It plays well. When the last owner bought it used in 2007, he took it to Nashville where a Gibson factory tech changed out the pickups to 57 Classics ( it was built with 490t/r ?) and set it up for him. It still plays great. Very robust/loud unplugged. Action is a hair lower than I usually have. Zero string buzz up and down.
Does have a small hairline crack in top layer under jack washer where someone overtightened the jack nut. Its about an inch long and not visible from inside control area so I'm thinking its likely just top layer of the 3 ply layers that took a little crush.
Plugged in, I have never enjoyed a big semi-hollow like I enjoy this. Plugged straight in to my 15w Gibson Falcon set at 10: oclock it gets this big profile with sweet edge of breakup.
Great neck/mid/bridge. I'm so glad I got this...plus the backplate access.
I will experiment to see if I can swap pups around and get a hair more open sounding with my low wind Onamacs or the wcr Crossroads neck (7.5) with a HP90 bridge (9.0).
The 57's were very good, But I could hear how some more note separation could be an improvement, if I can retain the early growl. A new harness might open the tone up a bit, too.
The pots look fairly crusty , although no crackle. I've already ordered four 525k cts audial taper and a new switch and pio russian caps.
Eventually I'm gonna remove all hardware and virtuoso clean/polish the entire thing. It was built with satin nitro finish that is said to hand polish down into a nice vintage look. It will get gold top hats, longer pickguard, like an old 59'.
Tuners are nice and smooth.
Stoptail is slightly magnetic. I can try an aluminum from another guitar. IDK much about that, but will try it.
ABR-1 is not magnetic at all, so I'm guessing zink cast with nickel plated brass saddles, but IDG, I can swap in a Faber from another guitar to hear it, too.
No sign of fret wear or scalloping. The owner played harp in a blues band , mostly. He played guitar, some.
This is a great guitar.
Tonebender: neck is their "60s" profile with .810 back to front of fb at 1st, and 8.875 at 12th. It has wide shoulders with a flattish back feel. It fills the hand with the shoulders. I'd say it feels bigger than a 60's C because of those shoulders.
The tenon has a gap behind it. As if it's bottom side were cut to a flat before the heel face received its 4 degree neck angle. So I'm guessing its a 4 degree tapered gap behind/underneath the tenon. It seems glued well on every other surface. And there is some excess glue blob pushed forward of the tenon in rout. I'm going to reinforce this with Titebond and shims. I'm going to place a few tiny maple wedges right under front edge of tenon, and pour some tightbond on it. I wont be filling the entire gap that is under there, I will create a dam of the tiny maple wedges out in the tenon route. And the titebond should'nt get in the way of any future reset in the possible in the next thousand years. This looks like a typical tenon for a non Historic 335 based on some searching. Historics tenon looks wider and fully fill the rout.
with little wedges jammed under tongue, and glued.
and finished , using 1" round dowel cut pieces glued in with "titebond original" for solid fill, and could still allow for neck removal if ever needed. Epoxy would damage surrounding wood if neck ever needed removal.
