My GIBSON ES-335s: SHOW & TELL

[@floaty10]

Thank you for talking about your guitars. Two beauties.

[@AdamLevyGuitar]

Thanks for tuning in.

[@riklionheart23]

“Breath, Groove, Energise” - best advice for any musician! Nice guitars Adam.

[@MacHeath699]

One reason for the coil-splitter switch could be that this mod was really popular in the late seventies. I was in a high phase of guitar nerdery at that point, and I had a splitter installed on a Les Paul and a couple of other humbucker-equipped guitars because that’s what all the cool kids were doing. It makes sense, then, that Gibson might have offered a stock version to appeal to nerds like me. On another subject, Adam, I was in the audience for the session at the Fretboard Summit this past August that you and Rich Hinman did on accompanying a singer; you guys were fantastic, and I learned a lot. Thanks!

[@AdamLevyGuitar]

Ah, nice! Thanks for the Gibson info - and I'm glad you enjoyed our talk at Fretboard Summit.

[@rodleaverton]

That was awesome, Adam. Great stories.

[@GraeMcCullough]

Enjoyed this so much! I found your channel after seeing your interview on the Vertex channel. I was so impacted by finally “meeting” the guy whose parts I’ve listened to and / or played hundreds of times. Will be playing “Come away with Me” tonight at the brewery in fact 😊. Love the name “Lafayette” too. I live about an hour from that Louisiana city. Much thanks for sharing about your 335s!

[@rorymcilvain4586]

Hey Adam, thanks so much for sharing about your gear man, so love your sound and your guitars. Appreciate all the years you put in, so we can enjoy. Have a great one man keep it up.

[@AdamLevyGuitar]

Rory - thanks so much!

[@Max_Cherry]

Love your touch and clarity of ideas in playing Adam. Great example of this in how you demoed the different qualities of the pickups. Thanks for sharing.

[@elbdeltaguitarguru3032]

It is nice to know a bit about these guitars. I first recognized you at a german tv show with Norah Jones, where you played a great solo on the 335 pretty much straight into a fender amp. I remember watching the show on vhs (it was broadcasted in the middle of the night) and thinking „who is that great guitar player?“ In the end they listed the band members and I found out that it was a guy who wrote a columb in guitar player magazine, I remembered an article that began with „argeggios, i hate arpeggios“. You got me into semi acoustic guitars with that performance. Just a tip of the iceberg of inspiration I am lucky to get from you since then. Thank you very much.

[@carlosmacmartin4205]

Top of the morning, Adam. 🙂 Beautiful guitars! They sound lovely! Thanks for sharing. 🙂 Peace 🙏

[@AdamLevyGuitar]

Thank you, Carlos. I'm working on one more (short) video about those guitars.

[@FretWiredJournal]

Very cool. Thank you.

[@giulioluzzardi7632]

The Sunburst looks lovely from here and the tone is sweeeeet!

[@kurttube]

Nice little "I'm Only Sleeping" riff at the end. Time for a nap!

[@andreasfetzer7559]

The mid seventies ones are killer guitars, i would never sell my 77 tdn. Still my best guitars after 47 years. Nice video of you.

[@music_works]

Beautiful guitars Adam! I have a walnut 335 myself, a memphis made from 2018. Haven't changed anything but the strings since day 1!

[@billkent6305]

Hey Adam, Bill Kent here, I found your channel via Rhett's channel, you and I were in the same Class at TOHS. I remember your black 335 from way back then, so cool that you still have it and used it on well known recordings. Wow, that '64 is a beauty but it doesn't have that switch to make it sound "cheap"!🤣

[@AdamLevyGuitar]

Hey, Bill. Wow - a blast from the past. Did you stay in T.O.? Do you play professionally? What the heck have you been up to for the past 40 years?

[@billkent6305]

Thanks for replying, I wish I played professionally, I'm just a "hack". I never really excelled on guitar but I love listening to and living vicariously through, those who can play well. I live in Ventura, have been married for what will be 36yrs this November, my wife and I love to travel and have been on 6 of the 7 continents, doubt we'll make it to Antarctica though. It's so cool that you are a professional guitarist, no surprise at all though, you were so good way back then and you understood theory. I remember being in Music Theory class with you, you should have been teaching that class, me, all I heard was "Charlie Brown's parents"!🤣 Where do you live now, are you working with anyone at this time, I know you worked with Nora and Tracy, anyone else famous?

[@tonyadams6985]

Great show & tell. Thanks for their history.

