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  • NVGD - 1966 Gibson ES 330

It's far from mint, but that way I'll actually get to play it outside:




Some issues it has/had that made it cheaper:

-Didn't have original knobs. I replaced with modern Gibson Gold Top Hat Reflectors until I can afford real vintage stuff.
-Scratch plate is original but has had holes drilled into it, bracket is missing. Ordering a modern Gibson equivalent until I feel that paying for neat original is worth it.
-Crack on upper f-hole, not going further, but it's there.
-Chip out of binding on the 6th fret.

Couple of nice things:

-Tuners haven't disintegrated like they do some some of these guitars.
-Original pickup selector knobs (those things normally go missing FAST).
-Plays beautifully with 11s after I set it up.
-Not to clean to play outside.
-Fully hollow.
-P90s!

I just need to organise a shim for the bridge pickup and on that note, I'm considering buying the Lollar package of shims, but I have to buy like 3 of them to get over his 20$ minimum purchase limit.

Would anyone like to buy some of them from me should I order them?

-Greg
    congrats!!!!
    neat guitar and the issues are minor
      Nice! Am I right that this is the long necked version? Seems to join the body at the 15th so it should be, right?

      So how does it sound? ? I think this is the third vintage 330 on this forum, eh? Along with Reinhard and PeteM.
        Congrats man! Great looking ES-330. Those damn pickguard brackets are surprisingly expensive.

        Great sounding guitars these. I recently sold my '67 with a bunch of those Lollar shims and an unmounted PG with bracket. It looks like your neck profile is the same as my '67 was, slightly narrower nut, but beefy enough to be comfortable?

        Singe I believe the long neck variant joins the body at the 19th fret, like this:

          Ah ta. You get used to Les Pauls and get conservative ideas about where the neck-body joint should be ?
            Congrats. You've joined an exclusive club. ?
            I'm surprised there are no dings on the headstock.
              Congrats Greg! Glad to see you got what you were looking for! Enjoy her!

              Regards
              G!
                Congrats also a huge 330 fan .... And anything vintage just oozes mojo ....

                Enjoy it
                  Thanks!

                  The neck isn't joined at the 19th fret like the 335 and later 330s. It doesn't hinder my playing at all tho, I'm using to nylon string (classical) and my 6120, so accessing anything past the 12th fret without having to do some hand tricks is pretty convenient for me!

                  It plays REALLY well.

                  Does have some headstock wear that you can't see in the picture, will post more pics.

                  It certainly has mojo, altought, unlike other vintage stuff I've played, it feels like it's mine. I've play a bunch of vintage Gibsons, but they didn't feel like they belonged to me. This one, somehow, does.

                  It sounds INCREDIBLE! The neck pickup has a great, warm tone. It's pretty much an excellent jazz guitar right out the gates.

                  Just need to fix this bridge pickup's height.

                  330's are great, I know 335s have the block and are more collectable and versatile, but I've been playing hollow Gretsches for a while now and I never have any feedback issues because I play very low gain, just on breakup, so I don't envision any issues with the 330 that I haven't already encountered on the Gretschs.

                  P.S. P90s are the perfect pickup. Just sayin'
                    Greg wrote:
                    P.S. P90s are the perfect pickup. Just sayin'
                    I will +1 that. An ES-330 is probably one of the guitars that is the most fun to play, the whole guitar feels alive.
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