1965 335 necks?

thunderhawk · Not So Newbie Joined: 19 Jun 2008 Posts: 8

Is there a difference in the necks in the 1965 335 necks?
I have a friend that has an early 335, trapeze tailpiece,
what is the diff from the early '65's and the late '65's?

1 5/8ths,
I've seen this recently,
what does it mean?

Thanks

Hawk

herb · Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2008 6:21 pm Post subject:

The 1 5/8" is the width of the neck at the nut. My '61 LP/SG had the "Slim Taper" neck, very skinny, very shallow and played very fast. My '64 ES-355 has a neck like a ball bat, very thick and deep. I've gotten so used to all of them that I don't even notice the difference anymore. I just play them.

thunderhawk · Not So Newbie Joined: 19 Jun 2008 Posts: 8

Thank you for the quick answer..

I've had a couple '61 LP/SG's so I know what they are,
(we used to call them "low profile" necks)

they "moved around" too much for me, so I sold them many years ago, before they were worth megga $$$$ )

I'm mostly trying to see if if there's a a big diff between the early '65 and later '65 335's?

Thank for any and ALL info

Hawk

Jack Daniels · Growing Lion Joined: 29 May 2004 Posts: 879

Hawk,

Your perception is correct. Late 64 and early 65 still had the 1 11/16" width at the nut. Even if it was a thin taper neck, it had the standard (wide) nut. Sometime mid to late 65 Gibson started slimming the nut down to 1 9/16" which just a little shy of the 1 5/8" you mentioned. The offical width was considered 1 9/16" even though they all vary slightly. These skinny necks (width side to side not thickness front to back) were consider to be "faster" but really thru off a lot of players. Sometime around 1970 Gibson switched back to the standard width of 1 11/16". Some guitars did not get that particular "upgrade" though. So you can not just generalize on that. Many of the Jazz guitars and all the Les Pauls kept thier larger width. Occasionally you will see a ES175 with the skinny neck width. Most of the ES335/45/55's and all of the SGs had the skinny necks for example. So there is two measurements when we talk about 60's necks. Thickness front to back (thin 60's taper) and nut width side to side.

Hope that helps.

JD