One Year Later
Actually, I missed my one year anniversary by a couple of weeks but this is as good a time as any to take a look back over the past year and a hundred and sixty something posts. First of all, thanks to the folks who actually take the time to read what I write. Your time spent reading is as valuable as my time spent writing and I appreciate your loyalty and frequent visits. I’m still able to answer every email I get which either says something about how much free time I have or perhaps how few emails I get. I won’t say which. It’s you, the readers who have kept my little guitar business thriving as well. At least half the guitars I get are from readers who had a 335 or 345 in the closet that belonged to a family member. You keep finding them and I’ll keep paying a fair price. Through the magic of Google analytics, I can tell you about how the site has grown since the first post on April 12, 2010. I started using analytics on May 7, 2010 and we had 13 visitors that day. Seven were from New York which may have been me checking on the site. Five visits were from Westport, CT which had to have been me. Finally, there was one visit from Oberlin Ohio. Gee, I have a son who was at college at Oberlin last year. Coincidence? I don’t think so. So, basically I had no visitors outside of the immediate family. Since then, the site has had 28,878 visits from 12,598 different readers in 93 countries. That should tell you a lot about just how far and wide the lovers of 335’s are flung. We are very popular in Thailand and we have a few readers in Iran. I would say we are popular in Serbia but I know that at least a hundred visits out of 134 are from my friend Andreja in Belgrade who, by the way, knows almost as much as I do about these guitars. New York City is home to the largest number of readers with Chicago right behind it. It’s either because there are so many blues players in Chi or the fact that I have 4 brothers and a dozen or so nieces and nephews there. The most visitors in a single day was Wednesday, February 9th 2011 when 215 people showed up. So keep on coming and I’ll keep on coming up with new stuff to write about these great guitars. If I start repeating some things, it’s only because there are only so many parts to write about. I still haven’t written about the players or the way to get some of those great tones the players get. There’s lots more to write about and I never know what I’m going to write about until I sit down to write. There is no master list of topics. I, of course, welcome suggestions and one of these days, I’ll find a broken 335 that I can take apart and analyze from the inside out. That should be fun. If you have one that your ex-wife smashed over something hard (like your head) let me know. We’ll work something out. I did see one at the Philly show last fall that had been beaten repeatedly against a kitchen countertop but it was still playable and the seller wanted 8 grand for it. I don’t think he got it, however. So, not to be any more long winded than usual, I’m going to stop before I hit six hundred words. Again, thanks for reading and coming back again and again. If there’s some aspect of the 335/345/355 you want me to cover, let me know. I’m sure I’ve missed plenty.
Thankfully B.B. King is still with us but he won’t be around forever. He played a fancy ES-355 for years. Was it a mono model by any chance? He made some changes to his ES-355’s and later Gibson “honored” him with a signature “Lucille” model. What were the changes he made to stock ES-355’s and why?
Congrats on the Anniversary Charlie
I stumbled in around Aug ’10 and been reading faithfully ever since. Despite the extreme unlikelihood of ever owning a vintage 335 I find the site a compelling read.
Being exposed to the details and nuances of evaluating collectable guitars – absolutely fascinating.
Two requests: Add some audio samples of some of the guitars shown. I checked out your studio’s site so I know you have the gear to do it properly. Even simple riffs would be aces.
Lastly – On the real long posts – throw in a line feed every now & then. Huge text blocks are murder.
But I’m loving it. Keep posting – I’ll be reading!
Charlie,
Congrats on the anniversary. I found your site about the time you started it and lived through the blog transition. and I have been a regular visitor (though I gather Im not appearing in your metrics ( Im in Northern VA). I have learned so much from your boundless knowledge on ES335/ES345 and ES355’s and the Gibson Family of instruments and I continue to log on daily looking for more.
I purchased my first Vintage 335 a Sunburst ’64 ES335 stop tail this past summer and have been hooked!
I guess in terms of things I would like to see you cover in coming months. I think that it would be interesting to hear about the Epiphone lines from the Golden Era and perhaps some sound samples of the Guitars when you are discussing them particularly when those with PAF’s , Patent No , Pre T top,etc with some standard reference amps to hear how they sound different.
Keep up the great work!
All the Best!
Matt