NGD - Gibson ES-330

AndyR

I was going to post a thread along the lines of "anyone else want to share how they avoided an R8 feeding frenzy purchase?" ... because I had some really good strategies I've used over the last week, anti-GAS recommendations, etc... They kept me safe, sane, but able to follow all the fun in detail... I might still post them yet... but....

 ummm...

I ended up buying a new guitar because of it all anyway!

The new addition is one of they 2018 ES-330 VOS chappies. Below is GuitarGuitar's photo of my actual geetar. I nearly ordered it online yesterday, but we went to look at it in the Epsom branch this morning. It's a stunner in the flesh. the Olive drab one was there, unexpectedly, too.

It was the images of the olive one that had pulled me in a few days ago - I've noticed some others on here had noticed them too. But me and the missus were leaning towards the cherry and when we realised the cherry was in Epsom... we thought we'd visit the place (never been there before). We were blown away by the looks of the the cherry when we saw them side by side. I still liked the green too - but she doesn't. And when I started playing this one... wowsers. Never considered a P90/ES combination before, but it suits me and my stuff very well. It was a no-brainer "get the wallet out" from the moment I touched it, we both knew it.

And in addition, I'm extremely popular because I only spent just under £2K on a guitar (instead of £2.5K on the x R8s I passed up in the last week) ... so popular, in fact, that she bought me a nice new shirt in fatface when I said "well, I can't afford it now, can I?" lol

Lastly, MASSIVE shout out to the guys and service from Epsom GuitarGuitar - I've always had nothing but exactly what I wanted and expected from GG in online purchases and today was an excellent experience too. When the deal was done we talked about all sorts of stuff, including the R8 frenzy (they have some more washed cherry on the way, but they have a large backlog of pre-orders so there was no point even discussing it further)(PHEW!!!). Anyway, during the conversation, I mentioned "the fretboard", obviously, and the main guy we were talking to went "OOooo! They hate us on there!" - we all had a good old chuckle about that (wasn't really much else we could do!!)

SimpleSimon

Stunner, congrats and have a wow! Seriously nice guitar for the money!

terada

Lovely. A good 330 is like nothing else. If one pops up in vintage sunburst I'll be all over it.

AndyR

terada said:

Lovely. A good 330 is like nothing else. If one pops up in vintage sunburst I'll be all over it.

I'm sure I saw one somewhere last night? Peach? But I preferred the cherry, and already new there was one a 20 minute train ride from me... so didn't take note (except the price, was roughly the same, mebbe a bit more)

SteveF

Holy shitballs Batman!  That is a stunner! LOVE the VOS P90s - they look amazing. 

As I've said before, I have had nothing but excellent service from guitarguitar, following online purchases and in person at the Newcastle branch. 

stickyfiddle

Snap! Loving it. I definitely want a spacer the bridge pickup on mine, and I fancy trying some plastic covers at the same time, though that’s almost a shame as the nickel covers are so pretty

Strangefan

SimpleSimon said:

Stunner, congrats and have a wow! Seriously nice guitar for the money!

For the money??? Is 2k pocket money now then??

Legionreturns

We hate GG? News to me! They've done rather well out of us this week, and my experience of them is overwhelmingly positive.

Lovely 330 mate. HNGD 

AndyR

stickyfiddle said:

Snap! Loving it. I definitely want a spacer the bridge pickup on mine, and I fancy trying some plastic covers at the same time, though that’s almost a shame as the nickel covers are so pretty

Yep - I think I noticed you getting it the other day, and someone else drooling over the olive finish, and there's obviously not so many of these as there were 2017 R8s (which I bravely resisted), so I kind of got sucked into "checking it out just in case" and "too good to miss" etc etc etc...

I'll be raising my action a tad, so I'll definitely want to raise the bridge pickup (and possibly the neck too).

I'm not sure about the nickel covers thing... at the moment I don't feel I'm missing any top-end... but I've been playing mainly blues, blues rock, jazzy blues, etc all afternoon. I'm about to switch to my preferred 11s, so I might feel the need for more jangle later.

But you're SO right about the look - I was saying to the missus about it. We're both agreed it just wouldn't look so pretty with black or cream covers. My Yamaha Revstar has plastic (soapbar) covers that look "aluminium" so maybe it would be possible to get some plastic dog-ear covers that would fit the look...

AndyR

Legionreturns said:

We hate GG? News to me! They've done rather well out of us this week, and my experience of them is overwhelmingly positive.

