yeatzee
Member
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2016
- Messages
- 66
I had the chance to borrow a couple vintage ES345's for a few weeks so I did a deep dive, documenting them in 4k detail for my fellow guitar geeks!
The guitars are a 1964 and 1965. Since I happen to also own a 1964 reissue ES345 I thought it might be fun to not only compare the 64 and 65, but also throw the reissue into the ring and see how close Gibson gets. Very interesting stuff, always a pleasure to have a vintage Gibson around let alone two. I was pretty surprised by the similarities and differences between all three. The video goes into lots of detail, including some really high quality 4k closeups of the guitars that I'm pretty proud of.
There's timestamps over on YouTube, but they don't show up when embedded for whatever reason. Here's the list:
1:13 - 1964 Sunburst Overview
3:07 - 1965 Cherry Overview
4:22 - Blue Reissue Overview
6:06 - Playing Section Intro
6:22 - Suhr PT15IR CH2
7:20 - Fender Super Reverb
9:02 - Vox AC30TB
9:55 - Suhr PT15IR CH2
12:15 - Suhr PT15IR CH1
13:31 - Fender Super Reverb
14:52 - Fender Super Reverb (w/ varitone)
16:10 - What do we think?
19:25 - Differences (neck)
20:02 - Differences (body)
21:53 - Differences (pickguard)
22:47 - Differences (headstock)
23:32 - Differences (binding)
24:02 - Conclusion
The '64 in sunburst has some insane checking on it, super small patterns all over the top but the back has more traditional looking checking you see on vintage ES guitar's pretty often. The Cherry 65 on the other hand is very clean, really fine checking here and there with more wear on the back. Honestly could pass as a reissue particularly because the gold hardware had been replaced so it's still pretty shiny.
The tonal differences I found pretty interesting, but instead of influencing what you think I'll let you decide with your own ears. I think ultimately my conclusion is that the vintage guitar's quirks are what make them special. The modern reissues are better guitars overall in that they tend to play better, be more stable and sound more balanced. The reissue's are lacking in a number of areas as far as a 1:1 copy is concerned, many things Gibson shouldn't have problems recreating but I don't they really value total accuracy as much as they make us all believe. Anyways super fun, was sad to see them go today, particularly the sunburst, and thought I'd share the detail for the guys that also like this sort of thing.
The guitars are a 1964 and 1965. Since I happen to also own a 1964 reissue ES345 I thought it might be fun to not only compare the 64 and 65, but also throw the reissue into the ring and see how close Gibson gets. Very interesting stuff, always a pleasure to have a vintage Gibson around let alone two. I was pretty surprised by the similarities and differences between all three. The video goes into lots of detail, including some really high quality 4k closeups of the guitars that I'm pretty proud of.
There's timestamps over on YouTube, but they don't show up when embedded for whatever reason. Here's the list:
1:13 - 1964 Sunburst Overview
3:07 - 1965 Cherry Overview
4:22 - Blue Reissue Overview
6:06 - Playing Section Intro
6:22 - Suhr PT15IR CH2
7:20 - Fender Super Reverb
9:02 - Vox AC30TB
9:55 - Suhr PT15IR CH2
12:15 - Suhr PT15IR CH1
13:31 - Fender Super Reverb
14:52 - Fender Super Reverb (w/ varitone)
16:10 - What do we think?
19:25 - Differences (neck)
20:02 - Differences (body)
21:53 - Differences (pickguard)
22:47 - Differences (headstock)
23:32 - Differences (binding)
24:02 - Conclusion
The '64 in sunburst has some insane checking on it, super small patterns all over the top but the back has more traditional looking checking you see on vintage ES guitar's pretty often. The Cherry 65 on the other hand is very clean, really fine checking here and there with more wear on the back. Honestly could pass as a reissue particularly because the gold hardware had been replaced so it's still pretty shiny.
The tonal differences I found pretty interesting, but instead of influencing what you think I'll let you decide with your own ears. I think ultimately my conclusion is that the vintage guitar's quirks are what make them special. The modern reissues are better guitars overall in that they tend to play better, be more stable and sound more balanced. The reissue's are lacking in a number of areas as far as a 1:1 copy is concerned, many things Gibson shouldn't have problems recreating but I don't they really value total accuracy as much as they make us all believe. Anyways super fun, was sad to see them go today, particularly the sunburst, and thought I'd share the detail for the guys that also like this sort of thing.