I'm thinking about my next build and considering something ES-335 style, but with a carved maple top and back from hollowed out mahogany. Also, looking to make it a little bit smaller, but I'm not keen on the Collings i35 and ES-339 shapes - they just look wrong.
Then I came across the Michael Stevens Classic, and think this looks flippin gorgeous. It has a smaller than Gibson body but the shape just looks right to me. Not big on the wonky pickup or pickguard though!
Rather than just try and template it from photos, I decided to go back to the drawing board and modify some ES-335 plans.
I started off just scaling down the ES-335 by an inch, but it doesn't look right - because the neck is still the same width, the horns and cutaways have to be modified, and they end up looking wrong. I seem to be sensitive to 335 horn shapes - I had a gorgeous Gibson 2018 1958 reissue but I had to sell it because the horns bothered me.
Then I found the Michael Stevens bout dimensions in his website, and it appears that the upper bout (the horns) are not scaled down as much as the body - bingo!
So, I chopped the ES-335 outline at the waist and scaled down the lower bouts and upper bouts using different ratios. Then, a little re-drawing at the waist to get them to join up. I also had to tweak the horns to take account of the neck. I used a face-on picture of a 1958 ES-335 to do this. I tried with a 1959 but the horns just looked too long.
So here's the result - blue is the new outline, purple is the original ES-335 plan. Neck, pickups and bridge are all unchanged, electronics and F-holes have been scaled down by the same ratio as the lower bout.
Showing the right horn, remodelled
based on a resized 1958 ES-335 photo
Compared to the Collings - I'm much
happier with my horn shape, the Collings is too slim. Lower bout shape is very
similar.
Compared to the ES-339 - mine's
quite a bit larger - the 339's a bit small for my liking
And finally compared to a Stevens
Classic - almost identical except for the horn shape, which leads me to believe
he did something similar to get to his design!
With some more hardware added
(original ES-335 plan left).
Debating either a wraparound bridge
or a bigsby with tuneomatic. I think they will help to hide the smaller body vs
tuneomatic + stoptail.
Comments
My friend made a carved top and back semi hollow 339 type and was beautiful, lovely weight too
(formerly customkits)
What program are you using?
Never managed to get into Illustrator, I need to find something simple!
My plan is to build it largely like my chambered red Les Paul build, but with thinner walls, and carving the inside of the top. So, while it will be 335ish in shape, it will have a solid mahogany back and maple top. It will have neck and body binding, dot inlays. Tunomatic bridge and tailpiece, side mounted jack. Strap button will be mounted on the upper horn, not the neck heel!
Finish wise, I'm thinking natural back and black or pelham blue top.
The horn carve might be overkill, but I can always carve them smaller afterwards if I leave enough meat.
Anyone done a 335 carve before??
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