Ebay ES of the Week #10
ES-335 you say? Wrong. What a nice guitar. I don't think it's a 69 either. Why don't I buy it and report back later.
This is a pretty rare guitar. It’s also misidentified, perhaps in more ways than one. Most of you will see immediately that it’s not a 335 at all but a mono 355. I may buy this one for myself, I think it’s so cool. And rare? Whoo baby, they only made 67 monos in 1969 and by 70 the red ones were gone. There are a few really interesting things about this one. Being a mono version, it’s going to sound just like a 335 unless you’re one of those guys who can hear the difference between an ebony board and a rosewood board. Some find an ebony board brighter. I find it a bit slicker-which I like- but I can’t hear a tonal difference. I hear more difference between 2 identical 335s than I hear between an ebony and a rosewood. Look at the body shape. In 1968, the went from the pointy cutaways back to a more rounded cutaway-not quite a Mickey Mouse ear but certainly rounder. This doesn’t have that. These are pointy 64 ears all the way. It also has the older style reflector knobs whereas it should have witch hats-which with Halloween tomorrow would be appropriate. Hmm. Maybe it isn’t a 69 at all. Maybe this is one of those serial numbers that got re-used. The orange label says 806194. It also says ES-355 but I guess the listing party can’t read the fine print or maybe has just too many guitars to list to bother with looking at the details (take a look at his “other items”). My handy dandy serial number guide (which is available on the Gibson web site) says it’s either a 66 or a 69. I’m going to go with 66. Still rare but not as rare (132 shipped). If it’s a 66, it’s going to have a long tenon (good). 69’s sometimes have almost no tenon. It’s probably going to have a set of early patent number pickups-maybe even the purple wire ones that are identical to PAFs. I don’t plan on telling the seller what he has-if he wants to learn, he can read my posts and he will know exactly what he has. I find that when I email sellers to tell them they are wrong, I get one of two distinct responses. One-they tell me I don’t know what I’m talking about and if I don’t want to buy the guitar to just shut up and mind my own effin business. That’s often the smaller dealers and the self proclaimed “experts”. Two-“Thank you for clearing this up. I’ll change the listing to reflect this new information.” Can you guess which is the more common response? I knew you could. So I don’t bother any more. I’m perfectly happy to buy this one as a 69. It’s entirely possible that it is a 69, given the fact that so few of these were selling. I would imagine that its entirely possible that they had some earlier bodies left over and a few sets of reflector knobs in 1969. If the bidding on this one doesn’t get out of control, I’ll probably throw in a bid. How much? I’d certainly go to $3,000-maybe even as high as $4,000. On the off chance that it actually IS a 69, I don’t think I’d go any higher. The problem is that people who aren’t paying attention are going to think it’s a 335 (which is worth more) and are going to bid it up like it’s a 335. Then I’m out.
Nice condition too. How many things tell you it isn't a 335? How many things tell you it isn't a 69? And why is the neck pickup upside down?
