Should I sell my 2016 Gibson 1958 ES-335 VOS??

[captain_jack]

The question of "deserving" an expensive instrument based on skill level is a very polarizing one, but imo is only relevant if you are talking about buying a guitar. Since you already own it, I don't think that should even be a consideration. My advice is sell it if you don't love it, if it doesn't call to you to play it. Music should be fun and inspiring, why hold on to a guitar that isn't?

It's possible that you could get a tone you love out of it with a different amp, but if you already love the Epiphone, sell the Gibson (or trade it) and get something you love (whether that's guitar related or not).

 

[TigerG]

No, you must not sell it.
My opinion as someone who's had one ES-335 for 45 years and also picked up another along the way.

 

[Recce]

It plays great. Like really great. But I just don't love the tone I get out of it. The neck pickup seems boomy and the bridge pickup is icepicky. I can't eq that stuff out. I play through a Fender '65 Deluxe reissue. I guess I could get new pickups. But I could also get a lot of money for the guitar. And I'm not sure I want to sink several hundred dollars into it. I don't know. It's a really tough call!

Or you could adjust the pickups so they don’t do that. You could also take it to a guitar tech/luthier and tell them your problem and hopefully they could correct it. Get a good set up while they have it.
If I had that guitar I would keep it.

 

[brookdalebill]

A lot of us get high-end, dream guitars, and don’t play em’ much.
I’ve done it more times than I’d care to admit.
I had a gorgeous, light R9.
I admired it for many years.
I gigged with it 4 times.
It went.
It was the best one I ever owned, or saw.
I did not miss it.
Whenever I’m tempted to get rid of something, I put it out of sight for a week.
Then, I’ll take it out, and spend a goood half hour playing it.
I bought it (hopefully) for a reason.
If I’m still not bonding, I plot it’s relocation.
No biggie, IMO.

 

[neilshane]

Got any pics?

 

[Maguchi]

View attachment 937863

I looked up VOS and see it means vintage original spec. Forgive my lack of knowledge, but does that mean it's a real 1958 first sold in the late '50s with all or most of the original parts and not a reissue or custom shop? If yes, they would have to pry it from my cold dead hands.

 

[ScottTunes]

This is, as you may have noticed, a highly emotional, and subjective, uh... subject!

IMO... "Deserving" is an inappropriate measure of owning an item... It's worthy, even if you only enjoy looking at it!

However, if you can trade it for something that means more to you, then by all means, sell/trade/swap!!

The ES335 is, by any measure, an iconic guitar. From Freddie to Eric, and a whole lot of others, it's something worth having! However, there are a ton of guitars that could replace it! It's all about how you feel about it.

I once had a beautiful ES330, with natural finish, flamed maple top, sides and back... But the 330 isn't supposed to be that "fancy!" IMO... So, I let it go... I do have two others... one in the original sunburst, and another in "Cherry." Both sound different, and look like I'd expect, and therefore worth keeping. My FAVORITE guitar of all time!! And, I don't miss the beautiful flamed maple 330... However, I do have a rare, "ebony" ES335, with P-90s. Now that's a FAB guitar!!!

Don't pressure yourself about having a really nice guitar! It can be a great trophy, or something you aspire to... or an occasional player... until you find something you'd rather have... Enjoy what you have, until something draws your attention away from it, then sell the 335 to attain the next "unattainable."

As has been said, don't feel as though you aren't deserving!!!!! No one can tell you HOW TO FEEL!!! But, you are deserving of something, even if it's only a trophy that sits on a guitar stand, and looks good!!

Sorry for the long-winded reply... But, emotions are personal, and can't be defined by anyone else. If you feel bad about owning such a nice guitar (I've been there), then you know what you must do. I hope, in the meantime, that you'll enjoy it while you can!

Cheers!

 

[Telekarster]

FWIW - Before I built my own 335, I looked at plenty of Gibson 335's on the market. If you can get 4500 out of yours then fantastic! However, just FYI that I saw plenty that were well under this $$$. Maybe not VOS but what I'm drivin' at is you could maybe sell your VOS and buy back in later for a non-VOS used one or something, and pocket the diff? Good luck man in whatever you do!

 

[57joonya]

You mentioned it’s a 58 335 vos. And then stated as close to custom shop as you can get without being a custom shop. If it is a 58 vos- it Is a custom shop. They don’t put those labels on any of the Gibson standard line of instruments. So you have a pretty special guitar there

 

[Greenmachine]

Geez ... If those were mine they'd be lifer instruments. I say no sell. No sell!

 

[fenderchamp]

I posted this on Gear Page but thought I'd ask here as well.

I'll start by saying I'm a rank amateur guitar player. I've been playing for years but mainly just open and barre chords and some blues soloing. I play in my house for my own enjoyment and I love it!

Many years ago I obtained a very valuable bass for just a few hundred dollars. I've since been able to work a number of trades, beginning with that bass, and now I own a gorgeous natural finish 2016 Gibson 1958 ES-335 VOS. It's an incredible instrument and it's in like-new condition. As close to Custom Shop as you can get without being CS.

However, I have this nagging feeling that I should move it. I find myself playing my Epiphone Casino more and quite frankly, I'm just not sure I should own a $4500 instrument if I don't even play live or in a band and am not that great a player.

I guess I'm just mulling it over. On one hand, I don't NEED the money per se and there's no harm in keeping it and playing it. On the other hand, I could sell it, buy another instrument, like a Telecaster I've had my eye on, and still have thousands of dollars left over.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

Sell it, get your money. If the casino is your thing, and you’re more into horse trading than 335s dump it, keep trading.

