The Guitar Magazine – September 2019

“The [’68] 335 I chose that evening was very
special, tone-wise. After doing sessions for a couple
of years, ’70 to ’71, obviously my guitar sound was
becoming part of the LA recording scene, and many
of the other guitarists wanted to buy a 335 so that
they would have that sound in their arsenal. They
would ask me to go with them to help them pick one
out. Like I said, I never plugged mine in, so when I
would go with them to choose or to at least look at
a few different 335s, we didn’t plug them in, we just
listened acoustically. Dennis Budimir, my good buddy,
I helped him pick his – either that or I loaned him
mine to take with him as a comparison.
“About 2009, a fan from the Midwest in the states
contacted me through my office, said you’re my
favourite guitar player, said I have this 1968 335
that’s been in my grandmother’s closet or something,
and I would like to donate it to you as a backup, if
you like it. Can I send it? So I had him send it and it
was killer. Just almost mint, you know? So I accepted
that gift from that gentleman.
“It’s a tobacco sunburst, doesn’t have the red like
mine has on the finish. So I bought a matching pair
of old PAF pickups and put those in that guitar, just
so I could experience what that tone would be like
sometimes. It’s so rich and big. And those are the only
two 335s I own: my original ’68 and that gift.
“One day, I was between sessions, walking down
the street to have lunch with Louie Shelton, the
great session player. I said: ‘Louie, when you play on
a record, I hear it on the radio and your guitar is right
there by the vocalist. When I play, I’m just kinda in
the background. What’s up?’ He had a great answer
that changed my whole focus on studio playing.
He said: ‘I try to think like an arranger.’ And I was
thinking like a guitar player. The lightbulb went
on. Think like an arranger! That’s when I became
definitely a better session player.”

THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY
Phil Manzanera
“When I joined Roxy Music in 1971, I had a 335. And
they sort of laughed and said that doesn’t really go
with the Roxy image: you’ll have to get a Strat. Eno’s
milkman sold him a Strat for £30 and he sold it to
me for £70, showing what a great businessman he is. I
then had a white Strat, and I used my 335 Gibson for
feedback and stuff in the studio – but it wasn’t really
allowed to be seen on stage because of the image.
“Some guitars, you lend it to someone and you
never see it again. There’s been a whole bunch of
those. But my 335 got stolen, in the days of the
Transit van, somewhere in Plymouth. It was the days
of greater innocence: the roadies would go in and
be packing the van and leave the doors open at the
back and so the thieves just helped themselves. I got
back to my mother’s place and they handed me my
equipment and I said: ‘Where’s the 335? Oh sugar.’
Really annoying.”

THE BB KING EFFECT

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“I heard Live At The Regal, BB King, when I was 15

and that was a really big record for me. The 335 had

entered my life with a bang! The magnificent 335.

I never thought when I was that age that one day I

would own the nicest 335 in the world and the nicest

Les Paul in the world – I couldn’t conceive of that.

My blonde ’59 335 is just unreal to play, a fantastic

instrument, a dream of a guitar, just like my ’58

Les Paul. They’re both really something other.

“It wasn’t really until comparatively late that I got

hold of them and it was then that I realised what

I’d been missing all those years. The slim necks are

beautiful in their way, perhaps better for a jazz player

or an orchestral kind of player who puts the ball of

his thumb in the back of the middle of the neck.

But if you hold it like a plumber, which I do, then

the fat neck seems to suit my big mitts. It feels more

comfortable and faster to me.

“I can get up a fair old lick on any Gibson neck and

the slim ones have their own charm, definitely, but

my own personal preference is for a fat neck. That

combination – fat neck, big frets – to me is killer.

ABOVESeymour Duncan

(foreground) with his

“humbucker mentor”

Seth Lover, the creator

of the humbucking pickup

AN ORAL HISTORY OF THE GIBSON ES-335

GUITAR MAGAZINE 69