Pictur



The ES-135 is like Cinderella - a very humble and beautiful girl being overshadowed and step over by her 2 elder sisters (335 & Les Paul) and their evil step mother (Gibson). Unlike the Disney story, the 135 does not have a fairy god mother nor does it have a happy ending. To understand this we need to understand the origins of this guitar.


History

The ES135 was first introduced in the late 50s as a student “budget” model, it was meant to be one up to the ES125 a now unseen Gibson guitar. In those years the 135 was quite different to those of the 90’s, it has one P-90 and no cutaway. The guitar was not popular and then discontinued in the same era.
In 1991, for some strange reason Gibson decided to give the model another try; the early models had 2 p-100 pickups, a trapeze tailpiece and a non-mahogany centre block. Unfortunately, the guitarist community didn’t like it too much as they complained that the p-100 sounded weak and the tailpiece hard to maintain. (This review is based off this model.)

Gibson being a for profit company decided that the best way to increase sales is to “fix” this guitar, this caused much confusion in the 135 models. Later in the 90’s the pickups were changed to 57’s, the bridge changed to stop tail and the centre block was changed to mahogany. Gibson even went as far as to remove the “f” holes in the later years,making it a very much confused semi-acoustic. At the end of the life of this model, it looked like an overgrown Les Paul and Gibson being the evil step mom, decided that it is enough and terminated the production of 135.

Various other 135's


Features

From the history, this guitar is a mid/early 90s 135, which has the trapeze, p-100 and non-mahogany centre block. No superstrat stuff here, this is a bare bones guitar.

Review

Initially I daresay I don’t know much about this guitar, I bought it because of huge gas and the p-90s (which i thought then). But before my purchase i found out that the guitar had p-100 and a very unpopular history, knowing this i still wanted it.

At first glance, this guitar does not command the same “wow” factor as the other gibsons, the bindings are limited to the body, the inlays are just dots and the headstock looks cheap. The guitar also feels cheap mind you, the pickguard is a bit loose and the finish on the neck is nothing to desire about. At the shop it was fitted with old 0.11’s and the neck was a bit rough. Honestly i had second thoughts, i mean the guitar neck was uncomfy, the strings heavy and god it feels a bit off. I did the most risky guitar purchase decision ever; i proceeded to buy the guitar knowing its flaws, hoping that it will reward me someday.

Going home, after requesting new strings from MM and some cleaning, i put the guitar through my amp and gave it ago. At the start, the guitar sounded crappy, it was too muddy and boomy, the base response was huge, so i spend a few hours tinkering fiddling with the controls, taking an advice from one of the sales staff i also lowered down the volume. At about 5 on all dials is where the guitar starts to show its colours, and unlike normal electrics where the higher seems to be the better, this guitar works around a sweet spot from 3-5.
And at that sweet spot, with my limited knowledge of jazz and blues is where the guitar shines and its mojo comes in full. Ever heard anyone talk about old shit has its mojo? This has it in abundance, want “Johnny b goodie?” - its there, want b.b king? - Its there, don’t like the 335 sound? Switch to the neck pup, down the tone and its a jazz box, dave burbecks piano riff from take five never sounded this good on any of the other guitars i own. Owh and did i tell you it takes in distortion like a les paul? Theres a feedback but heck it sounds like an LP and you might be forgiven to think it is. The imitation is not perfect, but who cares about some small differences to tone, it does what an LP cannot do but it does what a LP can do also.

Then you might ask is this guitar all about “copying” its older sisters? I dare say no, hit it hard enough at the right dials it gives a distinct quack and tone, telling you that it’s just a good impersonator. Many-a-guitarist online hated his quack, it was mid-rangey-short “twang” but not insulting to the ears, it is however very much manageable by playing lighter.
At that point i realised why this guitar is not famous, it doesn’t have the glamour of its larger brothers and its very picky on who is playing it, dial & play it wrong and you can spend the whole day wondering where did your tone go, it carries a “i don’t need your love if you suck” attitude to it which is not often seen in many guitars out there. It also does the 50’s and 60’s very well, which unfortunately most people don’t appreciate.

Conclusion

For the price you pay and what the guitar has to offer its pretty hard to beat, it’s a poor man’s gibson semi-hollow but thats only if you think guitars need fancy inlays to be good. Its a sad thing that Gibson discontinued this monster, and even sadder that early 2000'ish there was a firesale on this guitar, where its price dropped below 1k usd (imagine that).

as far as a guitar goes, this is a good axe, but as far as gibson guitars go, this is a great gibson.

Good review there, guitar looks great, that bridge is calling for a Bigsby upgrade IMHO..

A lot of people gave sh*t to the p-100s but I think they are not that bad.. but a change to real P-90s will open up the guitar responsiveness. And 50s wiring helps!

Nice review Thanks !

lol, naw this guitar will stay stock as it is. tho a p90 might be good in the future.





some ideas, on how it soudns like (if only i can play that well)

Nais wan!

This post has been edited by grokker: Nov 21 2013, 12:52 PM


Attached thumbnail(s)

Thanks for the enlightening review! Here's a couple more examples of the ES-135 circa 2003, a Limited Edition in trans-cherry and a natural finish with mods. All mods are reversible with no holes for the Fishman piezo bridge. The cherry LE was assembled in early 2004. Apparently I do not know how to post text in the same reply as the graphics. Sorry!

This post has been edited by grokker: Nov 21 2013, 12:53 PM

no worries bro, ive read that the later models became too LP. infact i kinda find the whole idea of putting the standard LP humbuckers on the es a bit of a blasphemy

the only issue i can see people having from this guitar is that, its picky. it immediately picks up mistakes, bad tone, wtf bullshit because the guitar in general is weak with a lot of gain and its sweet spot is when the acoustic (hollow body) qualities flare up.

Some of us like to use them for hard rock, hence the Dimarzio Nortons. I like the jazzier sounds you get out of it too, but if I really wanted to play serious jazz I'd buy a bigger box like a 175. Keep up the good work, I've been enjoying your tasty demos on youtube for some time now! Best!

hahaha, unfortunately you lost me when dimarzio came up lol (oddly y brain cant seem to function outside a stock guitar to stock amp)

persoanlly i tihnk for jazz it fits the pocket beautifully, that being said ive not tried larger boxes

thanks, much appreciated, i have demos on soundcloud also, i think you cacn find it in the guitarist thread

This post has been edited by +3kk!: Nov 22 2013, 07:14 PM