The Starting Point

One of the most popular, perhaps the most popular, semi hollowbody guitars is the Gibson 335. Legions of players attached themselves to this model, including Eric Clapton and of course, Larry Carlton, Mr. 335 himself.

Gibson branded 335s are still made but one with a decent looking top is about four grand US, presuming that you can find one if you want one. They come in Sixties Cherry, Antique Natural and Iced Tea. Iced Tea is just a darker sunburst, more brown than red. They have a C shaped neck and two calibrated T Humbuckers with each pickup having a dedicated volume and tone pot. There is a 3 way switch for pickup selection. There are 22 Medium Jumbo frets on the current release and the scale length is Gibson standard 24.75” with a 12” fingerboard radius. Construction is a mahogany set neck into a body that uses laminated maple/poplar/maple for the top sides and back. The Figured model has a AAA top which simply means more flame. For the $500 USD premium over the non-figured, you would expect something rather spectacular.

The premise of the semi-hollowbody is to add a block down the centre of the interior to reduce the feedback experienced with true hollow body guitars. It absolutely works. The tops of the Gibson 335 have f-holes on both sides and this allows some movement of air inside the body. Because the tops and backs are laminated, they flex less than a solid wood top, as one might find on a true hollowbody. This allows for more consistency in amplification and places more impact on what the pickups are doing than what the body is doing. The tone from one of these bodies is typically warmer than from a solid body, and the series is often described as a perfect all around design. Gibson started with the ES-335, then added the ES-345, with fancier finishes and the option of stereo outputs and the top model is the ES-355 which has an ebony fingerboard instead of rosewood, more cosmetic appointments and is often found with the tolerated/hated Varitone switch.

At different times, different 3X5 models have come with the Varitone (a switch with a series of selections that strangle the sound), stereo outputs, stoptail, Maestro or Bigsby Vibratos. There are many variants and so makers of “homage” guitars have a lot of latitude.

I own an older one from the early nineties and it took a bit of work to make it a player and it has had its pickups changed to Lollar Imperials for better tonality. The calibrated T Humbuckers of today don’t sound any different from whatever came originally in my old one which is a ‘63 Reissue. If you find a good one, and yes that means that you need to try a few, a 335 is a lovely instrument. I personally prefer the 355, but that is neither here nor there for this article.

You Want 335 Style and Sound But Don’t Want to Spend Four Grand

This makes a lot of sense as inflation takes off. I have reviewed the Sire S7 at length and this generated emails requesting that I review both the T7, a T Style solid body and the H7 which is Sire’s iteration of the 335. It was spec’d out by Mr. Larry Carlton himself, so one would expect an excellent instrument. I had done a very fast in store first look way back in December 2020, and did not have a lot of time with the guitar. So I was curious to see if anything had changed in the over a year and a half since my first impression. When I contacted the owner at The Arts Music Store in Newmarket Ontario to seek his assistance in obtaining a Sire H7 for review, he proposed not a single review but a side by side comparison with the recently released Epiphone 335 which was released under Epiphone’s “Inspired by Gibson” trademark. Inspiration in the form of cloning is not a new idea, and marketing bafflegab means nothing to me, so I said absolutely simply because I too wanted to know and the two instruments are priced very closely together. The Sire H7 that I received is in what Sire calls Transparent Red (think cherry) and sells for $1059 CAD. The Epiphone Inspired by Gibson 335 is in Raspberry Tea Burst and sells for $939 CAD.

First Look

Both guitars were made available to me in generic gig bags, so I cannot tell you anything about any cases that may or may not come with the guitars from the factory. On a close inspection coming out of the gig bags, fit and finish was excellent on both instruments. I had been offered an Epiphone in cherry but asked for a different colour to make it easier for readers to tell the difference in the photography. The finish on both is really well done. The colour is deep and rich in both cases. The Raspberry Tea burst is very pleasant. The Epiphone’s top coat is nitrocellulose lacquer. This makes it more susceptible to aging discolouration and cracking if you don’t manage temperature changes, but I personally prefer a lacquer finish. It’s not clearly documented on the Sire site (Sire needs to put a few more dollars into their site to correct poor language and fix challenged translations, in addition to working to be more informative) and my gut check tells me that the final finish on the H7 is a gloss polyurethane. It reflects light differently and looks a bit thicker.

