« Very good secondhand guitar! »

Copy of the celebrated Gibson ES335, made in Korea (there's a sticker on the rear of the neck!) by Samuel music, a US company. It features a tunomatic bridge and a Gibson-type stop bar.

Mine is from the late '70s, it has golden hardware and you can certainly tell the passing of time on the screws, etc. When you clean everything the veneer comes off very easily...in short, it has a vintage look!

21 frets, two splittable humbuckers (with the switch next to the pickup selector), one pickup selector, two volume and two tone controls.

Note: Vintage Gibson wiring for the volume controls.

USE

Very nice 5-ply neck with a superb headstock and original inlays.

Very comfortable access to the upper frets, I usually play a Les Paul and a Telecaster.

SOUND

It has a very smooth sound, ideal for blues, jazz, pop, rock ...

In single-coil mode the sound is more twangy and with less volume (which is normal).

I'll take it to my luthier for a full checkup in a month, so I'll tell you more when I get it back!

OVERALL OPINION

I bought it three weeks ago, three weeks during which I took it apart, cleaned it and polished it...everything except play it.

Excellent value for money, although I think I got a (very) good deal.

Edit from 06/23/11: I rehearsed with it yesterday... It has a very round and smooth sound, more so in the highs and mids, in split mode, the neck profile is very comfortable.