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One piece? A question for 535 owners...or other experts!


jacques

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I know some guys get a little angry about these questions (See my topic "Has anybody ever looked under the neck pickup?"), but I ran into the strangest thing the other day. There is a nice web address: http://www.mr335.tv and it is about Larry Carlton, the famous Gibson 335 player. On the left side of the rather small page you see a section in yellow with a purple banner on top where you can choose. If you click on >MAIN, you should get all the subjects, which are called >CHANNELS. There you choose >TECH BENCH and after you get to that section, you choose >335 SETUP

In this particular subject Larry's guitar tech is talking about the 335 guitar and explains that after 1968 Gibson stopped using one piece mahogany necks on these models. Larry Carlton's 1969 model is about the last one and sounds like it does because of this great 'one piece mahogany' neck.

I picked up my 535 to study it a little closer, but the only other pieces I found that didn't belong to the main part are the little glued-on sides of the headstock.

What could this guitar tech mean with his 'one piece'? I don't suppose Carlton's guitar has no fretboard, since mahogany is not a fretboard wood ???

And would this mean that one of the differences between a 535 and a post-1968 335 is the one piece neck of the Heritage?

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During the 70s and into the early 80s Gibson used 2 and 3 piece necks.  They also started using maple instead of mahogany on many of their guitars.  If you look at the specs of the 535 and 555 I believe they come with a maple neck unless you custom order it with mahogany.

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to my knowledge- the fretboard does not usually qualify as designation for a one piece or multi piece neck in this type of discussion*.

 

it's the back wood being discussed here.

 

be it one piece of wood, 2 pieces joined in the center, 3 piece, more etc etc.

 

also depending on the brand; one could also be discussing seperate headstock attachments like on taylors.

 

one piece necks have benefits and deficits.

 

tonal perception, stability, yadda yadda yackity yackity.

 

 

 

 

*unless you're discussing the fender slab board debate etc etc imho.

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During the 70s and into the early 80s Gibson used 2 and 3 piece necks.  They also started using maple instead of mahogany on many of their guitars.  If you look at the specs of the 535 and 555 I believe they come with a maple neck unless you custom order it with mahogany.

 

On the factory site, the 535/535 Classic model pages both list mahogany for the neck, while the 555 lists curly maple. 

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But again: if Uncle Meat permits, why does the guitar tech of Larry Carlton assume that 335's after 1968 had no longer a one-piece neck?

 

Quote Deluxemeat: to my knowledge- the fretboard does not usually qualify as designation for a one piece or multi piece neck in this type of discussion*.

 

Nou that's a wonderful formula, dr. Meat! Presumably I had a wider perception of multi piece neck types of discussion. In my multi neck piece universe Fender necks are also taken into account, where one would meet maple necks with maple fretboard glued unto them (to enable easy insertion of truss rod) vs. one piece maple necks (with skunk stripe of walnut filler after truss rod is inserted from behind). Hence I would rule out the fretboard  in this type of discussion too

since mahogany is not a fretboard wood[unquote]
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The song Dick Seacup is referring to is called: 'Dirty Love'.

Perhaps you should carefully ask the wonderful lady if she knows that song. Otherwise introduce it to her? (Album is 'Overnite Sensation' - very much worth listening to!) Also check her vacuum cleaner.

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