1963 Gibson ES 330 - Price/sanity check

mark123

bide your time and you will get a better cond one for 3.5k

buy in haste ,repent at leisure !

roberty

mark123 said:

bide your time and you will get a better cond one for 3.5k

buy in haste ,repent at leisure !

Yes it's beginning to look that way.  This is literally around the corner from me, I chanced upon it when I was out for a wander earlier

Thanks for the advice everyone.

Blaendulais

ArchtopDave said:

lovely!!! 

designerseye88

roberty said:

mark123 said:

bide your time and you will get a better cond one for 3.5k

buy in haste ,repent at leisure !

Yes it's beginning to look that way.  This is literally around the corner from me, I chanced upon it when I was out for a wander earlier

Thanks for the advice everyone.

I think this is the same one i played over at Treblerock last summer. From speaking to the guy it had a little bit of work done to it but I can't remember exactly what. I don't think the price has changed since then either. IMO I'd side with the consensus on here that If you wait I'm almost certain you could find one in better condition for probably less money.  Feel free to PM and I'd be happy to explain a little more about it from what I know. 

ArchtopDave

@roberty  You appear to be Bristol way from the address of the dealer. Have a look at the Vintage 'n' Rare website if you're after a ES 330. They're in Bath and have a 1967 ES 330 listed at £3995, which looks in better overall nick (it's comes with a modern case according to the blurb). One caveat - I'd give them a ring first, as they are not the quickest in updating their website. I bought my one above from them, and it was still on the website six weeks after I'd bought it!

roberty

ArchtopDave said:

@roberty  You appear to be Bristol way from the address of the dealer. Have a look at the Vintage 'n' Rare website if you're after a ES 330. They're in Bath and have a 1967 ES 330 listed at £3995, which looks in better overall nick (it's comes with a modern case according to the blurb). One caveat - I'd give them a ring first, as they are not the quickest in updating their website. I bought my one above from them, and it was still on the website six weeks after I'd bought it!

Thanks, yeah I saw that, the '67s have a narrow nut though I'm pretty sure (1.58" vs 1.66")

NorthernGooner

Bit of an unfair comparison here..... Archtop Daves's has had 'buckers fitted which changes the whole feel of the guitar 
(sweet looker tho' it is...) Es 330's should have P'90's.  They're the guitars soul.   

57Deluxe

if it plays like it is meant to be yours  - buy it -  cos forever will be the one that got away and nothing else will ever satisfy you... You can't put a price on that longing.

Winny_Pooh

NorthernGooner said:

Bit of an unfair comparison here..... Archtop Daves's has had 'buckers fitted which changes the whole feel of the guitar 
(sweet looker tho' it is...) Es 330's should have P'90's.  They're the guitars soul.   

The bridge humbucker is an upgrade to stock IMO. The P90 vs HB in the neck is down to taste.

peteri

I would say that's over price - by quite a lot.

I have a 67 ES-330 (ok so slimmer nut which does impact the price) on private sale for months at £3500, it's in very, very clean condition apart from a couple of tiny screw holes in the top from a midi pickup.Point to remember slimmer is the width they are different but still fat (in depth) necks.

Guncotton have recently sold an absolutely minty 64 330 with a bigsby for basically the same price as the one you're looking at.

This to me is at least a grand over reasonable market price.

Reason - non original case, how you describe the frets and the tuners.

To justify this price it would need to be with the original case, have original or repro tuners which match, and ideally have the earlier pickups (black plastic). It sounds to me like this also needs a refret, it's up to you how quickly that gets done - but you should bare it in mind with the price.

Regarding the pickup height, I've not heard of them seizing, but on the P90 it will change the sound a lot - winding up the pole pieces doesn't extend the magnetic field as well as some other designs.

The right way to get the pickup height right is to shim the pickup and then use the pole pieces for small balance and 'the last little bit' adjustments, on the 60's ES-330 it's quite hard to get a nice balance between the two pickups sometimes.

On mine - I have the bridge pickup shimmed with a correct ring which goes under the pickup, the shop (Someneck) did that as part of the set-up pre-purchase (as well as a refret).

Hope this helps, I'm in London if that's any use to you and you want to compare to mine (just an offer to try not buy)

roberty

peteri said:

I would say that's over price - by quite a lot.

Guncotton have recently sold an absolutely minty 64 330 with a bigsby for basically the same price as the one you're looking at.

This one?  Looks a bit better for the price doesn't it

https://www.guncottonguitars.com/guitars/#/1961-gibson-es330-tdc/

Oh and cheers for the offer!  I may seek you out if I have some time in London in the near future

pmg

That Jazzmaster on guncotton’s site -nice

stickyfiddle

I played a couple of vintage early-mid-60's ones in Nashville, both were around the $4k mark, with a chunk of finish cracking but otherwise great instruments. 

In the end I bought a modern one - 95% of the instrument quality for 60% of the price (when on sale) and you can do whatever you want with it without worrying about spoiling an heirloom.

That guncotton one looks like what you should aim for if spending £5k.

NorthernGooner

The Guncotton one is a cracker. As others have said this is what you should be getting for £5k.  I've currently got the best playing 330 I've ever had and it's an Eastman T64. If you must have P90's and a bigsby they're inbeatable IMHO.

peteri

roberty said:

peteri said:

I would say that's over price - by quite a lot.

Guncotton have recently sold an absolutely minty 64 330 with a bigsby for basically the same price as the one you're looking at.

This one?  Looks a bit better for the price doesn't it

https://www.guncottonguitars.com/guitars/#/1961-gibson-es330-tdc/

Oh and cheers for the offer!  I may seek you out if I have some time in London in the near future

That's the one - I was holding out for it, but it sold a couple of weeks ago.

I've got a 64 SG I got from Guncotton, spectacularly good instrument and really nice experience too - I'd rather pay the money for something like

peteri

Oh, and please do drop me a PM if you're in the area!

NorthernGooner

roberty said:

peteri said:

I would say that's over price - by quite a lot.

Guncotton have recently sold an absolutely minty 64 330 with a bigsby for basically the same price as the one you're looking at.

This one?  Looks a bit better for the price doesn't it

https://www.guncottonguitars.com/guitars/#/1961-gibson-es330-tdc/

Oh and cheers for the offer!  I may seek you out if I have some time in London in the near future

That one's about as good as it gets. Well worth the money though my Eastman T64 is a better player than my '64 ES 330 was at a fraction of the price. Just sayin'........

NorthernGooner

roberty said:

peteri said:

I would say that's over price - by quite a lot.

Guncotton have recently sold an absolutely minty 64 330 with a bigsby for basically the same price as the one you're looking at.

This one?  Looks a bit better for the price doesn't it

https://www.guncottonguitars.com/guitars/#/1961-gibson-es330-tdc/

Oh and cheers for the offer!  I may seek you out if I have some time in London in the near future

That one's about as good as it gets. Well worth the money though my Eastman T64 is a better player than my '64 ES 330 was at a fraction of the price. Just sayin'........