The Gibson ES-335

Everything is negotiable but there are a lot of factors that will limit how low a dealer will go on a given instrument or amp. This red 59 ES-335 is so rare that you can forget the negotiations.

Most sellers ask more than they expect to get for anything they are selling whether it’s their house, a car, a teapot or a guitar. It’s the way selling generally goes in the USA (it’s worse in some places). There are lots of negotiating tactics and most of them are pretty effective. If I’m asking $50,000, then offering me $40,000 gets the negotiation ball rolling. And we end up somewhere in between. If I’m asking $50,000 and you offer $2000, then you aren’t negotiating. You’re throwing out a lowball number with little expectation that you’ll get the guitar but maybe the seller is desperate. Newsflash… Nobody is that desperate. I get dozens of lowball offers every week and I usually just decline them and forget about them. And it doesn’t really matter if it’s a high end item or a low end one. Last week, I had an offer on an 18″ 1959 Lifton case that was listed for $900 (which is, incidentally, a really good deal if you need one). I got an offer for $289. I don’t get it it. I countered at $800 hoping that the lowball was an actual good faith negotiation but it wasn’t. He went away. I’ve had offers of $200 on a $75,000 guitar which is generally someone who can’t afford what I’m selling and thinks it’s funny to waste a sellers time. After all, the seller must have lots of money if he’s selling these expensive guitars and probably deserves to have his time wasted. This is turning into a rant which isn’t my intention.

It’s pretty simple. If it’s a Reverb listing that says I will accept offers, then you know I have room to negotiate. If it doesn’t say I accept offers, then don’t bother making one. I don’t usually add on a big premium in the interest of getting to a fair price. I simply offer my guitars at a fair price. If you want the guitar and it’s too much, then by all means, make me a fair offer. The worst I can do is decline. I have room on some guitars. On others, I’m up against break even-even I overpay sometimes when I really want something. Buying guitars as a dealer (and not a hobby dealer) is always a crapshoot. Everybody wants retail but dealers won’t pay retail if they want to stay in business. Whatever the spread is between what I pay and what I get (minus all the outrageous fees that consolidators want) is my take home pay. Oh, wait, I have to pay for insurance, packing materials, often shipping, storage and (this is a big one) credit card fees. So, when you see my ask, keep that in mind. You can always buy from an individual seller who might come in much lower but my experience is that the dealers are often more reasonable than the non dealers. And you usually get an approval period. That’s really important if you’re buying something that’s older than you are.

It seems that everyone believes that their guitar worth more if you’re selling it and the exact same guitar is worth way less when you’re buying it. It’s not true of course but it’s pretty well ingrained in the American psyche. The other fun negotiating tactic is telling me exactly what is wrong with my guitar (even though every issue is in the listing) and why it’s worth so much less than I’m asking. My feelings about this are “why would you want to buy it if it’s such a piece of crap? This happens at guitar shows a lot. I don’t do them as a dealer because this happened over and over again at the first and only show I participated in as OK Guitars back in 2012. But it’s a often more effective to negotiate in person especially a cash deal. Dealers want to move inventory (so they can buy more) and you know, if they are making the effort to do a show, that they are ready to deal. Lowball offers still won’t work.

There is a negotiating tactic that really isn’t negotiating and it drives me a little nuts. “What’s your best price” isn’t negotiating. I understanding trying to cut the BS of buying and selling but I think that tactic is best left out of the deal. I respond to it most of the time with a price that is below my ask and sometimes, when I really want to move something, I really give the buyer my “best” price. Maybe my response should be “how badly do you want it?” To me, it makes the assumption that I’m making a big profit and I should be making a small profit. It’s easy to find the value of most guitars by looking at the current listings remembering that most individual sellers are asking too much. Yes, and some dealers too. And even me sometimes although most of what I have stands up pretty well pricewise. Once you have a good idea what the guitar (or amp) is worth, you can negotiate by making a fair offer. I can respond by giving you a fair price. Deal?

Just because a guitar isn’t popular (or particularly rare), you can still usually negotiate a better price than the ask. Guitars like this sidejack Mosrite Ventures aren’t going to fly out the door so put on your haggling shoes and make yourself a great deal. Just don’t ask what my best price is.

When you were paid (as a band) $75 per gig, sheet music purchases were out of the question. So, we learned by listening. Over and over and over again.

In the days before guitar tabs or web sites, the only way to learn how to play a song was to figure it out for yourself. Occasionally, you would find sheet music but it was expensive. We would sneak a look at it in the store to get a missing chord or lyric but mostly we just listened to the record over and over and over again until we thought we had it. My role in the process was to figure out the chords and learn to play any solos or important lead section. Somebody else in the band handled the lyrics and the drummer was supposed to learn the drum part (which he occasionally did but mostly he didn’t).

