Great 335 Amps: Fifties, Sixties and Seventies
This isn't my '68 Marshall but I have mine set up in a repro Bluesbreaker cabinet and I would say it is close to being the perfect amp for a 335 playing blues and rock player. The one is the photo is NOT a Repro.
I did a post on the best amps for stereo guitars and have had requests to give my views of great amps for a 335. This is a lot harder to do since, first of all, there are so many amps that sound great with a humbucker equipped guitar. In fact, in general, any amp that sounds excellent with a Les Paul is going to sound as good with a 335. Beyond that, there has been an evolution in Gibson’s pickups that affects how these guitars sound with a given amp. So, I’m going to have to generalize and speak from personal experience. Speaking from experience, I don’t play through new amps so I can’t really comment on all the great boutique amps that currently populate the backline of so many players. So, if you’re going to play your ES-335 (or mono ES-355 or de-Varitoned ES-345) through a “Divided by 13” or a “Bad Cat” or a “Fargen” or a “Komet”, Cupid, Donner or Blitzen. So, what about great vintage amps for a 335? Fender tweeds-especially those with ten inch speakers: Harvard, Vibrolux, Super, Bandmaster, Bassman. Maybe it’s because there is so much big fat wide frequency response that the ten inch speaker handles it best. Not sure why. I like a 335 through a Deluxe almost as much. No pedals required-just a reverb unit. I was never a Marshall guy until recently and now I get it. I have a 50 watt ’68 plexi panel Super Tremolo that I’m bonding with in a big way. It is so full and musical that it makes me a better player whether clean or gritty, it is so articulate and defined-much like a Tweed Bassman-that you better play carefully because every sound you make comes through. Black face Fenders match up very well. A BF Deluxe Reverb is a great match. I had a Vibrolux Reverb that I loaded a pair of 50’s P10Qs into that sounded like God. Any BF with a JBL will just sing for the jazz player or any player who craves clean. I had a JBL loaded BF Vibroverb that was great clean but I could crank it up and rattle the neighbors windows and it wouldn’t slip into that sweet tube saturated distortion we all love so much. Can’t afford a Marshall or a tweed Bassman? Get yourself a Traynor YBA-1 from the late 60’s or early 70’s. These Canadian aces are very similar circuits to a Tweed Bassman or Marshall JTM. there are mods to get them even closer. I’ve seen the heads go for less than $400. watch out for the Mark II-it is a different animal and pumps out 90 watts which might be more than you want. Gibson tweeds, surprisingly, don’t sound as good as Fender tweeds except for the wonderful GA-79 which is the ultimate ES-345 stereo amp. Feel free to send me your experiences with modern or boutique amps and I’ll pass them along-a kind of readers poll for modern amps. I hear wonderful things about a lot of the Marshall clones like Metropoulos. I had a (now defunct) Blockhead that I took in trade that was pretty cool but a very big amp to haul around for an 18 watter (2 -12″ Celestion Blues). very much like a lower powered version of my ’68 Marshall. As they say, tone is extremely subjective so, again as they say, your mileage may vary (YMMV, as they say). This leaves me with the burning question: Who are “they” and why do they have so much to say.
Here's a nice photo of two brothers playing nicely together. Les and ES. That's my 59 Bandmaster and my former 2004 Les Paul (yes I own guitars other than 335s) and a very rare 64 Trini Lopez
Catalog page from the underrated Traynor YBA-1. I think they made this 50 watt model until 1972. After that it became 90 watts
