The Gibson ES-335

It’s kind of an ugly word and it has lots of ugly connotations. A crack kills an awful lot of guitar deals and often, it kills them for me. But there are an awful lot of ways that wood can crack and some are a lot worse than others. It’s important to understand what cracks are benign or cosmetic and what cracks are a flashing red light with sirens and bells. Wood is durable and fragile at the same time. It can be extremely flexible and extremely rigid. It will take a lot of abuse but only up to a point and then it gives up, usually all at once.

Wood has grain and is weaker along the grain lines. A quarter sawn neck takes advantage of the strength across the grain and makes for a stable, strong neck. The cracks we see in a guitar neck are often the result of trauma. The guitar falls off the stand and the headstock cracks (or breaks off). No wood will withstand a fall every time. Headstock cracks can be an easy fix with little effect on the playability and tone once properly glued up. They can also be impossible to fix. The conventional wisdom is that the glue is stronger than the wood. That’s true but only if the repair is done properly. That’s another post. I generally avoid guitars with headstock repairs but I’ve had plenty of them over the years that have caused no problems at all. The ones I have had that have caused me trouble usually re-break right at the repair which, of course, calls the conventional wisdom into question.

Another common neck break, especially in 335’s, is the truss rod crack. Guitars with a very slim (front to back) depth have very little wood between the truss rod and the back of the neck. When overtightened, the neck will crack vertically-usually along the grain. The crack usually starts at the third fret or so and can extend from 1″ to as much as 14″ in a very straight line. Folks call it a check, a scratch…anything but a crack. A crack means big trouble to most folks. But a truss rod crack really isn’t that big of a deal. It’s really mostly cosmetic. There is very little stress in that direction-the force vector of a strung up guitar is perpendicular to the neck (remember your high school physics). So, it isn’t likely to get worse unless you overtighten the truss rod again. I’ve had my luthier float a little super glue in there but that’s not even necessary in most cases.

Sticking with 335 cracks, there is another type that is largely cosmetic but cause all sorts of anxiety in buyers. A top crack on an acoustic guitar is kind of a big deal. The top is what generates most of the sound and a crack will diminish that. In a 335, there isn’t a whole lot of top vibration (due to the center block) so a top crack is less of an issue. On top of that, the crack in the top (or back) of a 335 is usually limited to the top ply of the plywood. It is most unusual for plywood to crack through more than one ply. So, even with a top crack, there isn’t a significant amount of disturbance to the vibration of the top. ES models made of plywood do this a lot. The top ply will crack from changes in humidity or temperature especially where the wood in the plies is different ply to ply. Different woods will expand and contract at different rates and when that happens, something has to give and it’s usually the top maple ply. Also, you can’t see the other plies so who would know?

There are cracks to the rim which can be trouble in a deep body guitar but rarely in a 335 or other thinline. They simply don’t happen very often. The crack in the headstock between the tuners (or just beneath them) is a pretty frequent issue. Sometimes it’s a separation in the “wings” of the headstock which isn’t a crack at all-it’s just a glue issue. If the crack is between the tuners, then it can be significant. get it glued up and it shouldn’t cause any further trouble. It can happen when tuners are changed and the new screws are slightly larger than the old ones. The headstock veneer on a 335 from the 50’s or 60’s is holly. It’s a hard, brittle wood that takes the black paint very well. It also cracks really easily. If you come across a guitar with a crack between the tuners, look to see if it goes all the way through the headstock. If it doesn’t, it’s not a big issue and won’t cause problems later. If the crack goes all the way through the headstock and you can see the same crack on the back of the headstock, then have your luthier look at it. That can be trouble but is easily fixed.

Lastly, we all love the thin top 335’s made in 58 (and a few in 59 and even 60) but they are prone to cracks around the area of the jack. A straight plug puts a lot of stress on the top due to the leverage caused by the length of the plug. Again, go back to your high school physics-you see it wasn’t a total waste of time. A 90 degree plug reduces that stress so a top crack around the jack is less likely. Too late if your 58 already has them (and more than half of them do) but as long as you’re careful (and use a 90 degree plug, it shouldn’t be a big issue. It is fixable. My luthier fixed my blonde 58 by gluing a round layer of wood inside the guitar around the jack hole. The area is much more stable now.