Both guitars have a C shaped neck, that some reviewers called a Deep C. To me, it feels like my Gibson 335 and that is the point I think. Both were quite playable although I felt the Sire needed less setup refinement than the Epiphone. Easily fixed. Where there was an immediate difference to my hands was the rounded edges of the Sire fretboard. This is a Sire “thing” and I know it from my Sire basses and the S7 that I purchased instead of returning after my test. To me, this is just a complete comfort bonus. Both guitars have bound fretboards, and neither had any fret nibs protruding.

In these days of paper based fingerboards such as Richlite (not a fan), it was nice to find an Indian Laurel board on the Epiphone and an Ebony board on the Sire. Rosewood would be more Gibson correct in a 335 but both are very pleasant to play. Unlike some other reviewers, I did not find any staining of fingertips after the first half hour on the Sire. The board looks quite dark, and that typically means some dye or stain is used as Ebony is not completely black in general.

The body binding is single ply on the Epiphone, while the Sire uses a three ply binding more like a 355. Both are well finished, and the cosmetics have nothing to do with playability or sound.

The switches on both were a bit noisy, so a little electrical spray solved that. The pots were completely quiet and smooth on both, and while not specified as 50’s wiring, there is not that horrendous loss in volume when you roll the tone all the way off.

Both sets of pickups sound very nice, although the Sire pickups are noticeably louder and have a bit more punch. I was using a 59 Bassman as the dry amp and two Hot Rod Deluxe Mk IVs for wet amps, and the volume difference was palpable. More volume changes how we interpret sound, and until I got the two balanced to each other, I felt that the Sire was more open and had a bit more quack in the middle position. Once balanced, I thought that the Sire had more high end and we will know for sure when I do the frequency mapping. The screenshots of the frequency response for both guitars are included below. Apparently I was mishearing.

As both guitars are semi-hollows, they are not lightweights. They both weigh about as much as my 335 and neither has any neck dive. The headstocks are the only things that don’t scream Gibson, and personally I don’t care. Both look just fine. The tuners on the Epiphone are called Epiphone Deluxe tuners and look to me like the old plastic Kluson tulip style. They are smooth and have no lash. The tuners on the Sire are called diecast, and remind me of Grovers, very slick and positive. Neither tuner set showed any slippage at all. The nut on the Epiphone is GraphTech Tusq and the nut on the Sire is bone. Neither impedes string movement.

The strap lugs on the Sire are a bit wider and more positive feeling, but the Epiphone’s are better than the stock Gibson strap lugs, so either is a good choice.

Neither instrument specified the brand of strings installed, but Epiphone does state that it comes with .010s Sire does not say but they are .010s as well and both sets of strings were a lot nicer to play than the rusty barbed wire that Gibson tends to ship its guitars with.

As I wrapped up my first look, I would say to you all that both guitars were in very good stead right out of the box, and in my experience, better than many recent brand-new Gibsons.