I had taken guitar lessons for maybe 8 months in 1964/65. My teacher (Mr. Orsini) was a jazz guy who hated rock and roll and wouldn’t teach it. There weren’t a lot of choices of guitar teachers in Schenectady, NY in 1964. The upside was that I didn’t only learn cowboy chords-I learned 6ths and 9ths and augmented 5ths and all the cool jazz chords that rockers didn’t often use. They weren’t much use at first but the George Harrison started adding some weird chords to Beatle songs (which were a staple in my band at the time). He often ended a song with a 9th chord and occasionally a 6th. I knew them right away. The rest of the song was usually pretty easy at least until we got to Revolver. Learning the leads was a different story altogether. I’m not a particularly dexterous player and I’m not particularly fast. I was a pretty decent lead player for a 14 year in 1966 but I often couldn’t quite keep up with the pros I was learning from and I was somewhat baffled by double tracked leads that I didn’t know were double tracked. I remember learning the solo for the Yardbirds’ “Shapes of Things” and I got it down pretty well but the double tracking at the end threw me off. That was about as good as I got.

The other problem was that at that time, I played a 1962 ES-330 which sounded pretty great but didn’t have good access to the upper register. By 1968, I had grown frustrated with the feedback from the P-90s and full hollow 330 and bought an SG Standard. The problem with the SG was different. I understood intonation by then but could never get the G string to intonate properly. I played with 9’s back then (when I could find them) and today, when intonating an SG, I still can’t get the G string right because the guitars were built for a wound G string. What did I know…I was 16 in 1968. But at least I could reach the high notes on the fingerboard without falling all over myself.

By 1968 however, we discovered something called a “fake book”. These basically bootleg compilations of popular songs usually written out by hand or mimeographed (remember mimeographs?) from legit sheet music. They were crazy expensive ($25 in 1968 was equal to around $250 today) but it saved us a lot of time even though the books were often wrong or oversimplified. The band, in 68, made around $150 per gig so $25 was significant. By 69-70 we were good enough to charge $300 usually for frat parties at the local college (Union) but we had to play until 3 AM. That usually meant more than a few repeat songs but most of the partygoers were drunk by midnight so they probably didn’t notice.

I played with various bands until 1974 when I finally realized that I wasn’t going to be a rock star. I simply wasn’t a good enough player and figured I never would be. I was an OK backup singer…I can still harmonize with almost anything without even thinking about it. That’s a wonderful gift but I would rather have had those long thin fingers that many of the great players have and the dexterity to use them. My little hands and short fingers are not made for playing lead.

It was a very different time. No i-pad to refer to for the lyrics and no Ultimate Guitar website with every song ever written. I guess that makes it much easier to learn a song but it’s not the same. Learning by ear makes you a better musician. You learn some theory and you learn perseverence. The latter is perhaps the most important element in becoming a good guitarist.

If the market starts moving in the wrong direction, then a guitar like a 59 ES-335 is your best bet. Look for guitars that are easy to sell and are wildly popular. If you can afford a burst, then that might be the ideal purchase for right now.

“What goes up, must come down…” So said (and wrote) the recently deceased David Clayton-Thomas of version 2 of Blood Sweat and Tears. Similarly, the vintage guitar community has spoken those same words. Prices have become too high. This, along with worries about the overall economy has caused the vintage market to slow to a crawl. We’ve seen this before but not in this manner. In 2008, the bottom simply fell out pretty much all at once. I hadn’t been in the business of selling guitars for very long at that time-in fact OK Guitars as it exists today didn’t debut until 2010. For me, in 2008, buying and selling guitars was just a fun hobby so it hardly affected me. At that time my usual inventory was two or three guitars. Now, it’s 20 or 30 times as many and a bunch of amps as well.

What is a correction? In stock market jargon, it’s a drop of at least 10% and no more than 20%. In 2008, some guitars lost as much as 40% seemingly overnight (but it wasn’t really that quick…it just seemed that way. During the Covid pandemic, the vintage market went crazy. Sales nearly doubled for me and priced climbed 20% in a single year (and then another 10% the next year). The problem, as I see it, is that sellers thought that kind of appreciation was just going to continue going forward. But 10% appreciation is not sustainable even with the inflation that was occurring for everyday items like food and gasoline. This has happened before. I’ve written a few posts about a market “standoff” where the sellers dig their heels in at a high price and the buyers decide the prices are too high and they stay away.

