Anybody Know What A Gibson 336 or 339 Are?

[MARICOPAA]

The thread about making a Blueshawk Bass got me thinkin'.

Ok...I was at my luthiers and in walks a guy carrying a bunch of slabs of really nice rosewood. Half a dozen guitar fretboards and one larger bass board piece. I When aksed if the bass board was available he said yeah and I immediately jumped on it. So I have this great thick piece of Brazillian Rosewood sitting at his shop waiting to be built into a bass. My local Gibson rep came by my teaching studio and left a relatively new release guitar called a '339' with me. Anybody familiar? It's basically a 335 (same construction and everything but with a scaled down body). A student of mine was playing it yesterday while we were recroding a song and it clicked that maybe I should have a small body EB-2 made. I have an old mudbucker with black plastic cover that's been waiting for the right bass as well.

The 339 is made of plywood like a 335. That got me thinking about the Gibson 336 which is also a scaled down 335 body but with a carved top. It is really a piece of mahogony that has been hollowed out and then maple topped. It has a center beam like a 335 or EB-2. Soooo...that's kind of where I'm headed. 336 mahogony body with a nice big late 50's/early 60's profile neck like an early EB-2, EB-O or early 2x2 Newport. Old looking late 50's/early 60's sunburst nitro finish. Black plastic mudbucker with Uwe's three position mod. I think I have an old choke as well (I like the Paul Samwell-Smith, Chas Chandler tone).

Anyway...before jumping deep into it i was hoping for some/any opinions.

Anyone have any thoughts on the viability of a small bodied EB-2?

Here are a couple reference points...first a 336:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250200170655&indexURL=0&photoDisplayType=2#ebayphotohosting

and a 339:

http://strings.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/ProductSpotlight/NewModels/Gibson%20Custom%20Proudly/

[Dave W]

I've only seen them in photos, not personally. There's no reason why it wouldn't work on a bass. After all, you're not trying to have a floating top like a true acoustic. The smaller volume would no doubt make it sound a little different, but you'd have to build it to find out the difference.

About this time last year, MS sent out its spring catalog with a special edition gold top Keifer Sutherland 336 on the cover. Now there's a ringing endorsement.

[Chris P.]

The onlu thing I know is that the 339 and 336 are both down scaled 335's. Like a hollowbody LP, maybe slightly bigger. You already point out the big difference:


A 339 is made like a ES-335 and a 336 more like a Tele Thinlie or some Ricks. A carved out wooden body with  a new top. With the Thinline and the Rick it's the otherway around with a new backplate.

[drbassman]

Is it something like the Epi Seraton I'm turning into a bass?

[Chris P.]

The Sheraton is 335-sized.

[drbassman]

The Sheraton is 335-sized.

Cool, thanks.  I like the size of it and the finish is in pretty good shape.

[chromium]

I like the idea of a small body EB-2.  I'm sure the semi-acoustic properties contribute to certain overtones that color the sound, but the EB-2 feels (to me) more solid than anything.  I would think a smaller body could work too.

I have not played these new Gibsons, but my teacher years ago had this Ibanez AM-75, which was a small body version of their 335-clones (AS-100/200).  I always thought that was a clever idea, and found it to be very comfortable.

Given any thoughts as to what type of bridge you would use?

[MARICOPAA]

In terms of a bridge:

My first thought was to be stock and tradional...V.1 two pint..solid brass as on Gibson Electric basses (later called EB-1's), early EB-2's, EB-O's and EB-3's.

Second thought...I had a couple V.1's made out of red brass. These were cast though and my luthier suggested we take one of those and machine a groove (or grooves) in the top and use a piece of stainless steel fretwire to be the fulcrum and compensate for intonation. Kind of like the way a Hofner bridge works in terms of the pieces of fretwire that are positioned in various slots to semi-compensate for hopefully better intonation.

Third...I want to make a low profile variable bridge piece version (see pic below) of the V.1 bridge or at least a better compensated solid brass V.1

All the ideas would incorporate using two inserts (ala early two-points) and I believe I will use two locking Hipshot studs. They clamp down on the two-point bridge and are very stable. I use these same studs with my EB-2's and Rivoli's...they retrofit perfectly and are super functional in terms of solidifying the whole bridge apparatus.

[Dave W]

Chris, are you talking about the studs from the Wilkinson roller bridge for guitar? http://store.guitarfetish.com/wibrrobrlost.html

[MARICOPAA]

I made a mistake...they are Hipshot locking studs. The same ones that go with their 'Baby grand' guitar bridge. They call them "SUPER STUDS".

Not a great pic but you can get the general idea here:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bridges,_tailpieces/Electric_guitar,_non-trem_tailpieces/Hipshot_Baby_Grand_Bridge.html


PS...I decided it's going to be a Rivoli Jr. Epi Rivoli peghead and a washed sunburst like you see on 64' Rivoli's ;-)

[Dave W]

I see the detailed specs here. Since you're not working with already-drilled holes, your luthier can put the studs in the right location for the spacing of the slots in the bridge casting.

Keep us posted.