Deeper Dive - Epiphone 335 Figured

The image pictured is the actual Epiphone 335 Figured used for this review. I did not spend time polishing and making beautiful, because of timing, plus how the guitar looks has nothing to do with how it plays, so long as it has been well maintained. This one is new but had been out of the shipping box. The figured top is a nice small $$ premium over the non-figured top. The top, like the back and sides is a three ply laminate of maple pieces. The face of the top is a veneer to give the figuring and the Raspberry Tea sunburst is nicely applied. In my opinion, it’s a nicer burst than seen on the non-figured Epiphone 335 in Vintage Burst which looks to me like one of those 70s bursts that were clearly sprayed by folks with a vision problem. The top hat style knobs have silver inserts but I wish that they also had arrow indicators mounted on the shafts, for those of us who like those things. We see a typical stop bar tailpiece and ABR-1 style bridge. The jack is top mounted, which I personally prefer on large bodied guitars because it avoids bending the plug if you sit or move around a lot. The f holes are well finished, but not bound, very standard 335. Epiphone’s simpler headstock looks the part with the Gibson style crown up there. The nut is GraphTech so the strings do not bind at the nut at all. The fingerboard is Indian Laurel and looks like a light coloured rosewood. I know that some folks are disappointed that the fingerboard is not rosewood, but once you are plugged in and playing, can you really tell a difference? There were no dye residues coming off the board. My Gibson 335 has dot inlays, while this one uses the later small block type. I think that Epiphone could have chosen a nicer acrylic for these and their mother of toilet seat parentage is a bit too obvious to me.

You’ll note from the photo that the binding looks aged. They have done a nice job on this. The binding fit and finish is good and the aging does not look all fake and too yellow as you see on some Gibson Custom Shop bindings. The neck is bound as well and well finished with no fret nibs poking through as noted earlier. There is nothing cheap feeling about this guitar, not that one would expect there to be, but what really stands out is how good it is compared to the much more expensive Gibson 335.

To get the basic tones from the guitar, I plugged straight into my Apollo Twin X interface’s Hi-Z input. Universal Audio offers some UNISON capable amplifier modules that really leverage the UNISON preamps in the interface. I tried a Marshall Silver Jubilee, a Fender 55 Tweed and a Marshall Model 1959 Plexi. I liked the clean tones I could get from the Plexi, because while it drives beautifully, I evaluate pickups based on what they sound like clean. The pickups in the Epiphone are noted to be Alnico Classic Pro, which a little research reveals to be Alnico 5 magnets with equal winds on both coils. I think that they sound very good, and many buyers have noted that they expected to have to change the pickups out and decided not to do so after playing their new guitar for a while.

I recorded the E Major Chord starting in the bridge position, then the middle position and finally the neck position. Volume pots were about eight and the tone pots were all the way up.

Deeper Dive - Sire H7

Again the photograph shown is of the actual Sire H7 that I had for evaluation. Like the Epiphone, the Sire H7 is a three ply construction for top, back and sides, and like the Epiphone, each layer is Maple. There is no specification if the top is a veneer, so it could go either way. I do like the Transparent Red finish on the guitar. It is similar to my Gibson 335 in Cherry, although the top on the Sire has more figure to it. The body is bound, front and back, although the front is a 3 ply purfling more like a 355 than a 335. Since no one is pretending that this is a Gibson 335, I like the more featured purfling more. You will also note in the photo that the inside of the f-holes are bound. The neck is also bound. All the bindings have a nice aged look without screaming “faked aging”. The rolled edges of the fretboard in my mind, make the Sire a more comfortable instrument. I did not find the Epiphone fretboard edges too sharp in any way, I just prefer the feel of the Sire. This is a personal opinion on the subject and buyers should make that choice themselves.

One of the things that I noticed in my first look was that the guitar seemed louder than the Epiphone. When I started recording, using exactly the same settings in Console and Logic Pro, the Sire was overloading the inputs. Rather than change the volume on the knobs, or lower the track inputs, I went into the Marshall Plexi’s virtual control panel and turned down both Volume 1 and Volume 2 about 1/2 a notch. That brought the Sire into line with the Epiphone. The guitar volume knobs were at eight and the tone knobs at ten. As with the Epiphone, I would have preferred to see arrow pointers on the shafts for more precise knob alignment.

