- 2 days ago
Marcus King is one of the most soulful guitarists and songwriters working today – and his vintage ES-345, passed down through his family, is a mainstay of his sound. He's recently been honoured with a signature model version of his vintage 345 but, despite some very nice upgrades, it's priced quite keenly – so could this be the best balance of distinctiveness and upgraded features for a given price in the Gibson range? Or is it only for the Marcus King Faithful? Richard Barrett and Jamie Dickson enter the Guitarist Tone Lounge to find out.
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MusicTranscript
00:00I love you
00:36so uh marcus king one of the most talented guitarists working on the scene today he's
00:41got a very soulful blues and country infused style um we've got here today his signature
00:49es345 um it's the nashville made version so it's the gibson usa version not the custom shop
00:54um it's got some really cool features um if you love marcus king you're going to like this for
00:59sure um but there's something you should know about this guitar that even if you're not interested
01:04in marcus king you should um you need to know this so uh hang around for that and we'll get
01:09to that
01:09after we've shown you some of the features and sounds of this wonderful instrument
01:34so
02:21So, yeah, so let's get into what this guitar offers.
02:24And now it's a 345, ES345, which is, if you go back to the 60s, this is a 60s sort
02:31of spec one.
02:33The 335 that everybody knows and loves was like the base model.
02:36Then you get the 345 and then the 355.
02:39And as you went up the range, you'd get increasingly more ornamentation and kind of fancy features, or at least
02:44fancy for that era.
02:45Now, one of those features, which was on the original 6345s, was this Veritone rotary selector that gave you kind
02:52of lots of different sounds, like phase sounds, sort of muddier sounds.
02:57I mean, it also had a stereo circuitry as well, so you could do that.
03:02And this was sort of seen as offering you more back in that time.
03:05But in actual fact, the way people have used them since then has sort of gone the other way.
03:11Overwhelmingly rewired them from mono.
03:13I mean, I suppose there's probably quite a few out there where you might, if you had a mint example,
03:17it might be a shame to start messing with it.
03:19But in truth, yeah, most people rewire them from mono.
03:23So Marcus King, the guitar that he owns and plays and treasures, this guitar is based on that guitar.
03:30So he had a 62 345 handed down to him by his family.
03:34It's become a tremendously important instrument to him sentimentally and functionally as part of his music.
03:40And this guitar is based on that.
03:41And so some of the unusual features that you see on this are because of that.
03:45So it's got this kind of vibrato style tailpiece, but it hasn't got any guts in it that actually, you
03:54know.
03:54No, I mean, like his, I think that just the tuning stability can be a little bit difficult.
04:00And I don't know, someone at some point has obviously just said, look, let's just strip everything out and bolt
04:05it down hard.
04:07And arguably, perhaps it contributes something, you know, to the tone of the guitar.
04:15Certainly, I mean, without getting another one in here with a stud tailpiece, it would be hard to tell.
04:20But I reckon it probably contributes something to the character of the tone.
04:24And then visually, you know, it's got this sort of, I don't know what you call it, almost an art
04:27deco sort of style look to it.
04:29It's just kind of a cool bit of styling.
04:31So certainly nothing to object to there.
04:33Yeah. And of course, all of that stuff that the 60s ones had, like the varitone circuit that most people
04:39just didn't bother with, this is, that's been discarded on this model.
04:42Yeah, so they haven't even put it in in the first place.
04:44Rather than putting it in and then taking it out, it wouldn't be very cost effective.
04:49So what else do we get on this?
04:51Well, it's interesting.
04:54I did get the mini screwdrivers out and have a look under here.
04:57This is where you would originally have got the Legend custom made to cover up the inserts for the stud
05:04tailpiece.
05:05And I thought, well, are there inserts under there?
05:08And the answer is, yes, they are there.
05:10So if you decided that you wanted to go with the stud tailpiece, then you could do that because it's
05:15got the maple center block, obviously, like all other 335s.
05:19We've got the ABR1 style bridge.
05:21We've got the custom buckers, which are quite a desirable feature in their own right.
05:26The Alnico 3, about 8K, non-wax potted.
05:30Apparently one of the closest things to the original Pafs that you can get hold of.
05:34And they're pretty expensive on their own, about 500 pounds.
05:37They are.
05:38And we've played the custom buckers in quite a few guitars by Gibson, an Epiphone inspired by Gibson custom.
05:43I genuinely really like them in almost everything I've played.
05:46Yeah, I haven't played one that I didn't like yet.
05:47So they're quite an expensive upgrade.
05:49If you were to buy them standalone things, that's quite a lot of humbucker you're getting there as part of
05:53the deal, really.
05:54Yes.
05:54Yeah, it really is.
05:55Yeah.