[@davidbrooke554]

I really like the coil tap in a live scenario as you can use it to give better frequency width - I have played a few concerts and tend to use this one (I do have Teles and Strats)

[@fleadoggreen9062]

Sounds good to me 😊

[@aminahmed2220]

What a fantastic video have a good long weekend also stay safe

[@verbphrasemusic]

Great video, Adam! As a Bay Area guy, I love the Real Guitars connections. I'm wondering which amp(s) you used in this video. VibroChamp? Benson Nathan Jr? Something else? Whatever it is, the tone it gets with Esther speaks to my soul. Keep up the great work!

[@jamesmaddock259]

Hi adam I just bought an Eastman T59 ( a 335 copy ) it’s absolutely fantastic. And way cheaper than the Gibsons obviously. But absolutely fantastic.

[@drfdfe]

Love my ‘76 ES-335 TD , Bergundy Wine Bill Lawrence pups, coil tap.

[@AdamLevyGuitar]

I bet that's a beauty.

[@agustinlayusmusica]

Do you find some diferences between the trapeze and the stoptail bridge?

[@AdamLevyGuitar]

It's hard to quantify the specific difference there because there are other differences to consider between these two guitars: ’60s pickups vs ’70s pickups; solid mahogany neck vs. 5-piece maple neck. Hence, the ’79 is brighter and snappier overall. It sound best (to my ears) when paired a true vintage amp - like an old Fender Deluxe Reverb - whereas the ’64 sounds great into just about anything. In my experience, the 335 with the trapeze has less string tension (with the same D'Addario pure-nickel set on both guitars). It's a little noisier acoustically - you hear some of the sympathetic stuff from the string length between the bridge and the tail - but those noises don't come through the pickups/amp much.

[@agustinlayusmusica]

@@AdamLevyGuitar wow thanks Adam! II'm in the process of ordering a guitar from a luthier, and I can't decide whether to put a tailpiece or a stop tail on it

[@davidmackie2901]

Regarding the pickups on the '64; most likely the hotter pickup was originally in the neck position. The tolerances for pickup winding were pretty loose back then, and they weren't differentiated for position. All the pickups went in a bin or on a shelf or whatever and the assembler just grabbed and installed. IIRC, jimmy Page's famous '59 LP has a hotter neck pickup. The technology was so new that the nuances weren't even guessed at, it was all magic.

[@AdamLevyGuitar]

Thanks for this. I didn't know that about Page's ’59 Les Paul.

[@jasonkeaton5140]

I love a 335. My teacher has an amazing one . I had a 339 z not an amazing one. I still have hope 🙏 for a 335

[@Uuur10]

I am curious to know if you gave one of your 335s the name Lafayette for a particular reason?

[@AdamLevyGuitar]

The shop it came from is Real Guitars in San Francisco - which happens to be on Lafayette Street.

[@Uuur10]

@@AdamLevyGuitar Oh, nice. I was asking due to my interest in Lafayette, one of my favourite historical figures. Bit of a silly question. Many places across the US are called Lafayette of course.

[@AdamLevyGuitar]

@@Uuur10 Not silly at all! I don't know much about Marquis de Lafayette. Is there a book or film you'd recommend?

[@Uuur10]

A PBS documentary called Lafayette: The Lost Hero. As to books, I'm a Fench-speaking Swiss, born in France, and the only one I read was in French, called La Fayette, by Gonzague Saint Bris. He was more of a pop historian, but I loved the book at the time, I felt it gave a good sense of Lafayette/ La Fayette's dimension.

[@stephanleo]

Before this video, there was a Joe Bonamassa ad. Let me tell you this much: making music and playing the guitar in particular can be very very diverse...

[@AdamLevyGuitar]

Indeed!

[@andrewhuffman7129]

You should do this with all your guitars.

[@music_works]

THE JAG

[@andrewhuffman7129]

@@music_works the jag, the es-330t, guild mark 1 and the waterloo I think all need to be spoke about!

[@BillBrown101]

Great video. Is the black original? In 79 I thought the only colors were sunburst, cherry and walnut?

[@AdamLevyGuitar]

Yes, original. It's not black - it's a very dark walnut.

[@BillBrown101]

@@AdamLevyGuitar thanks for taking the time to reply. Cheers

[@jfar3340]

wow beautiful playing! I have a 335 myself, awesome versatile guitar. What strings/string gauge do you use?

[@AdamLevyGuitar]

Thanks! I've tried different strings over the years, generally favoring some sort of set with a .012 on top. Currently, I'm digging @daddarioandco EPN21, which is .012 - .051. It comes with a wound 3rd (G) string, which I swap out for a plain .020.

[@CountryHitsUSA]

Very Nice!

[@AdamLevyGuitar]

Cheers!

[@kjchicago1]

The Gibson ES-335 has been out since 1958 and ES means Electric Spanish

[@AdamLevyGuitar]

Thank you.

[@lynwoodme8558]

1st position open string chords, on an ES 335??? YUCK!!!!!!!😮😮😮😢

[@AdamLevyGuitar]

🤣