The first symptom of this slow market standoff is increased trade deals. As far back as a year ago, I noticed that were far fewer cash deals and many more partial trade deals. Then full trade deals began to dominate-perhaps last fall-specifically in September. It’s always slow in the summer but in 2025, the expected seasonal increase in business for guitars simply didn’t happen. Since then, the market has remained sluggish with most deals having a trade element. I don’t mind trades but I’m very specific about what guitars I will take in trade. My rule has always been – don’t take a guitar that’s hard to sell for a guitar that’s easy to sell. So, I won’t take an ES-340 for an ES-335. Or a Jaguar for a Stratocaster. How does this end? Good question and if I knew the answer, I’d probably be rich by now. Here’s what I think might happen going forward:

Prices will begin to trickle downward-perhaps 5% to test the market and if that doesn’t get the market moving, then the dealers will take the lead. Dealers generally make their living only from sales of guitars and other gear. Most vintage dealers don’t do it as a side hustle. The dealers will lead the market correction. Individual sellers always believe their guitars are worth more than they are, regardless of the state of the guitar market. Dealers have to be more realistic. Desirable vintage guitars are still selling-especially mint and near mint examples and especially at the high end. Well heeled collectors are less concerned about high prices but they are often savvy investors and they know that the market for highly desirable guitars plays by its own set of rules. The burst market proves the point. The burst market has continued to rise while much of the rest of the market has stagnated.

Should you be concerned? I don’t think so. You won’t be happy taking less money for your guitar but you will be happy spending less on your next one. Also, I’m not an oracle (or an economist). I can’t predict the vintage market any better than you can. I’m pretty tuned in to the 335 market. I know that if 335’s are slow, then much of the rest of the market is predictably worse. Fortunately, 335’s are still relatively strong-especially 58, 59 and 64’s. Anything from Gibson with a 59 serial number will generally move with relative ease. That’s good news for me and good news for you going forward. Do your research. There are some excellent deals out there if you look hard enough. More advice? Buy what you really like and want to play. If you love love love your “new” guitar, you will quickly forget what you paid for it. This isn’t the time for pure investments but if this correction actually occurs (we’re not there yet) that time might be on the horizon. New buyers are entering the vintage market. My typical buyer used to be a guy in his 60’s. Now (and for some time now) the average age of my buyers is around 40. But that’s another post.

If you’re looking to trade for that 335, this one isn’t going to get you very far (not with me anyway). In a correcting market, trades are often in the mix. An RD Artist is not an easy sell so it might make sense to hang on to that one and trade something else.

I’m going off piste here because I’m a Dad (and a Grandad) and I’m proud of my writer son. His latest short story was just published. Enjoy.

With apologies to Mel Brooks (whose line I “borrowed” for this post, this has nothing to do with Star Wars, Space Balls or any other movie). This post is about Gerhard Schwarz and his line of repro parts branded St. Helens. Repro parts have had a heavy presence in my posts because it’s a really vital part of the vintage experience (and not always a good one). The biggest problem I have, as a dealer, is the “all original” guitar that is not. Often, the seller is just repeating what the seller before him said. That seller is sometimes a dealer but more often, an individual. Most sellers are honest but most sellers can’t tell certain repro parts from a correct vintage part. And, with the prices of vintage parts going through the roof, a single wrong part can change the value by thousands of dollars. I’m not just talking about PAFs here. The cost of a real vintage pickguard for a 58-60 ($1500) a tailpiece ($2500 or more) or a bridge ($1800 or more) will ruin your day. Enter St. Helen’s guitar parts made by Gerhard Schwarz of Germany. Gerhard has been around for awhile but this line of parts is relatively new. Do we need more repro parts?

Answer: Yes we do. There are some really accurate repro parts on the market but many of them share a common feature:they aren’t branded making identification somewhere between difficult and nearly impossible. I really like the Montreux stop tail. It has a fairly accurate short seam that is much smoother than the originals which makes them easy to recognize. Not as effective as putting the name of the maker on the part but better than nothing. The Gibson made Historic no wire ABR-1 is nearly dead on. On the older ones, you could tell it was a repro by the missing manufacturers brand mark. Gibson later added it making it nearly identical to the originals. There were still two ways to identify the repro: The letters on the underside weren’t as sharp as the originals but if you don’t have an original to compare it to, then it will be hard to know. The other way is foolproof. Look under either “E” string saddle. If there is a circular tooling mark, it’s a repro. If there isn’t, it’s real. But why am I going through all this when this post is supposed to be about St. Helens parts?

Gerhard’s parts come in this cute little “lunchbox” that has all kinds of uses beyond holding your stash, I mean your lunch. Thanks to Jim Weyandt..I borrowed this photo from his Facebook page. Note the branding on the stop tail.