05:56So we've got these, as we said, the 345 back in the day had more cosmetic enhancements over the 335.
06:04And one of the most famous is that split parallelogram.
06:07Here they are just acrylic.
06:09They're not abalone or anything really fancy like that.
06:11But they look pretty nice.
06:12And they've got that kind of cool thing going on, haven't they?
06:16Yeah, I like the look of them.
06:17I mean, and it's Indian rosewood.
06:19I think that as the guitar gets played more and is owned by somebody that's going to spend the time
06:26on it, then I reckon fret polish and an oil on the fretboard would be great.
06:30Though I must say, straight out of the case, this plays fantastically well.
06:35I mean, really great.
06:36They've done a great job of setting it up.
06:37One thing that's a bit puzzling is the spec sheet says medium jumbo frets, but they actually feel quite small,
06:42don't they?
06:42There's nothing medium about them at all.
06:43Nothing jumbo about them.
06:45Yeah, they're quite small vintage frets.
06:47It plays great.
06:48So I would urge anyone that says, oh, no, I only like jumbo frets or whatever to give it a
06:53go because it plays absolutely great.
06:55Yeah, it's nothing that spoils the playing experience.
06:58It's quite the opposite, actually.
06:59But they do feel quite small compared to, you know, more modern designs.
07:03So that might be something to be aware of.
07:05They've also noticed they've specified it's Indian rosewood, so not another grade.
07:09So they have put that on paper.
07:12Tell us about up at the headstock end.
07:14Well, that's a Graf-Tech.
07:17Graf-Tech.
07:18Beg your pardon.
07:19I always mix those up.
07:20Beg your pardon.
07:21So that's great.
07:22Maintenance free.
07:24And it's very well cut and beautifully fitted.
07:27That's great.
07:27The headstock, you know, it's that 60s shape.
07:30In the 70s, they were wider.
07:32It was a bit more like the Les Paul Customs shape headstock, but without the binding.
07:37We've got the Grover Rotomatix.
07:40These are the vintage type.
07:41They are sometimes called the milk bottle shape because they're a slightly different casting than the regular 102 Rotomatix.
07:50So that's a nice touch.
07:52Probably wouldn't have been on the original.
07:54I don't think that would be more of the sort of Cluson Deluxe type things, which are also good tuners.
08:00But I don't know.
08:01It's a little touch of luxury, I think.
08:05So that's the headstock.
08:06And actually, you go to the sort of internals.
08:08They are very classic 335 family.
08:10It's got the maple center block.
08:12It's got the three-ply, you know, laminate.
08:16Maple, poplar, maple, I think.
08:17Either that or the other way around.
08:18Or is it the other way around, yeah.
08:20Maybe someone can tell us.
08:21Tell us in the comments.
08:24But the other things it's got to go.
08:26Gold hardware, obviously, which is very, it's kind of a nice on that cherry, that sort of 60s cherry.
08:32And, you know, the binding is a little bit more fancy than on the 335 of the summer.
08:36Yeah, there's a little extra touches, and that's really well done.
08:40I probably should mention that the AB-L1, the Tunematic, sits in inserts.
08:47So that's not straight into the wood.
08:49I believe that the vintage ones would have been straight into the wood.
08:52So, again, any experts watching, tell me if I'm wrong.
08:58So, should we hear some sounds?
09:00Because, you know, the proof of the pudding and all that.
09:02We're going through my pedal board, which is a gig rig-based system, a gig rig switching unit-based system,
09:09G3.
09:12In the signal chain, we've got a J-Rocket calibre .45, JTM-45 style overdrive, which is on at the
09:19moment.
09:19You heard that in the playing at the start of the video.
09:22We'll start with some clean tones, shall we?
09:24I'll just take that off.
09:24Yeah, I was just going to say, shall we, dare I say, have it off.
09:27We've got a little bit of reverb on there from the Free The Tone Ambi Space.
09:33That's just a spring reverb digital emulation of that, quite a high-quality one.
09:36So we'll hear that without anything else on.
09:38Maybe we'll chuck a bit of tremolo on in a moment, but let's hear it unadorned first.
09:41Oh, and I should also mention we're going into one of the new hand-wired Vox AC-15s, which is
09:45a lovely amp.
09:46Of course, yeah.
09:58That's both.
09:59A bit of neck.
10:05I always want to...
10:14There's something about this design.
10:17People sort of say that tone words and whatever are nonsense, but something about the semi-hollow design with that
10:23maple center block, there is a character to it.
10:25Yeah, you hear it side by side with Les Pauls of a similar era.
10:29You do hear it.
10:30It's just an openness to the tone.
10:31I think, you know, that's beyond that.
10:33And a kind of...
10:33Yeah, there's this little middle thing.
