Gibson Custom 1959 ES-355 Reissue Stop Bar Semi-hollow Review

It's a keeper

Yeah, it sounds great. These ES Gibsons are special guitars. Maybe I can help you out with this expensive decision. I like this guitar sound, feel and balance more than my 1997 R9, even though that sounds good also. I will note that this ES-355 has the same pickups as the 2021 R9's. This guitar can do rock, or smooooth cleans. I guess I could have purchased a 2021 R9, but… read more I went for the ES-355. At 1 pound 3 oz lighter than my Les Paul, it carries it's weight way better and feels much lighter. I recall this guitar is a hair flat on my strobe tuner at the 12th fret but I believe that's a Gibson short neck scale sort of deal. All the notes up the neck are spot on and sound clear. Open strings are clear, nut was done correctly. Chords sound great. In comparing to Les Paul's, I like to call this an 'open' sounding guitar. And I would say it is brighter, certainly on the bridge, and makes me think I should compare it even to my telecasters, except for the body size. Neck pickup is great, and I like the middle position where the bright bridge mixes in well with the neck to add as much chime or snarl depending on what you're playing. There is more going on here than a solid mahogany body of a Les Paul and more I can do with it. Like, this does Les Paul and more. I sold a Memphis Custom Shop slim neck '60 ES-335 several years ago and missed the sound of it. I like this '59 neck much better. It's not as beefy as fat '59 necks but it's more full than a slim. My glove size is a large. Never had a black guitar before, or gold hardware, but there is something special about this one. It looks cool in it's own way. The slight aging sort of tones down the tuxedo effect. I felt more like I was holding a grand piano with the black, gold and white color, but mine feels light at 8lb 10oz. I can even lean back on the couch and get it tucked in for some casual practice. Set-up and playability is great. After a couple days I tightened the truss rod maybe a quarter turn, no more. So far, on build quality, there is only one thing to note. As I researched, Gibson hand scrapes the neck binding after the black nitro goes on and is still soft. The human scraper got a little heavy handed at the end of the stroke on the upper part of the neck below about the 12th fret, digging in a bit deeper here leaving a bit of an edge on the mahogany neck and the binding a bit thinner than the rest. I mostly, at first, just noticed the edge drop off from the wood to the binding so I researched what was up with that. I can accept this as the human touch of assembling this guitar considering that it sounds awesome and I haven't found any other noticeable defects yet. The Murphy Lab stuff, and I'm not even sure of exactly everything they do, but the checking is subtle, as is the worn gold hardware. The neck binding is rolled, the fret nibs are present, the lacquer over the binding is yellowed and scraped off where the neck binding is rolled. Yeah, I could have gone for other colors, like that pretty watermelon one, but, I needed a bit of that black guitar. In a fancy setting, it will look like a fancy piano; wearing blue jeans and boots, it will look a little tough like Johnny Cash. And to think, this guitar will do it all, rock, blues, country, jazz etc. I'm the only thing holding this guitar back from what it can do. It's it worth all that cash, it is expensive? I settle it with Made in America, with a human touch. If we want to support American workers, we need to step up to the plate and pay them for what they are doing. God Bless.

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Own one of these

This is a cool guitar. I'm terms of the new Murphy lab process and the different levels of aging this guitar is the highest bang for the buck in terms of the research I performed before buying the guitar. It's the best in terms of being aged in my opinion looks wise and it's a dream to play. Only concern - the pick-guard plastic was not aged so the lovely cream binding around the… read more guitar does not match the bright white binding on the guard. Minor issue. Do not let it deter you from this purchase. Probably a great investment piece as well

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