Gerhard’s parts (the ones I’ve seen anyway) are very accurate and accurate beyond the cosmetics. He has duplicated the materials as well for a level of accuracy often missing but invisible. But he did something I appreciate even more than that. He branded his parts. The lightweight stop tail has a near perfect short seam correctly roughed up and it would be ready to fool the best trained eye except for one thing. There, in small but bold letters, is the name St. Helens. I’m told the early versions didn’t have the brand mark which would have made the problem worse, not better. Beyond branding his parts, he is also producing some very hard to find parts like the low profile ABR-1 found only on 1958 ES-335s . They almost always collapsed under the pressure of 12 gauge strings (those were the lightest you could get in 1958). The replacement was almost always a shaved full height ABR-1. Now, with much lighter gauge strings, the low pro ABR-1 should stand up to hard use. But most of them collapsed decades ago. As far as I know, there is only one other parts producer making this part and that’s Pigtail. Good for both of them. I bought a few of them.

I’m really happy that St. Helens and Pigtail put their names on their parts. It keeps the dishonest folks honest (or at least a little more honest) and they are providing a hard to find part for 58 ES-335’s

Gerhard also makes a compensated wraptail to replace the “lightning” wrap tail as well as one to replace the standard wrap tail that had no compensation at all (other than an angled installation and adjustable ends). The compensation is subtle so they appear, from a distance of about a foot, to be the original uncompensated type. There is also a low profile wrap tail that you can wrap over on a 52/53 Les Paul, another useful part although they have been around for awhile from other manufacturers. He makes a compensated and uncompensated version of the low profile one.

So, welcome to the rather crowded field of vintage parts makers. It’s nice to see more accurate parts and more makers. The branding is important to me so that everybody knows it’s a repro. There will still be sellers who try to pass off repro parts as the real thing but every repro part ever made has some “flaw”. The trick is to find it.

This is the “Baron Knoop” Stradivarius built in 1715. Must be cheap because it’s re-necked and has been refinished twice. Is that “buckle rash” on the back?

It could be said that a Les Paul burst is the Stradivarius of the guitar community. Or maybe it’s a pre War Martin D-45. Or maybe it’s David Gilmour’s black Strat that sold for $14.5 million. But the criteria for vintage guitars is very different than it is for three hundred year old violins. The record price for guitars is clearly driven by provenance. Gilmour’s refinished Strat would be worth maybe a few thousand if it wasn’t Gilmour’s. The record price of a top tier violin (Stradivari, Guarneri, Amati and a few others) is $23 million. Clearly, the price doesn’t have much to do with who owned and played it because it hasn’t been owned by anybody you’ve heard of. It’s all about tone.

We, in the vintage guitar community are obsessed with originality. I remember maybe fifteen or twenty years ago when it became a big deal to check the solder joints to be sure they were original,. A lot of folks thought that was a bridge too far (and I tend to agree). I recall selling what I called a mint guitar only to have it returned because somebody dabbed the top of the headstock with a Sharpie. I didn’t argue with the buyer-mint means mint and a touchup is a touchup. I would have taken a little bit of alcohol and removed it but that isn’t the point. That brings me to the old violins. As I mentioned earlier, the record for a Stradivarius is $23 million for “The Baron Knoop”. Another sold for $15 million and plenty of them are a million or more. None of them are original. There is a rumor that there is one that is actually unplayed but there is controversy regarding it. I can still make the point. How can none of them be original and still fetch those prices? It’s not the celebrities who have owned them. How famous is Baron Knoop (original owner of the $23 million Strad)? Not very. Virtually all of the violins have had a neck replacement. The story goes that Niccolo Paganini lengthened the scale of his violin in the hope of improving the tone. And, in fact, it did just that. Soon everybody was doing it and it became the standard. It is clear that vintage violins are judged primarily by who made them and how they sound. Think about that, Les Paul burst owners. What’s more important to you? Tone or originality. I can guess. Someone will write me and tell me about side by side tests where folks were asked to pick the better sounding violin between a Stradivarius and a well made modern violin. Many picked the modern violin. And I’ve played R9’s (and 335’s) that sound better than some of the bursts that I’ve played. Tone is worth something to guitar collectors but clearly not as much as originality.

