59 335s and the necks on the majority of those '59 335s are nowhere near as big as this.

[00:04:09]They're much, much smaller. So, um the profile is just completely off and it's totally different and I just cannot believe what these reissue guitars are selling for today. Um and still the neck profiles are still not right. So, it's just pretty mind-blowing.

[00:04:27]So, the next thing I wanted to talk about or the next um part here is the pickups. The pickups are um just not right whatsoever. I mean, I really feel that the old pickups, what really makes them so special are the old magnets.

[00:04:47]It's not the wire, you know, some people think that the wire makes a difference, you know, like if you're looking at an old set of um patent number pickups and you know, you're you're looking at the purple wire, you know, some guys really like those, but to me, it's not really the wire. It is mainly the magnets that make these pickups so special. Now, these pickups here are a set of T-tops.

[00:05:08]They're some of the cleanest I've ever seen. They're really, really nice sounding, very clear and um a lot brighter in comparison to the nickel cover patent numbers, which have the short magnets, which came after the long magnet PAFs in uh '61 there.

[00:05:24]Um so, these are T-tops, so these would be like late '60s and early '70s. Um but I really love these pickups, you know, and a lot of our favorite guitar heroes used T-top pickups to record all of their music, you know, so a lot of our favorite tones came from T-top pickups and you know, they just sound wonderful, you know? Um this guitar had the custom bucker pickups in there before and these new magnets are just not the same. They don't sound good. They're very nasally sounding and I just cannot stand the way that these new pickups sound. They're just completely different.

[00:06:00]And then the next thing that is off is the ABR-1 bridge. Now this bridge here is an original ABR-1 and um I put some older saddles on there um but um they're just totally different. You know, the entire system is off. All of the material for the housing for the ABR-1, the um you know, the the entire system is incorrect. All of the material is off from the studs to the thumb wheels to the housing and even the saddles.

[00:06:31]They're all totally incorrect. And the ABR-1 plays a huge role in the overall tone of this instrument. You know, you could line 20 or 25, I mean, as many ABR-1s as you want up and you could try every single one of them and every single one is going to sound a little bit different. But I will say that I really prefer the old ABR-1s. They just sound better. They're louder, they're brighter, they're just beautiful sounding. Really really nice and these new ABRs just do not work, man. They're just totally off.

[00:07:08]And the stop bar is also off. So the stop bar and the studs are also the completely the complete wrong material.

[00:07:16]Um the entire system is totally off and this really changes the tone of the electric guitar acoustically. You know, if this material is not right, it really changes the tone up. You know, anything that that string makes contact with, it's going to change up the tone entirely. So if you do not have this system right, you're not even going to come close to the vintage thing whatsoever if that's what you're going for with these reissue instruments, you know, you really have to have the ABR-1 and the right saddles. The entire system has to be right. The thumb wheels, the studs, the stop bar and the studs. Now, on this guitar, um I still have the repro stop bar and the studs.

[00:07:59]And this the uh studs and the thumb wheels for the ABR are repro. Um but, I've really liked it with the housing here. Um just the original ABR-1 being a a vintage part there. Um it has really helped out a lot with the acoustic tone of this guitar.

[00:08:16]And um it's just been awesome, you know.

[00:08:18]But, that said, these ABRs are all a little bit different.

[00:08:23]Another thing I wanted to talk about here, too, while I'm talking about the ABR-1, is a lot of people will talk about the staircase saddles, right? So, the low E will be all the way back, the A string will be up from there, the D string will be up, then the G will be all the way back, and the B string will be up, and then the high E string will be up from the B string. So, they call that the staircase saddles, right? Um that's how the ABR should look because of the distance, right? Um but, the reality is is that um there really is no such thing as perfect intonation.

[00:08:56]You know, if you grab the fret and you just simply roll your finger around the 12th fret here, just moving your finger around in the fret there, the pitch of the note is going to change, and it's not going to be totally perfect. You know, guitar is an imperfect instrument. You know, if you grab that fret just a little off or a little weird, the tuning of that note is not going to be totally dead on. So, even if you have the staircase saddles, it doesn't matter because the tuning of the pitch of the note is going to be off, you know, if you grab this fret just a little off. You know, so that's It's necessarily true that you always have to have that staircase look here on the ABR-1. Um it you know, that's not going to give you perfect intonation.

[00:09:44]You know, again, guitar is an imperfect instrument. So, I just wanted to make mention of that since I was already talking about the ABR-1.

[00:09:52]Now, the other thing that is off is also the pots and the caps.

[00:09:56]The new pots have a completely different taper and it just drives me nuts. I cannot stand the new pots and the new caps. And you know, really the pots and the caps are like half of your tone, you know? You could have the vintage pickups, you could have an old set of patent numbers or T-tops or whatever, but if you don't have the original pots and the caps, you're not going to get the vintage sound. That is really like half of your tone plugged in, you know, it really makes a huge difference.

[00:10:26]Every single part on these electric guitars, it it really all matters, everything. You know, the ABR-1 system, the stop bar system, the pickups, the pots and the caps, um how heavy the finish is, the neck also plays a massive role in the overall tone of this guitar.

[00:10:44]Um the uh fingerboard here plays a role, you know, that changes the tone as well.

[00:10:49]And also, the tuning keys. The tuning keys make a massive difference.

[00:10:55]You know, and if you don't believe me, simply compare a set of Grover tuners to a set of Klusons.

[00:11:00]They sound completely different. The Klusons are going to be a lot louder, they're a lot brighter, whereas the Grovers really kill a lot of that brightness. It takes a lot of the top end away. They're quieter, they're not the same tone as the Kluson Deluxe tuners. And I love Klusons. I really prefer them over the Grover keys. And I think that was just a BS rumor that was started up back in the day where, you know, people thought that they had to upgrade their tuners to a set of Grovers, you know, for a better tuning stability or whatever the the BS hype was, um it it's just not true at all.

[00:11:36]It's not true whatsoever. If you're having tuning issues, it's going to be from the nut. And the nut has to be cut just right, and it's very difficult to pull this off. I got very lucky with this guitar that just right out of the box the nut was dialed in perfectly. None of the strings are binding up whatsoever. That nut was cut perfectly. But, I would say probably about 90 to 95% of all of the reissue guitars all have a terrible nut.

[00:12:05]It's not cut right, the strings are binding up, and it's just not dialed in.

[00:12:11]So, you will have a lot of issues with tuning if that nut is not dialed in and it's not cut right. So, that's all for today, folks. Thanks so much for watching today's video. I really do appreciate it so much. Um subscribe, like the video, and drop a comment down below with what you guys think. Thanks so much. Take care.