current production es-335 versions

[angus99]

Angus is down with Clancy and Rocky on this. Stop all this nonsense or face the wrath of the avatars!!!

DoubleBoogie, just an awesome canine. Best of luck when you show him.

angus2

 

[DoubleBoogie]

Angus is down with Clancy and Rocky on this. Stop all this nonsense or face the wrath of the avatars!!!

DoubleBoogie, just an awesome canine. Best of luck when you show him.

angus2

Thanks....and just to make sure you know, Clancy isn't the one in my avatar. That would be our first one named Angel (AKA The Big Lug). She was a hoot but not a great example of the breed. Clancy most definitely is though. He finished his championship going undefeated in five straight shows with three majors. He was pretty young when he finished. He has been shown only once since then and took best of breed all three days on a 3 day show and also got a group 3. All of that was with me handling him too! I am going to get him back out the first of this year.

 

[DoubleBoogie]

That bad boy is nuthin but the truth.... :bug

Yep...He definitely keeps the riff raff out of the back yard. :hee

 

[Bhodie]

Huh??? heheh

 

[Jurius]

There's no longer a "production" ES-335. They are all considered Custom Shops these days and come with certificates of origin. I personally think that the quality level is way higher now than say in 2000 when Memphis opened. The quality control has improved under production management of mr. David Winters and the employees have got a new and different engagement in what they do which helps the general QC.
That said - it's still a production line and sometimes something goes wrong. But generally the guitars really are better - and a down to earth ES-335 from Memphis these days is a fine instrument which can easily serve as tool for a professional guitar players with absolutely no problems for years and years.
And the sound is not only classic - it's EXCELLENT! (Don't forget to nuy a Fender Super Reverb )

This is the second post in this thread which started all the controversy. After reading the entire thread, I can't find anything wrong or misleading in this post. Gibson is causing the confusion by calling both shops "Custom Shop" but putting out two different products.

Personally I've learned a lot from the controversy. Gibson has two Custom Shops but only one counts as a Custom Shop and a flat cat get flatter.

 

[Troels]

Not exactly.. the Nashville historic crew is handpicked, longer tenure luthiers and players. Some of the equipment (forms etc) are from the original Kalamazoo factory and were used to create the original models... additionally, it is a much smaller crew working on these guitars. (per Gibson) Additionally, more time is spent making the historics than the non-historics. Not that the Memphis 335's are not very nice guitars, I had one.. and traded in on the Historic. Not all the extra money they charge is "because they can".. some of it goes to pay the increased cost of production...

The interesting thing is - that what you say about the Nashville crew is almost the same Gibson says about the Memphis crew in the Certificate of Authenticity coming with Memphis guitars.

And... if you take a cafefull look at the Eric Clapton ES-335 clon building-video shot in the Custom Shop in Nashville and compare it to the videos from the Memphis Custom shop - you will see that the story about using the old machines and forms in Nashville is nothing but romantic nonsense (they were considered worn out and left back in Kalamazoo and are now used for Heritages - THEY say...). Nashville use modern equipment as per Memphis - and it's even looks exactly the same on every single picture I have seen.

Please go as well and see the Gibson Nashville Custom Shop employee who performs the assembling of the Eric Clapton ES-335 body in the video. Mildly said I could do the same without training and with much more care and accurracy indeed. That's an assembly line job - not custom shop workbench job at all. Maybe they spent more time on each guitar in Nashville - but watching the videos it's difficult (for mee anyway) to see where in the operation flow more time and/or care is spent. All operations - even on the Clapton signature which cost an Empire State Building - is performed the same way as the other ES-335s both in Nashville and Memphis and with the same modern tools and in the same tempo. So statements like the Historics are the real thing and stuff like that is just pure nonsense (paying a couple of thousand dollars more for the same object can turn most of us into believing the most interesting thing like kharrison... but at that point facts are all gone and things has already become religion... halleluja).

Maybe the truth is that everybody can learn the simple operations needed for building a 335 in short time - and - that LUTHIERY is a fine art from the past when AAA+ spruce tops were hand carved for premium tone, strength and beauty.

Thanks very much to jurius who can see that my very first post in this thread - #2 - was completely right in every respect.

 

[hipbluescat]

In end all that matters is if you are happy with the guitar that you have. Who gives a damn about the certificate or where it is made. It's all about the music and every line would have dog and star instruments produced anyway!!!

 

[sliding-tom]

A question about the dogs: are they "Custom Shop"s or maybe even "Historic RI"s? :rofl

 

[Troels]

A question about the dogs: are they "Custom Shop"s or maybe even "Historic RI"s? :rofl

I believe you mean "Custom Pet Shop" ????

 

[sliding-tom]

I believe you mean "Custom Pet Shop" ????

Is that in Nashville or Memphis?:hee

 

[Troels]

Is that in Nashville or Memphis?:hee

Non of those... it's in Dogsville of course.... The Dogsville Custom Pet Shop

PS Maybe they can make a flat cat too???

 

[sliding-tom]

Non of those... it's in Dogsville of course.... The Dogsville Custom Pet Shop

No no... although it's being called "Dogsville Custom", it's not a real Custom Shop, it's just everyday regular dog production. BTW - anybody ever had a Custom Shop dog that was a guitar? :wah

 

[angus99]

Is that in Nashville or Memphis?:hee

Actually, it's closer to Chattanooga for me, Tom.

