Longterm Test
A few months’ gigging, recording and everything that goes with it – welcome to Guitarist ’s longterm test report
Gibson Memphis 2013 ES-330 with Jamie Dickson
Think of the worst swear word you know. Go on, a really bad one. Now, if you’re contemplating restringing any guitars equipped with old-style Bigsby vibratos you should prepare yourself to say that naughty word (and many others like it) out loud several times before you have finished your task. For it is a seriously fiddly and frustrating process. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love the sound of a Bigsby’s subtle shimmer when it’s in use – but let it also be said that the Bigsby B7 is one of the least user-friendly contraptions known to humankind, when it comes to actually restringing the… bothersome things. I know this because both of the guitars I’m looking at in my current Longterm Test are fitted with them.
As regular readers may recall, I started a longterm report on my Memphis-built Gibson ES-330 a few months back. It wasn’t too long, however, before Eastman threw down the gauntlet and asked if I’d like to try its Gibsoninspired V-64/AMB, which is kind of like a 330 that’s been subtly tweaked to iron out some of the quirkier aspects of the 330’s design. However, to properly compare them a few changes would be necessary. For example, the Gibson came to me secondhand, fitted with 0.011-gauge Pure Nickel ThroBak strings.The Eastman, meanwhile, was shipped with nickelsteel D’Addario NYXLs in the same gauge. Both are fine sets, but they’re different enough that I thought I really should fit both guitars with a common type of string before concluding my comparative test. So far, so straightforward.
The set of strings I’ve chosen to fit to both guitars is the signature set of That Pedal
Show’s resident tone-guru Daniel Steinhardt, made by Colorado string maker Curt Mangan. Dan’s choice of strings runs relatively heavy (11, 14, 18, 30, 42, 52), so not too dissimilar to the previous sets that were taken off both guitars. That heavy-ish gauge, of course, makes them all the harder to bend over and under the bars of the Bigsby B7, over the saddles of the Tune-o-matic bridge, up to the nut and thence to the tunings posts. Many,
many are the times that the ball-end pings off the annoying little post it’s meant to anchor to during that process.And then you have to start again… Eventually, I ended up using a teaspoon gently levered against the frame of the Bigsby to hold the ball-end on the post
“The Bigsby B7 is one of the least userfriendly contraptions, when it comes to restringing”
while I tightened the string to tension. Even then, I needed more arms than an octopus to keep everything smoothly spooling onto the machinehead.At last, however, the two guitars were restrung and it was time to do some actual testing.
First of all, I strummed both guitars acoustically to see how they compared. The results are interesting: the Eastman sounds slightly louder, perfectly intonated and better balanced across all the strings – almost like a pure acoustic guitar but quieter. By comparison the Gibson is a little more muddled-sounding acoustically, with slightly less sustain. On paper that shouldn’t bode well for the Gibbo going head to head with the Eastman. But the proof of the pudding is in the eating, so next it’s time to plug in. My amp of choice is a Dr Z Jaz 20/40, which is something like a Fender Deluxe Reverb or maybe a Princeton on steroids. I’ll also be trying the guitars with a couple of favourite drive pedals – a Free The Tone Red Jasper low-gain drive and the more fuzz-like J Rockett Hooligan pedal. Naturally, I’ll also be testing clean tones.
Plugged in, the tables are turned somewhat. With a smidge of drive, the Eastman has abundant bass and top-end, plus great sustain, which really plays in its favour for modern blues-rock work. But the Gibson has a more prominent and characterful midrange, to my ear. It’s got a really classic growl to it and bags of charisma, for want of a better word.The Eastman, by comparison, throws a thicker note that compresses more, gaining sustain at the expense of a little nuance, arguably. This is partly down to the difference in the pickups fitted to the two guitars. The Eastman has hotter Lollars on it, while the Gibson has low-wind vintage P-90s. That lends the Gibson a little more by way of detail and dynamics in this context. They’re both great sounding, but I’d choose the stable and sustaining Eastman for more rock-oriented work and the ES-330 for trad blues and jazz, where more of the guitar’s ‘wood’ needs to be audible and fewer effects are likely to be used.
In conclusion, this has been an interesting comparative test. The Eastman undoubtedly has some seriously attractive qualities. It’s a serious, well-conceived instrument that handles better than the Gibbo, being lighter and a little sleeker. It also has many small refinements, like a side-mounted jack input and a better EQ balance between pickups (due to being mounted slightly closer together than on the 330) that make it the easier drive. But… I dunno. The Gibson just has something. It sounds older, mellower, less in a hurry to get places fast – but all the more vibey and inspiring for it. So, as much as I like the Eastman, I’m happy to conclude I don’t regret my choice at all. Except maybe for that Bigsby, at stringing-up time….
“I needed more arms than an octopus to keep everything smoothly spooling onto the machinehead”