So, the big point is that guitar aficionados and violin aficionados are very different creatures. Guitars made by hand by the best luthiers are revered by some (D’Angelicos and D’Aquistos for example) but they don’t even come close to the value of a burst (or even a 59 335). Great sounding guitars can command a premium but the tone of an electric guitar is very subjective (and highly influenced by the amplifier). Vintage acoustic guitars are more like violins. A pre war Martin D-45 or a ’39 Gibson Advanced are highly valued because they sound amazing. But originality is a still a huge factor. I had a 1942 or 43 Gibson SJ that sounded as good as any guitar I’ve ever played (and I’ve been playing since 1964). But it had a half dozen repairs and was beat to hell. It wasn’t worth much. So I guess originality still beats tone in the guitar world.

This wartime Gibson SJ sounded absolutely amazing. It sold for cheap because it had multiple repairs to the top and back and was oversprayed.

So, The “Baron Knoop” Strad that sold for $23 million has had a neck replacement and was completely refinished…twice. A burst that was refinished with a replaced neck that I owned sold for $85,000 a few years ago. It probably would have been worth $300K if it had the original neck and quite a bit more today. So, the next time you spend a lot of money on a vintage guitar, ask how it sounds before you ask about originality. Both are important even if we guitar enthusiasts seem to have it backwards.

Refinished and re-necked 1960 Les Paul. Sold for $85,000 a few years ago. Not exactly cheap but the deduction for the finish and the repair was around $250,000.

One of the things I really like about guitar folks is their belief in magic. There are so many urban legends, myths, assumptions and magical thinking that they sometimes play a bigger role in the purchase of a vintage guitar than the science (and reality). So, let’s have some fun with them. And don’t take my word for what is myth and what is real. I only know what my eyes and ears tell me and that might not be the same thing that you get from your eyes and ears. Let’s start with ears.

Old wood sounds better than new wood. Real. Old wood grew more slowly making for tighter grain and more density. New wood is is generally grown much more quickly making it less dense. Since sound travels through a solid better than through a liquid or a gas, it makes sense that old wood is more resonant. Another factor is moisture. The moisture in new and old wood is, I believe, about the same at the outset. But old wood has had more time to dry out and, again I believe that dryer wood is more resonant than moist wood. “Roasting” of wood kind of proves this to me.

Ebony fingerboard has more “snap” than rosewood. Myth. First of all, there isn’t a whole lot of either in ES guitars (and most others) so the idea is that there is a difference in the actual tonal quality of the wood. True if the guitar is made from this wood. But a thin piece of ebony isn’t likely to change much of anything in the tone department. I believe most folks think the snap has to do with the response of the strings when pressed down on a piece of ebony rather than rosewood. Actually, you’re pressing down on the frets, not the wood. I have pretty good ears. I don’t have perfect pitch but I have a well developed sense of frequency, timbre and pitch. I’ve played dozens and dozens of ebony board ES-355’s and hundreds of rosewood board 335’s. I don’t hear the snap. Maybe you do. More power to you.

The fingerboard on this ES-355 is ebony. It is harder than rosewood and a bit smoother too. The question is whether it actually has an effect on the tone of your guitar. I think not. The conventional wisdom is that it enhances the highs thus imparting more “snap” to your notes. I think not.

White PAFs sound better than black ones. Myth and Real. This is my theory and I think it makes a lot of sense. The amount of wire wound onto the coil of a PAF varied immensely back when they were made. There was no stop mechanism on the winders. The person operating the winder stopped when the bobbin appeared to be full. Most winders would likely stop well before the bobbin was totally full because if they went to far, they had to stop and unwind the excess wire or start over. I’m sure they had daily quotas and didn’t want unnecessary delays. Err on the side of caution as it were. The wire was dark brown-almost purple and the bobbin was black so it was hard to see just how close to the edge you were when winding the pickup. Enter the white bobbin and the same dark wire. Now the winder could see much more clearly how much room was left on the bobbin thus allowing for more turns and a “hotter” pickup. I have measured hundreds of PAFs and the white ones are consistently higher DCR. That doesn’t necessarily make a better sounding pickup-there a lots of factors but it certainly makes them different and, to my ears, often better sounding. Note-it’s a theory not a law. Perhaps the musings of someone with too much time on his hands.

This stripped ’59 ES-345 was my main player for a few years. It had three extra holes in the top and a load of other issues but it had a pair of factory installed double white PAFs and they sounded glorious. But did they sound glorious because they were white?