In my opinion both headstocks look very nice, and I find the Sire unit a bit more distinguished, probably because it is not trying so hard to look like a Gibson 335 headstock. In the photo you can see the ebony fingerboard and even discern in the first position some brown in the ebony, which is as it should be. The top is really shiny and here I would prefer the lacquer found on the Epiphone. Like the Epiphone, the Sire has Medium Jumbo frets, and in both cases I find that description to be a bit of a stretch. They are indeed medium height, but I am not convinced that they are jumbo width. They are completely playable however right out of the box. As with the Epiphone, I would have preferred if Sire had put some more work into the selection of the acrylic for the small block inlays. They are no worse than the ones on the Epiphone, but no better either. Given the excellent fretboards and the lovely tops, the inlays are definitely a case of lunchbag letdown. The knobs are again the top hat style with the silver tops but the Sire has a black switch top instead of the aged cream one on the Epiphone. No difference in playability.

The Sire pickups are hotter as noted, and if you don’t manage your volume well, a long sustained chord can start to generate some nasally overtones.

What Else?

The only other thing that I noticed before picking up the guitars that were made available to me, is that both are rather constrained in terms of available inventory. Sire USA already says that the H7s are sold out. As the Epiphone is also made over in Asia, consider the potential for the same supply chain issues. This next point is highly subjective. In picking up guitars in stores, I found the Sires to be more consistent in terms of out of the box playability than the Epiphanies. Nothing awful to be sure, and this could be a manufacturer decision to avoid the need for more refined setup on arrival if the instruments have been sitting in a hot container offshore for some time waiting to be unloaded.

There was one little thing that I really appreciated. I never play a guitar without a strap, I just don’t feel comfortable. Both instruments have really nice strap pins but what impressed is that both guitars came with felt protector rings between the strap pin and the guitar body. I’ve not seen this small thing on much more expensive guitars, and I have a bag of these felt protector rings in white and black from Stewmac because I think that they matter. I put them on all my guitars. As I said a little thing, but a little thing that stood out.

Recommendations

Should you buy one and if so which one? If you do not already have a semi-hollowbody, they deliver a tone that no solid body will ever deliver. They are a wonderful bridge between a deep hollowbody and a solid body. From my perspective, every electric player should have a semi-hollowbody. If you choose to work on the electrics, you had better have twelve inch long narrow multi-jointed fingers because everything has to be done through the pickup holes, but since most of us hire a pro for that kind of stuff, perhaps it does not matter.

I do quickly and perhaps poorly want to address a potential concern that semi-hollowbodies cannot do heavy rock. I have attached a short clip of the Sire H7 plugged direct into the interface with a Marshall Plexi Model 1959 in the amp slot using three microphones on the cabinet. An SM57 panned left, an e609 in the centre and a U87 panned right. I ran that through an EP-34 plugin at about 140ms delay and then into an EMT 140 Plate Reverb set to a low mix value. The recorded track was then mixed using Izotope Neutron Pro and mastered in Izotope Ozone Pro and Izotope Tonal Balance Pro. The whole piece is recorded in UA’s LUNA DAW, so if it sounds like this is the first shot with pretty much all the tools, you would be right on the money. Fun but a lot more learning to do on my part.

If I were in the market for a semi-hollowbody, either instrument would suit me just fine. I’m not looking for another guitar, I have enough so both will go back with my gratitude. My perspective on this is that buying a guitar online without actually playing one is a risky proposition because if something is not right, the shipping issues become a real problem. So if you are in that kind of a situation, work with your seller to have the guitar properly set up before it gets shipped. It will cost a bit of money and time, but in my experience be worth it, and while that’s being done, have your favourite strings and gauge installed. They are both really fine options, and the one thing that I have concluded from this process is that I have no need to spend Gibson money for a great 335 style guitar. I really am confident that either instrument will make you very happy. Do remember, that the Epiphone pickups are less hot and so perhaps more accurate to that PAF underwound sound and that the lacquer finish will age more like a vintage guitar. Also remember the buttery smoothness of the Sire’s rolled fretboard edges. You really cannot go wrong either way.

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