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Im just starting a ES335 guitar. Does anyone know if a 1959 ES335 neck and headstock are the same as a Les Paul from that same era? Any tips about materials? The neck will be Mahoganey and I haven't decided on a ebony or rosewood yet for the neck.

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I have built two 335 clones and basically used templates that I made from a 1970's Les Paul (both owners say they really like the profile). My headstocks are enough different from Gibsons that you wouldn't mistake them but basically pretty similar. You might want to lay out the string path on your heads - I widen mine slightly at the E strings and keep them narrower at the G/D to keep strings from hitting posts.

I can't tell you what to do about fretboard material - both rose and ebony are nice. The 335's both had ebony but then I carried the them thru from headplate, fretboard, p/u rings and pickguard. I recently built an L5 clone and did the same thing with rose.

One minor piece of information - if you are using the Australian plans they show a 3/4 length center block. Most 335's have a full length block with the kerfed pieces on top and back - not saying one is better but the latter is more "correct". Also, there are two different neck joints on Gibsons - short and long tenon. The short have a reputation of problems - I just used a long Les Paul M&T.

http://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/view ... 23&t=46491

viewtopic.php?f=10123&t=48312&hilit=freeman

edit to add, if you are thinking about a Bigsby (which I did on the second one) then definitely use the full length center block.

One other thing to think about - most 335's are maple back, sides and top. If you use mahogany for the neck it will be much darker brownish red. That might pose a problem during finish. Both of mine have a cherry red nitro finish - the neck looks OK on them. However I just did a maple backed L5 clone with a mahogany neck and finished in an amber blond. The neck was very hard to match color and I realize now I should have used maple.

From my experience in doing a few restorations on period Gibbys the neck shapes seem to run by eras or years rather than model through to about the 70's with the only exception being SG's which typically had thinner necks. I imagine these changes in shape coincided with tooling upgrades or replacement at the factory.

Headstocks do differ some between models and while I have never compared an ES to a LP directly i can say that a LP and a J45 look very similar but are slightly different patterns

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

I would like to build one to 59 specs as I had one of the first dot neck reissues in the 90's and that guitar had a wonderful neck on it.

Freeman thanks for the info. I have some nice Brazilian for the fretboard & I'll do a ebony overly on headstock rather then paint. Good info on the tenon, I would like this to be as strong as possible. that short version tenon looks like a weak point. Good point on the neck material. Hmmm I have 5A Highly flamed mahogany and 5A maple hmmmmm decisions decisions I wish I was building more then one then I would just build both necks and decide later haha

Brian thanks for the info. Its amazing just like the Fenders how often the neck shapes very from guitar to guitar. Both of these manufactures are not like Taylor or PRS that make the same neck every time hahah

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Fun project, nothing wrong with the way Mahogany looks on a 335

Clinch did you make this? Or is a Gibby?

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Its a Gibson.

I own an early 70's 335 and a new (2016) Les Paul. My son has 2013 Paul and 2014 Explorer. I can say that my 335 neck is the narrowest, probably 1.625 or maybe even 1.5625 at the nut. I can measure later on if you like but that neck is different from all of the other Gibson's in our house.

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Canada