2011 Gibson Custom Shop ES-335 Dot Fat Neck (Antique Red) (SOLD)

SOLD

It’s a Gibson Custom Shop ES-335 Dot Fat Neck (Antique Red) from 2011. What can I say about it? It’s in brand new, unplayed condition. No scratches, dents, damages and not even fingerprints on it 🙂 Even the strings and the setup are factory original (very nice setup, low action, spotless intonation, no buzzing). It comes with the original hard case and all case candies, custom shop certificate etc…this can be a fantastic investment as it’s a limited series, custom shop model!

Well how does the Gibson Custom Shop ES-335 Fat Neck Guitar play, sound, and feel? Personally, I think this guitar plays, sounds, and feels spotless. Let’s discuss the neck first. My hands are average in size. I did not encounter any difficulty with navigating my way around the 1950’s rounded neck profile of this. On the contrary, I actually felt that the rounded contour of the neck fit nicely into the palm of my hand, and I also found that bending notes was actually quite easy on this neck. The medium jumbo frets and the more substantial neck seemed to provide just the right amount of leverage I was looking for to help me to generate an excellent medium for string bending as well as for vibrato. In addition to the ease of bending notes, I also found the sustain and tone to be better than on my other ES-335 with a slimmer neck profile. The extra mass of the neck seemed to transmit the energy of the vibrating strings to the body of the guitar, which added an additional depth and richness to the tone of the guitar. I found this to especially be the case when playing jazz chords.

In conclusion, I found it to be an excellent, spotless guitar. Do not be thrown by the words “Fat Neck” in the name. Try it out for yourself, and you decide how you feel about the way the neck feels in your own hand. I think you will be just as pleased as I was. It is capable of doing a great job on just about any style of music that you can think of playing on it.

This is what Gibson says about it:

The ES-335 Fat Neck was introduced by the Gibson Custom Shop in 2008. For players who prefer a larger, heavier neck with a rounded profile for any reason – playing technique, larger hands, resonant characteristics, or just a true vintage look and feel – this historic reissue is the perfect instrument.

The Fat Neck is patterned on the run of 521 ES-335s produced by Gibson’s original Kalamazoo factory in 1959. This distinctive six-string still has all the same winning tonal qualities as the Custom Shop 335s modeled in 1958: warm, darker, mellow rounded tones perfect for jazz or blues, supercharged with the edge, sustain, and plain authority that comes with semi-hollowbody design.

In keeping with the vintage ’59s, the ES-335 Fat Neck not only boasts the correct rounded ’59 one-piece mahogany neck profile, but the slightly smaller body of the originals and vintage lightweight maple centerblock construction. The Fat Neck’s body measures 16 inches wide, 19 inches long, and 1.7-inches deep.

Each Custom Shop ES-335 Fat Neck has a plain maple top, back, and rims with a three-ply maple body construction and that vintage lightweight maple centerblock. Models are available in antique red finish, antique natural, antique ebony, and antique vintage sunburst. The pearloid dot inlays give the guitar its distinctive moniker, and they are balanced by a single-ply cream binding along the neck, top, and back.

All hardware is nickel, and there’s a classic ABR-1 bridge with a lightweight aluminum stopbar tailpiece. True to the original ES-335s, the neck has the rounded 1959 profile and a 24-inch scale length with an 1 11/16th-inch width at the nut. The headstock has a rich holly veneer and the tuners are vintage tulip style.

As with many other iconic Custom Shop reproductions of great Gibsons from the ’50s and ’60s, the 1959 ES-335 Fat Neck model has two ’57 Classic humbucking pickups, two volume pots, two tone pots, and a three-way pickup selector switch.

Official Gibson Website about this guitar

The cheapest same model in the UK is £2649 (check it on GAK website)…
My price for this same brand new, unplayed condition guitar is £2100 SOLD

Condition
Body: 10 / 10 | Electrics: 10 / 10 | Neck: 10/10 | Case: 9.5 / 10