A crack doesn’t have to be a dealbreaker. One of my personal players has a “smile” crack at the headstock and was probably repaired 30 years ago and has never been an issue. A well executed repair can save you thousands. A cosmetic crack can also save you significant money even though it will never get worse or cause you trouble. So, is a guitar with no cracks of any kind more desirable than one with a small crack somewhere? No, the crack free guitar will always be more money and more desirable but if your heart says you must have a dot neck and your budget says block, maybe you should look at a dot with a crack somewhere. An experienced luthier will know whether it will be trouble down the road.

This type of crack is generally limited to thin top 58’s but is possible on later 3×5’s as well. This early 58 was repaired by essentially adding a layer to the plywood inside the guitar. it is totally stable now.

If you aren’t looking too closely, you probably won’t even notice that this 64 has a repurposed wrap tail. Sometimes they would drill out the holes and sometimes they leave everything as is and the string ends stick out. It’s fairly common 62-64 but seems most likely in 64

Many of us consider 1964 to be among the best of the vintage 335’s. No PAFs (usually) but the neck is so right for so many people that it trumps just about everything else. After nearly four years of very slim necks, the heft was back and while we may not have been delighted back in 64, we certainly are now. But 64’s have some weirdness along the way some of which makes perfect sense but some is simply, uh, weird.

Sometime in 1962, Gibson stopped using the uncompensated wrap tailpiece (used on LP Specials, Jrs, Epiphone Coronets and few others). They substituted the “lightning” tailpiece that was mounted straight across the body and had graduated steps for proper intonation (with a wrapped G string). That left them with a whole load of wrap tails. Throw them out? Not a chance. They start showing up in 1962 on 335’s. They must have had a lot of them because they show up in 63 and, most often, in 64. They would usually remove the set screws and sometimes drill out the holes for the string ends but sometimes, they left the small holes and the string ends stick out and they simply hoped nobody noticed. Functionally, they are totally fine-there is really no difference between a proper stop tail and a wraptail used as a stop tail. It’s just those string ends. Ugly but not particularly weird.

This is a little weird though. From late 60 until sometime in 64, the pickguard was a shorter affair and functioned perfectly well (even if I prefer the look of the long guard but, hey, it isn’t always about me). Over the years the guards have aged fairly well…no deterioration except for a bit of warpage. The guard would become somewhat concave-dishing inward. That is, until 64. Many 64 guards act exactly as they did in 60 to 63 but some (and it’s not just a few) dish outward. I suppose they simply could have made them upside down but I think there is something about the plastic that causes this. That’s speculation but there is definitely something different (and weird about a lot of 64 guards.

The average depth of a Gibson thinline has changed a few times over the years from 58 to the late 60’s. A 59 is usually around 1.64″. Some are as slim as 1.5″ (mostly 355’s for some reason). By 1962, they tend to measure 1.68″ and that stays fairly normal until 1964 when they balloon to 1.75″ to as deep as 1.79″. OK, 1/10″ is not a lot but it’s enough to notice. Also, given that Gibson was always trying to save pennies, it seems odd that they were intentionally using more wood in 64 than they were in 58-63. Very un- Gibsonlike. It doesn’t seem to affect the tone in any way but when I see a 64, I always notice how deep it is.

Finally, the other change that occurred in 64 was the end of the Lifton case era at Gibson at least for a while. Lifton went out of business in 1973 but I wonder if Gibson isn’t part of the reason. In 64, Gibson started using cases from another company called Ess and Ess. The Ess and Ess case is a perfectly nice case and they are very common from 64 to 69-perhaps the most common Gibson case during that period. The biggest problem with mid 60’s Gibson cases is the piece of crap they call a handle. The early plastic handles seem to hold up ok but by 65, they would break too easily. There are probably more mid 60’s cases with broken handles than there are with intact plastic handles. I’m not sure who made all the different cases that show up in the 70’s (purple interior, red interior) but they sure don’t say Lifton anywhere.

We love our 64’s and rightly so but I think it is pretty universal that 64 was the beginning of the end of the Golden Age.

The red 59 on the right is 1.642″ deep and the 64 on the left is 1.776. that’s a difference of close to 10%. Seems like a lot to me. The early ones 58-59 tend to be thinner than the later ones.