I’ll do one more and this, by far is my favorite. Early Marshall cabinets have a rather distinctive grill cloth. Jimi Hendrix often used these cabinets with the “pinstripe” grill cloth. It’s kind of fragile and it’s become somewhat mythical. Mythical grill cloth? Well, apparently there are folks who believe that Hendrix’s distinctive guitar tone is due to his excellent playing passing through this “mythical” grill cloth. Is it possible for grill cloth to influence tone? Maybe. I don’t know but if it does, I don’t believe it would be to the extent that you can actually hear a distinctive difference. More likely, some grill cloths are more transparent than others so maybe some tone could be impeded by an overly dense cloth. But c’mon, Hendrix’s tone is because of the grill cloth? Hey, you know, I have this bridge in Brooklyn and it’s for sale for cheap…I can make you a deal…

Who knew that the Stratocaster was the Breakfast of Champions? But Jimi’s real secret weapon is the “pinstripe” grill cloth. Without it, Jimi was just another picker.

I’m sure there are lots more of these guitars driven myths and if you have one, send it to me or make a comment. I love this stuff.

Original solder will generally look like this. It is fairly dull and generally neatly done. Look at the edge of the pickup cover as well. If it’s bent-even a little-you can be pretty certain that the cover has been off. That can be totally benign or it can mean the pickup has been repaired or rewound

There are lots of things to look for when you assess an old (or vintage) guitar for its value, collectability, and playability and I’ve written about just about all of them. What I haven’t discussed is solder. The solder itself doesn’t play much of a role-it simply holds metal parts together. But it can tell us things that would otherwise be the subject of speculation and an educated guess. I depend on solder to inform me of the originality and status of the pickups, the harness components and even the source of the Bigsby tailpiece.

I am often asked to assess the value and originality of vintage 335’s. I recently was sent a very nice vintage 335 in 9/10 condition with great playability. The average buyer would likely have bought it without hesitation. Everything looked right to an untrained eye. I usually look at the back of the pickups right away to see whether the covers have been off. How do I determine that? Solder. If it’s sloppy, then it is likely that the covers have been off. If it’s clean looking and shiny, it’s likely the covers have been off. Solder, after 65 years, won’t be shiny. It will be dull. That was the situation with the guitar I recently assessed. The solder was perfect and perfectly shiny. Even so, I wasn’t convinced that the covers had been off. I needed more proof. The knowledge that the pickup covers have been removed doesn’t tell us very much…it simply gives us a starting point from which to assess the state of the pickup. If the solder is original, they can’t have been rewound. I should make the point that it’s possible they were rewound, say 50 years ago and the covers expertly reinstalled and soldered. Let’s leave that for the moment. There aren’t a lot of reasons to remove a pickup cover. Lots of us, in the early 70’s, removed our pickup covers because we thought we were getting a bit more output from them without the covers (and we probably were). Eric Clapton removed the covers from his guitars so the rest of us, sheep that we are, did it as well. The only other reason to remove a pickup cover is to repair it which usually means a rewind. That, in and of itself, isn’t a terrible thing…I’ve had rewound PAFs that sound glorious. But if you are a collector or investor, originality counts for a lot so it’s important to know if the pickups might have been rewound.

There is solder in the harness as well. Again, shiny is a good indicator of newer solder. Remnants of old solder tells us a lot as well. But once we have determined that the solder isn’t original, what have we learned? It could be that the solder joint had deteriorated and the connection was no longer good. That requires new solder to re-establish the connection between components. Of particular importance is the solder to the volume pots. That’s where the pickups are connected in a 335 (but not in a 345 or stereo 355). If the solder to the back of the pot is disturbed but the solder to the lug where the pickup is connected is intact, then it probably was a repair to the ground (the braided part of the wire). If both are disturbed, it might mean the pickup has been out of the guitar. But how can we know that? We go back to the solder on the pickup cover. If it’s intact, it might mean that the pickup was replaced-not a big deal to a player if it’s the same era and type of pickup. It is kind of a big deal to a collector (again, originality is important). If the solder to the cover has been disturbed or replaced, then there’s a very high probability that the pickup was removed from the guitar, repaired or rewound and reinstalled. Going back to the 335 I was assessing, I looked at the bridge pickup volume pot and, sure enough, the solder had been disturbed. It was shiny and not as neat as the pickup cover solder. That told me the pickup had been removed.

It can get tricky though. The bridge pickup has clearly been opened. This is a 345 converted to mono, so we can assume that the cover was removed to flip the magnet to put the pickups in phase. But the neck pickuphas a rather different pattern of soldering where the base plate is roughed up and the solder hugs the gap between the cover and the plate. I’ve seen that at least two dozen times. I think it’s factory. Not everybody has the same solder technique.