DoubleBoogie, sounds like you should take that bad boy to the Big Show. That's a great record! Wish I'd started Angus younger than 4 1/2. We're now semi-retired from the ring and he's spending his time sleeping, [harmlessly] chasing deer with our female RB--an amazing thing to watch--and waiting for those insemination offers to start rolling in :rofl

And for those who are maybe thinking we should take all this dog talk to a dog forum: I did, but was banned for talking about guitars. :dance :dance

angus

 

[sliding-tom]

And for those who are maybe thinking we should take all this dog talk to a dog forum
angus

No no, absolutely fine with me. Enjoyed the pics of your beautiful dogs.
Happy New Year! :salude

 

[C-4]

Mark really knows his stuff.
While it is possible to mistake what one shop does over another under the Gibson label, one cannot mistake the differences in these guitars, which is considerable at least from a build standpoint.

It is possible that Gibson labelled the Memphis shop as it did to confuse a lot of people into thinking they were buying a truly custom shop guitar.

In the end, you may call a shop by whatever name you wish to call it, but what comes out of that shop is really what the shop represents, not what someone or some sign states that it is.

The Nashville Custom Shop is the only facility inwhich Historic reissues of Gibsons are made. The Memphis shop builds standard production ES-335's and whatever else they build.

If you feel that your guitar built in Memphis is a custom shop piece, so be it, but if you sell it, you will very quickly come to realize the differences. The Nashville Custom Shop ES-335 will command a significantly higher price, and the differences must be seen.

This is not to say that a Memphis built guitar is not well made, but believe Mark and the others who are trying to explain the differences. They do exist, they are real, and they will ultimately show up in resale, if you cannot see the differences in the guitars.

 

[Bhodie]

-snip-

And for those who are maybe thinking we should take all this dog talk to a dog forum: I did, but was banned for talking about guitars. :dance :dance

angus

Hehehe... best post of the thread!

 

[R9.]

If you feel that your guitar built in Memphis is a custom shop piece, so be it, but if you sell it, you will very quickly come to realize the differences. The Nashville Custom Shop ES-335 will command a significantly higher price, and the differences must be seen.

I don't think you can argue that you will lose more money if you sell a historic ES-335 compared to a non-historic. Same goes for used Les Paul reissues.

As you you dog guys, those dogs are imported from overseas and only assembled in the US...you've all been suckered!! :lol

 

[Buffaloe]

The Nashville Custom Shop is the only facility inwhich Historic reissues of Gibsons are made. The Memphis shop builds standard production ES-335's and whatever else they build.

The Memphis factory builds all the production line hollows and a few double necks. They used to build all of the production line solids but changed that a while back.

 

[angus99]

. . . those dogs are imported from overseas and only assembled in the US...you've all been suckered!! :lol

Well, at least one of the dog owners was imported from up your way, R9, and assembled here -- yours truly.

Happy New Year, everybody! :salude

 

[Troels]

Mark really knows his stuff.
While it is possible to mistake what one shop does over another under the Gibson label, one cannot mistake the differences in these guitars, which is considerable at least from a build standpoint.

It is possible that Gibson labelled the Memphis shop as it did to confuse a lot of people into thinking they were buying a truly custom shop guitar.

In the end, you may call a shop by whatever name you wish to call it, but what comes out of that shop is really what the shop represents, not what someone or some sign states that it is.

The Nashville Custom Shop is the only facility inwhich Historic reissues of Gibsons are made. The Memphis shop builds standard production ES-335's and whatever else they build.

If you feel that your guitar built in Memphis is a custom shop piece, so be it, but if you sell it, you will very quickly come to realize the differences. The Nashville Custom Shop ES-335 will command a significantly higher price, and the differences must be seen.

This is not to say that a Memphis built guitar is not well made, but believe Mark and the others who are trying to explain the differences. They do exist, they are real, and they will ultimately show up in resale, if you cannot see the differences in the guitars.

Maybe you should read ALL the posts before repeating most of the mistakes (or maybe just post #93 by Bhodie).

And maybe you can say Mark knows his stuff - but not much about how Gibson have reorganized their custom shops in 2007 (and neither do you). That's evident to everybody.

Until this very moment you, mark and others have only said that there are lot of differences between the way they make ES-335 in Nashville vs. Memphis... BUT - nobody can tell specifically WHAT the differences in the way they build ES-335's are. What are they?????

I can show (on videos) hundreds of similarities - in fact only similarties. Even when they put the expensive Eric Clapton signature together. Nashville and Memphis share all materials (even the poplar core in the lamination) most hardware and all the machines used in the building proces - not to forget the COA and the Gold Warranty for Custom Shop Guitars. They also seem - from time to time - to share alle the issues such as delaminated bodies, twisted necks, oragnge peeling finish, and all sorts of other different issues more or less serious (I think the experienced Mark knows that too).

I do understand that people who have payed the tip of a F-16 for a Historic want's to believe every detail is made by hand by luthiers that arrive in busses every morning from good old Kalamazoo with their huge hand driven plywood presses, hot hide glue pots, violin makers hand tool, and original blueprints. But that's of course just wishfull thinking among Historic owners. Add to that, that the eldest employees these days in Nasville began at Gibson in the Norlin days - which we normally very much wan't to forget about. And the fact is of course, that Historics are build on an assemblyline with all possible processes automated - just like they do in Memphis (see the videos).

Anyway... It looks like you have the secret - please share.