 

[dreamingtele]

Beginner or pro, if you love your guitar, it doesnt matter how much it is worth. Its yours. A guitar is a very personal thing. If people judge you because you own an expensive guitar but cant play much, its on them, not yours.

A guitar is a guitar regardless of the price.

However, not bonding/liking the guitar you currently have is a different story. Nothing wrong with not bonding with a guitar, plenty of us here in this forum have been through that, no matter how beautiful or expensive the guitar is.

 

[moosie]

I looked up VOS and see it means vintage original spec. Forgive my lack of knowledge, but does that mean it's a real 1958 first sold in the late '50s with all or most of the original parts and not a reissue or custom shop? If yes, they would have to pry it from my cold dead hands.

VOS is the Gibson term for the way they finish these *custom shop* instruments to look and feel like vintage. The subtle aging is much much nicer than Fender's relic treatments.

FWIW - Before I built my own 335, I looked at plenty of Gibson 335's on the market. If you can get 4500 out of yours then fantastic! However, just FYI that I saw plenty that were well under this $$$. Maybe not VOS but what I'm drivin' at is you could maybe sell your VOS and buy back in later for a non-VOS used one or something, and pocket the diff? Good luck man in whatever you do!

The VOS models are the pinnacle in terms of pricing, and value, generally. And in my experience very much worth the extra. Also, they tend to hold value pretty well. And used prices are still pandemic-firm, it seems, so $4500 doesn't seem out of line at all.

OP, if the pickups don't sound great, it might be simply adjusting their heights.

Swapping pickups is a bit of a pain, of course. And if you were on the fence already, I could see not wanting to go down that path.

The way you described trading into the 335, maybe you never really liked or wanted it? It was just a 'deal'? Like @brookdalebill , I try to recall why I got it, because at one point it was the single best place for my hard earned cash. If you have no frame of reference like that.... maybe you'll miss it a lot less than some of us think.

 

[Robert Alger]

If the fat neck is comfortable for you, I would adjust the height of the pickups and keep it. The unbound neck is very cool. I would also slap a Pigtail stopbar tailpiece on there.

Also raising the stopbar will change the tone, the strings might be hitting the back side of the bridge.

 

[teletail]

This whole “I don’t deserve this guitar” is the saddest thing I see on music forums. Do you live in the cheapest house you can find? Drive the cheapest car? Wear the cheapest cloths? Buy all store brand food?

You deserve to play what you can afford to play. If you like the guitar, play the crap out of it with your head held high and no apologies to anyone.

 

[clayville]

Lower the pickups on the 335 - and go lower still on the low E side of the neck to reduce your "boom" and high E side of the bridge to knock back the thinness. Fiddle with the pole piece height too to tame the sounds that bug you. Screwdriver "mods" are easy and won't devalue your guitar.

If you primarily play the Casino and your amp is dialed into those brighter single coils, tame what bugs you at the amp.

If that doesn't work... maybe you're just "a P90 guy".

 

[VonBonfire]

It plays great. Like really great. But I just don't love the tone I get out of it. The neck pickup seems boomy and the bridge pickup is icepicky. I can't eq that stuff out. I play through a Fender '65 Deluxe reissue. I guess I could get new pickups. But I could also get a lot of money for the guitar. And I'm not sure I want to sink several hundred dollars into it. I don't know. It's a really tough call!

My biggest guitar gear regrets in 30+ years of picking are selling my Gibson branded guitars and some pedals that were dust collectors but are now discontinued and worth $$$. The Gibsons always increase in value and I've yet to play a Gibson that was an irredeemable dud.

You need to play with your pickup height settings, you can easily tune the icepick and boominess out. Standard procedure with any new axe IMO. You will regret selling the guitar at some point in the future. I would love to have five minutes with that axe with my Twin as 335 type guitars are all I play. Epiphone Casino is a really great axe but you have something of quality you can grow into as your playing gets better. Been playing a long time and instruments of that caliber are only something I might inherit never afford on a musicians budget.

 

[adjason]

I'd probably sell it. Its not that you don't deserve it or need the money etc.-its that you don't love it. It is too expensive to own a guitar that you don't love. It has no real emotional value to you. I'd sell it buy a nice used American standard or vintera tele and maybe a new amp and a nice acoustic guitar (hunt craigslist/facebook marketplace) and be patient and not look back. I sold a couple of custom shop strats and a couple 70's strats and teles that I don't really miss- it wasn't that I can't play well enough or that I needed the money- it just seemed silly to own them and not play them much (I found that I liked the ones I already had just as much) I'd take a hit on the price and sell it locally - under no circumstances would I ship that guitar. But yeah play with the pickup heights and see if that helps

 

[KC]

I guess I'm more in the sell camp -- by which I mean sell this one and buy something else & see if the new one suits you better. I've had 3 or 4 335s over the years and they all turned out to be case queens, except the 1967 Riviera, which I regret selling. Sold one a couple of years ago, bought a Music Man with the proceeds which is now my #1 guitar. There's a world of fun out there when you've got cash in your pocket.

Whatever you do, though, leave the stock pickups in it. Lots of good advice above on adjusting them. But swapping them out will devalue the guitar, with no guarantee that you'll like the new ones any better.

 

[MilwMark]

I’m with @brookdalebill. If you don’t love it, move it along. Someone else will.

To me it’s only about that. Not your perceived skill level or the “value” of where or why you play.

Sounds like you don’t love it. Have you taken it to a good shop to set up? If not, you could try that before deciding.

Bottom line, seems pretty similar to the Casino you love to play. Grab a nice American Original Tele after you sell the 335 and move on.