Joe Bonamassa - The 1961 Gibson ES-335
TALES FROM NERDVILLE by Joe Bonamassa
TOOLS OF THE TRADE, PART 2
TOOLS OF THE TRADE, PART 2
Transcript
00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:01 I'm still winging at my dance, smiling at the pouring rain.
00:06 Hey, everybody.
00:10 Joe Bonamassa here in the apartment,
00:13 disturbing the neighbors once again,
00:16 healing up from a little bit of neck surgery.
00:17 So if my face looks a little out of proportion,
00:20 that'll clear up in a couple of weeks.
00:22 Today, I want to talk about the 335.
00:25 This happens to be a 1961 Dot-Neck 335.
00:30 Why do they call it a Dot-Neck?
00:31 It's because it's got dots indicating the frets,
00:34 12th fret, you know, whatever.
00:37 And after about '61, '62, mid-'62,
00:43 they went to block markers and cherry red.
00:45 And that's what is mostly associated with Eric Clapton
00:48 and creating the ends of cherry red with the block markers.
00:51 But these are cool.
00:52 B.B. King played one, you know?
00:53 Good enough for B.B., good enough for me.
00:55 So today, I'm going to go through a little bit of what
00:57 makes a 335 different from, let's say,
01:01 a Les Paul or a Firebird or any of the other great Gibson
01:05 guitars.
01:06 So check it out.
01:08 So here we go, the 1961 ES-335.
01:12 You can really hear the acoustic quality
01:13 of the instrument coming through even when plugged in.
01:16 So check this out.
01:17 [GUITAR PLAYING]
01:20 [PLAYING GUITAR]
01:24 Here's the front pickup.
01:43 [PLAYING GUITAR]
01:47 [PLAYING GUITAR]
01:50 Here, both pickups combined.
02:02 [PLAYING GUITAR]
02:06 [PLAYING GUITAR]
02:09 One for B.B.
02:30 So whenever I'm choosing an instrument for a song,
02:33 I mean, every time we revisit our blues catalog, which
02:36 is pretty vast at this point.
02:38 We've done a bunch of tribute shows
02:39 and played a lot of trad blues over the years.
02:43 Every time I want to figure out what's
02:47 the best guitar for a trad blues song, 99% of the times,
02:52 I'm grabbing the ES-335.
02:53 It just works.
02:54 It fits in the track if you're in the studio.
02:57 And live, it just bellows and really creates that vibe
03:02 and takes you there, both as a player and sonically.
03:05 You know what I mean?
03:05 Like, sometimes you look down, you're like,
03:07 this is where I want to be playing.
03:08 And you're hearing it, and sound makes you play.
03:11 So the 335, any year-- again, it doesn't
03:15 have to be a vintage one--
03:16 is a great asset and a great tool
03:18 to anybody who has a very vast variety of music and styles
03:25 that they have to pull off on any given Sunday.
03:29 [MUSIC PLAYING]
03:33 (upbeat music)
03:35 you