There is lots of solder in the harness that isn’t related to the pickups and that’s important as well. Most folks don’t want to pull the harness out of a 335. It’s fiddly, difficult work and I don’t blame anyone for simply leaving it alone. I don’t generally remove the harness when going through a 335. But I do check the solder with a dental mirror and I usually detach the bridge pickup volume and tone and pull them into the f-hole to, what else, look at the solder. You want to make sure the components are all original. If the correct parts have been used, the only way to tell if there has been activity in there is to look at the solder. Does it matter if the three way is replaced? Probably not. Same goes for the jack. If the pot codes match, it probably doesn’t matter much if a pot was replaced. There is a good indicator of work having been done on a harness. Look for the lock washers on the pots. If any are missing, then somebody (and probably not a professional) has been in there. They get left out a lot. Nothing to do with solder-just something to look for while you’re in there.

And what about that situation where the pickup was rewound decades ago and the solder was expertly redone? If the edges of the covers aren’t bent, then there is no way to know if work was done. If the pickup is correct and the solder looks right, I go with the odds and my ears. Odds are it’s OK. It’s a little like a replaced bridge or tailpiece (or any other part that is replaceable without a trace)…If it’s correct, don’t worry about it. You can look at wear and patina and that might tell you something but that’s another post.

The solder looks pretty good but the cover for the neck pickup looks disturbed. It’s always possible that one pickup was worked on and the other is original and intact. That might be the case here but dollars to donuts, that neck pickup cover has been off. Time to look at the harness to get more evidence.

Not all 70’s Gibsons are bad guitars. The 76-77 Explorers mostly got it right. The rest of the lines struggled. They simply aren’t nearly as good as the guitars from the 60’s. Lots of reasons and no excuses.

Is it the end of another year already? They seem to go faster every year. It seems like I was in my 50’s a minute ago and now, somehow, I’m in my 70’s. It’s also interesting that as years go by, the definition of “vintage” doesn’t change much. A guitar from the mid 90’s is 30 years old. That used to be a marker for vintage in the 90’s. But nobody is calling 90’s guitars that. Or 80’s guitars for that matter. If your definition of vintage is simply a certain age (which makes some sense), then it should change yearly or perhaps by the decade. Pretty much everybody agrees that guitars built in the 50’s and most of the 60’s are particularly good and few would dispute the term vintage for that era. But the build quality in the 70’s-with few exceptions-was generally pretty terrible. To most of us, the sale of Fender and Gibson to large corporations signaled the end of the “Golden Era”. But is that going to be the only era referred to as vintage? Let’s take a look at some guitars from the 70’s and 80’s that haven’t gotten much positive attention and a few that perhaps deserve a second look.

Gibson was sold to Norlin (beer, concrete) in 1969. Most call that the beginning of a long downhill slide that marked the clear end of an era. Gibson had some colossal flops but they also made some pretty good guitars in the 70’s and early 80’s (although I can only think of a few). The 76 Explorers can be wonderful players although the necks can be ridiculously large. There are folks who love the L6S. I’m not one of them. Then there’s the Sonex (actually not a 70’s but close enough). A bad idea poorly executed. It was, essentially, made of cardboard. Enough said. The ES line had some new additions and failures abound. It wasn’t that they were particularly bad designs (although there were a few) but that the build quality and materials were generally awful. You don’t hear too many folks looking for an ES-325 (a cheapo 335) or an ES-369, a nice try at an upscale 335 but apparently not nice enough. I kind of like the Dirty Fingers pickup-a nod, of sorts to DiMarzio who pretty much owned the pickup market in the 80’s. If we get to the early 80’s, we see the reissue of the 335 dot. Good guitars but not as good as the original. An 81-85 ES-335 commands a decent price-much more than other Gibson from the era. The Les Paul line in the 70’s struggled to find its footing after the very successful reintroduction of the LP Standard in 68. Perhaps the most striking thing about the Les Paul line during the period is that it went downhill every year throughout the 70’s. It’s as if someone was saying “how can we make these wonderful guitars cheaper and crappier every year?” The 68’s were close to the 50’s LP P90 Standard. The 69 went to the ugly big headstock and then to the three piece neck and then to the volute. By 70, the tenon was shorter and the body wasn’t one piece any more. By 71, the tenon had just about disappeared and the volute got bigger. That’s what happens when bean counters are in charge. Bean counters don’t know much about tone. They are “businessmen” who didn’t belong in the music business.

Ugly, heavy, poorly designed and poorly built, the RD was introduced in 1977. One of the ugliest guitars ever made. The RD Artist was particularly awful- the Moog electronics are horrible.

