Review: Gibson ES-135 for Jazz

[shawn]

Although the 135 is a pretty versitile instrument as it is, I've found it to work well with Jazz music.
The ES-135 is a semi-hollow body guitar with more thick tone than say, a solid body, but less feedback than a hollowbody- useful if you play louder music.
The 135 comes standard with Gibson Classic 59 PAF Humbuckers. Personally, I find the 59s to be slightly too bright for jazz, but rolling back the tone will surely find a happy medium for anybody
At a great price of $1000 for a Gibson, it's no lemon of one though...
Plugging though my Peavey Classic 30 with the treble rolled off, I can get many, many versitile jazz tones easily worth working for.
Also, some D'Addario Chromes Flatwound .11's (Which is what I have one mine) make a great turnout for the "Jazz Box."
Overall, the ES-135 is great for jazz guitarist of all kinds, but if you are looking for a deep, thick, yet clear tone, maybe you should look at a full-hollow bodied guitar.
But for the people whom want a cleaner, brittler (In a good way) sound, or who look into fusion such as John Scofield or others where they use multiple effects in a louder situation, this is a great guitar to have for that.

www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/sid=021017230015065026100036333898/search/g=guitar?q=es-135

[BobMc]

Shawn
Good review; we've had a few pass thru the shop I work at and I spent sometime getting to know them. I totally agree with you on the electronics, the '59's are bright. I recently replaced the stock Gibson PUPS on a newer ES175 with Gibson's P94 and was really impressed with those.
Bob

[shawn]

Aren't P94s soapbar pickups?

[Bongo Boy]

The 135 was my very first guitar, which I bought about 7 months ago. I loved it right away. I use Thomastik-Enfeld Jazz flatwounds on it an truly enjoy that tone thru a small studio PA.

My only complaint about the instrument is its relatively sloppy finish. While the ebony finish itself is flawless, they didn't take enough time prepping the underlying plywood. So...you can see some sanding marks under that gorgeous black gloss.

Also, the fret ends weren't done very well. I re-dressed them all myself (yeeeeech) so they don't snag the fingers so badly. I think my guitar is just one of those typical megastore Gibsons that fell thru the QA cracks at the Menphis plant.

No doubt in my mind...this guitar could definitely be set up for a great jazz sound having a little more definition than your typical hollow. I usually play an Ibanez AF200 with the Super 58s and, if I don't change the setup before plugging in the 135, those PAFs just scream--WAY more output no doubt.

[LiveattheITclub]

I don't like to do it, but i have to write a bad review here. For a real jazz musician, i just don't like it. the scale is too short at 24 3/4. the pick-ups, or so i think, are way too bright for anything excpet perhaps fusion jazz. but the worst thing is the maple laminate top. Gibson should be ashamed to sell this guitar for so much. sure it's a nice guitar, but so many epiphone guitars are much better for much less. All you're doing is paying for the name. i play with a tele and emperor regent through a 59 bassman.

[Greg D]

I've been around the block with the 135/137's, having owned 2 ES-135's with P-100's, 3 w/57 Classic humbucks, and an ES-137P w/P90's.

I found the 137 w/P90's to have the sweetest tone for any type of music, though it does sound much more like an electric guitar than does my ES-135 w/'57 Classic humbucks. I was forced to part with it as it was just too noisy for use in the bars we play. Whenever I was idle, it hummed big-time.

I currently own two Es-135's with '57 Classic humbuckers. One is set up for jazz (VSB finish) and the other for rock/blues gigs (bluesburst finish).

I play through a Fender Deluxe reverb for gigs, mic'd into a PA. At home, I've played my 135 (both the rock and jazz ones) through a variety of media - Fender Acoustasonic JR amp, Fender Super amp, DRRI, and my PA using a Digitech GNX3 mfx pedal.

As some say, the guitar can be bright sounding, but put it next to a Strat and you quickly see the 135 is much darker and rounder than a Strat.

I have my jazz one strung with flatwounds 12's and get excellent jazz tone out of it through any of my setups. I don't gig jazz as I am more of a closet jazzer, but I prefer the 135 w/'57 Classic humbucks to the following guitars I have owned in the past:

Epi Regent, Epi Joe Pass, Dearmond X-155, ES-135 w/P100's, and a Japanese made L5 copy.

The reasons being - it's a US-made archtop for under a grand, the 135's are lookers, my 2 play extremely well, they are one of the most versatile stock guitars tone-wise on the planet, and it has most all the appointments (except for body depth) as the Es-175.

As for being maple, so is the ES-175, which is the jazz guitar, historically speaking.

Greg