That's kinda what we were chuckling about - he did say it with a twinkle in his eye... and I replied "you've def got some supporters too, but yeah, there is the odd "box-shifter" comment etc". And although no-one said it out loud, there was an underlying "they've spent plenty here anyways"... It was all good natured and amusing - these guys certainly weren't complaining or feeling paranoid :-) (well, they've got all our money!! lol)

lovestrat74

Lovely! After read g the 335 thread yesterday I spent all night dreaming of the entire range.

What's the neck profile like?

Check out the peach vid on YouTube of their guy playing the 330...

HNGD!

roberty

lovestrat74 said:

Lovely! After read g the 335 thread yesterday I spent all night dreaming of the entire range.

What's the neck profile like?

Check out the peach vid on YouTube of their guy playing the 330...

HNGD!

Curious about the neck profe too

HNGD

guitars4you

Does that have the big neck Andy and the 'under wound' P90's - If so I have similar and find it very nice to play - no shortage of character

stickyfiddle

guitars4you said:

Does that have the big neck Andy and the 'under wound' P90's - If so I have similar and find it very nice to play - no shortage of character

Mine (same model) is a middling profile - not the "late 50's" thing, but still way bigger than a slim taper/60s type of neck. I'd say the closest equivalent is the R9s I've played.  

AndyR

Neckwise, I'm useless at judging. I like BIG necks, and I wouldn't say this is huge, but I've been comparing to some others here and it is a lot chunkier than it feels like to me!

The spec says "Rounded "C" w/ Rolled Binding".

I've got no way of measuring this accurately, but the spec also says Nut: Bone 1.687" Wide - and that seems about right with my metal ruler!

It actually feels like the narrowest Gibson neck I own... but that could be the rolled edges?

I think it's marginally less chunky/deep than my 2012 Les Paul Traditional, but it's definitely nearer to that than the "60s" neck on my special. 

It's actually very comparable to the neck on my Feline DC. Calling @FelineGuitars, what's the neck on that? lol

Pickups - definitely seems a lighter wind than all my other P90 guitars. Very articulate indeed. But bear in mind it has 10s on at the moment, and the pickups are a fair distance from the strings. The others are all strung with 11s and have been adjusted where I want them. I still think these pickups are lower wind, though.

lovestrat74 said:

Check out the peach vid on YouTube of their guy playing the 330...

Watched it last night! :-) It was this vid that made me think the guitar had something different to offer me (that I wanted) than my ES-335 with humbuckers. It was also this vid that added to the missus's impression of "ooh! that IS nice" ... and it generally guaranteed our trip to Epsom this morning.

NelsonP

That is a stunning guitar. Congrats!

TINMAN82

Congrats, what a beauty ! I got an ES-335 figured in cherry from gg a few days ago. It’s probably the best sounding guitar I have, better than my 2013 R8. ES all the way for me now!

lovestrat74

AndyR said:

Neckwise, I'm useless at judging. I like BIG necks, and I wouldn't say this is huge, but I've been comparing to some others here and it is a lot chunkier than it feels like to me!

The spec says "Rounded "C" w/ Rolled Binding".

I've got no way of measuring this accurately, but the spec also says Nut: Bone 1.687" Wide - and that seems about right with my metal ruler!

It actually feels like the narrowest Gibson neck I own... but that could be the rolled edges?

I think it's marginally less chunky/deep than my 2012 Les Paul Traditional, but it's definitely nearer to that than the "60s" neck on my special. 

It's actually very comparable to the neck on my Feline DC. Calling @FelineGuitars, what's the neck on that? lol

Pickups - definitely seems a lighter wind than all my other P90 guitars. Very articulate indeed. But bear in mind it has 10s on at the moment, and the pickups are a fair distance from the strings. The others are all strung with 11s and have been adjusted where I want them. I still think these pickups are lower wind, though.

lovestrat74 said:

Check out the peach vid on YouTube of their guy playing the 330...

Watched it last night! :-) It was this vid that made me think the guitar had something different to offer me (that I wanted) than my ES-335 with humbuckers. It was also this vid that added to the missus's impression of "ooh! that IS nice" ... and it generally guaranteed our trip to Epsom this morning.

 

Phil_aka_Pip

Nice!

jacksparrow

Beautiful, congratulations on a mighty fine purchase. I have a 59ri in sunburst just loves princeton's and tube screamers.

HNGD.

Kitsune

Smart, really smart. I was this close to getting a 330 and had tried them and a 335 side by side. In the end, the 335 won out - just.

Still tempted to get a 330 though