There are a lot more Gibsons that were introduced in the 70’s and 80’s and they really have been relegated to the dustbin of guitar history. Take the RD line. Please. Bad design and bad execution and, in the case of the RD Artist, bad electronics. It’s an ugly, ungainly slab of wood disguised as a guitar. I’m told there are folks who love them. By all means, enjoy. I’m surprised the line lasted as long as it did-especially the RD Artist. In fact, you can take all the models with the Moog electronics and burn them as far as I’m concerned. I bought an ES Artist a few years ago because I thought with all my knowledge, I could make it sound good. I could not. It was horrible. Then, there’s the Marauder, a solid body two or three pickup bolt on neck guitar that had very limited success and was discontinued after 6 years. The US-1 model was a Strat copy and was pretty awful (I had one in the 90’s). It was Gibson’s entry into the “Superstrat” era that, happily, went away after a few years.

Wow, Gibson makes a Stratocaster. I owned one. It was awful. Maybe if the pickups were better, it would have been ok. It was lifeless and dull. The US-1 lasted from 86 until 91.

Beyond Gibson, the 70’s and 80’s were not the best era for guitars. Gretsch’s are wonderful until 1962 and the downhill slog starts slowly-62-64 Gents can be pretty good (ask George). Rickenbackers never seem to change-I’ve played a few from the 70’s and 80’s that were pretty close to the earlier models. Electric Guilds from the 70’s fell out of favor while the Guild acoustics (especially 12 strings) saw real success. Martins from the 70’s can be very good but they can also be pretty bad, Changes in manufacturing and structure caused some intonation issues. A change from hide glue to a “modern” glue apparently made some sound dull. I’m told that in ’71, there were misplaced bridges that caused intonation issues. The rumor of a major fire wiping out all of the Brazilian rosewood is apparently an urban myth. The biggest factor at Martin and to an extent, all of the manufacturers is trying to build too many guitars too quickly resulting in QC issues across the board. I’ll leave it there…I’m really not qualified to assess these manufacturers since I don’t play that many. There are folks with much more knowledge than I have who can write the history of Fender in the post CBS era, so I’ll stay out that arena as well.

This is the Gibson Sonex 180. The high tech body material was called “Resonwood” which is essentially, sawdust and glue. Great idea. Weighed a ton. Lasted from 1980-1984. Not vintage. Thanks to Howie Statland at Rivington Guitars for the photo (“borrowed” off Reverb).

Does vintage have to mean good? I think so. An antique can be simply old, I suppose but vintage seems to suggest quality-especially a quality that no longer exists. If that is true, then guitars from the 70’s might never be considered vintage. Just old. As long as the guitars from a given era are inferior to the guitars of a previous era, then the term vintage might never apply. Just my opinion. I don’t make the rules.

This is the only blog post I ever rerun. My wife and I wrote this together while on vacation in Mexico at Christmas in 2015. Every year I reread it thinking it’s kind of dopey and every year I rerun it because it’s not as dopey as I remember. Here you go. If it’s too dopey, too bad. You’ll get it again next year.

The Night Before Christmas at OK Guitars

‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the pad

I was playing my Gibson- not great, but not bad.

I remembered a blues lick and played it with flair

Just like in the days when I had all my hair.

The block necks were hung not too tight or too loose,

As I waited for Santa inside my caboose.

I had them all tuned and I played every one.

The truss rods were perfect, the strings tightly strung.

**********************************************

All of a sudden on the roof of my shop,

I spied an old fat dude just reeking of pot.

He fell off the roof and into the snow.

I asked him right in. Why he came, I don’t know.

There was ice in his beard and mud on his boot,

And I thought only rock stars could wear such a suit.

He took down a red one, just like Eric C.

His fingers flew faster than old Alvin Lee.

***********************************************

It was wailing and screaming all over the town.

I could hear my Dad yelling, “Turn that damn thing down!”

Who knew this weird guy, such a flash with a pick

And a love of guitars, would be old Saint Nick?

I couldn’t believe all the sounds in my ear.

He said, “You get good working one day a year.”

Now Jimi, Now BB, Now John, George and Paul

Would bow to this master, the best of them all.

************************************************

“You remember that Christmas back in ’63?

When you found a new six string left under your tree?

You started to doubt that I was the truth,

But my gift to you then was a link to your youth.

So for all of the years that would come in between,

Way deep down inside, you’d still feel like sixteen.”

He picked up some cases by Lifton and Stone,

Some old Kluson tuners and a worn out Fuzztone.

************************************************

“Now, Charlie Gelber you must hear my pitch,

‘Cause this is my time and payback’s a bitch.

The 335 please, the red 59.

I gave you your first one, now this ax is mine”.

And quick as a flash it was stuffed in his sack,

And he waved a goodbye as he snuck out the back.

He jumped in his sled and sparked up a j,

Flew into the sky and was off on his way.

So if feeling sixteen is what sets you right,

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

By Charlie and Victoria Gelber

With apologies to Clement Clark Moore