10:35Sorry, I'm trying to do it phonetically.
10:37I'm a bit of a loser.
10:56Two right hands, two left hands today, but there's a sweetness for sure, which I attribute partly to these.
11:02Yeah, the custom buckles are great like that.
11:04They're a good balance between sort of being nice and juicy with a bit of push to them and also
11:11remaining quite vintage.
11:12Yeah.
11:13Okay, let's put a bit of drive on it.
11:14They do sound amazing with a bit of overdrive.
11:16So I'm going to put the Calibre .45 by Jay Rocket on, the early Marshall-style overdrive.
11:22Right.
11:22Let's see if they go.
11:43Immediately you're hearing those sort of...
11:44I know the Beano album was played on a Les Paul standard and all that, but you're hearing those sort
11:49of hideaway sort of style tones.
11:51Yeah, yeah, I agree.
11:53I think that it really has got that character to it.
11:55And I guess that is partly down to these, but certainly, yeah, it's a really nice guitar.
12:01It would be lovely to play a few of them and see if they're all this good because this is
12:05great.
12:06So I can try adding on...
12:08I don't know how this is going to go, but we've also got a Clon-style Jay Rocket Archer Select
12:13on here.
12:13So I quite like stacking the JTM-45 style pedal with that for a bit more gain.
12:18Should we try higher gain?
12:19Yeah, great.
12:20Okay, here we go.
12:21So this is bringing in the Archer Select on top of the JTM-45 style calibre 45.
12:28Let's go.
12:29Let's go.
12:32Let's go.
12:41Let's go.
12:45Let's go.
12:48Let's go.
12:49Let's go.
12:50Let's go.
12:50Let's go.
12:51Let's go.
12:51Let's go.
12:51Let's go.
12:51Let's go.
12:52Let's go.
12:52Let's go.
12:55Let's go.
13:01it's definitely definitely likes to sing doesn't it i mean that that's a fair bit of gain it's not
13:05it's not like heavy metal but it's there's enough there and it's not sort of threatening to um
13:09feedback or do anything like that it's very composed and um great sounding guitar actually
13:14yeah i must say that everything's come together very well on this on this guitar so um let's talk
13:20a little bit about price because this is the interesting thing about this guitar when we
13:23looked into the spec of um a comparable 335 we found out something interesting so this one's
13:29three thousand four hundred and ninety nine pounds yeah okay so this is the nashville made gibson usa
13:35signature model and actually when we looked up the 60s 335 okay so closest spec isn't it rather than
13:43going straight to a 345 because that's a essentially got the extra gubbins on it yeah if you look for
13:48a you know a standard um new es3 3560s it's only 100 quid cheaper and but it has um um
13:58it doesn't it doesn't have the custom buckles it has what's t-style t-type that's what they call them
14:03which is i guess is a reference to t-top uh humbuckers so it hasn't got the custom buckles
14:07it's got nickel hardware i mean that's an aesthetic thing but this has got gold hardware it hasn't got
14:13the unique um tailpiece you know because of course this is a non-standard thing and um it hasn't got
14:19any of the cosmetic adornments that the 345 always had yeah and doesn't it just say rosewood rather than
14:24indian rosewood i mean no i don't know whether that's significant but maybe it's a higher grade
14:28rosewood here certainly on gibson's website it on for the 6335 and i'm not saying it's a bad guitar at
14:34all it's great guitar yeah it does say just say specify rosewood on there whereas this specifies
14:39specifically indian rosewood and of course we have the the rovers vintage in gold as well so it's
14:45it's only a hundred pounds of difference between the two guitars whereas in a case and that's in
14:49a case so i've got to say the thing that you need to know about this guitar is it's a
14:53bit of a deal
14:54you know compared to the 335 which i will say again it's a really cool guitar nothing no no flies
15:00on
15:00the 335 60s but i would say you know even if you don't give a fig about marcus king um
15:07it's very well worth trying this clearly a man of taste you know i mean this is this is a
15:11really
15:11good guitar and it's a bit different as well so you know if you don't want to be like everybody
15:15else
15:16um so you know you don't have to be marcus king or a play like him to recognize that for
15:23100 quid
15:23extra you're getting more than 100 quids extra worth of pickups and a bunch of stuff which is kind of
15:29cool so yeah that's that's that was one thing we were quite surprised by and certainly something you
15:34should reckon with if you are in the market for a 335 style guitar around this price point
15:40yeah okay so uh that's uh that's it from us and we've had a lot of fun playing with this
15:44guitar
15:44and um if you liked uh the guitar and our demo of it let us know in the comments what
15:49you think
15:50out hit like and subscribe and we'll see you again next time
15:55so
16:21so
16:24so
16:34you
16:35You
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