The Gibson ES-335

Trouble in paradise. This stunning and rare red 59 ES-335 had a grounding issue that I was having no luck resolving. My little knowledge was probably dangerous.

It’s a baseball analogy and a double pun (“grounder” and “short”…get it?). I couldn’t call it a hard short to ground and lose the baseball reference. We’re going to talk about electronics here, specifically grounding a 335. I recently acquired one of my holy grail guitars…a 1959 ES-335 in red. According to my inside guy at Gibson (who has been incredibly helpful for years), they made 15 red 335’s that year, all of them special orders. You might have noticed how often I write about them. Most of them pass through my hands (quickly, I might add) without much more than a setup. There are eight that have surfaced and of the seven that I’ve owned, all have been well cared for and kept in good order. The one I got recently out of Germany was no different. It was probably played mostly at home and certainly not every day. The condition was 9+ and it showed no wear at all. Just the kind of guitar I like to buy and sell.

First, a little background that many of you already know if you’re a regular reader here. I spent 45 years in the Film and TV business mostly as an editor, motion graphic designer and colorist. That requires a fair amount of technical knowledge of electronics. Essentially, it means if something breaks during an edit session, I had better know how to fix it. It’s also worth noting that to get one of my first jobs, I was required to have an FCC Second Class Radiotelephone License. The test was full of schematics and troubleshooting and I learned a lot of that kind of stuff in order to pass. That was in 1979. I’m pretty sure nobody has those any longer. But anyway, I learned a bit about circuits and it has been helpful. What I never entirely understood was grounding. I get how it works but I don’t get why.

Because the guitar in question left the factory as a Bigsby (with stud bushings) it was supposed to be grounded two ways. The first ground wire usually goes from the treble side tailpiece bushing to the braid on the bridge pickup. In order to ground the guitar when used without a stop tail, another ground wire is required. It’s usually a wire that goes from the hinge of the Bigsby to the braid on either pickup. Some Bigsby equipped guitars don’t have stop tail bushings so they are sometimes grounded with a wire that runs from the treble side bridge post to the braid on the bridge pickup. 355’s are very often grounded that way. The red 59 had two ground wires and when I got it, it worked great. But it was set up as a stop tail when I got it. The Bigsby was in the case. The buyer wanted the Bigsby mounted, so I did that. Trouble.

The neck pickup was quiet as a whisper. The bridge pickup roared and howled and squealed. That problem is sometimes caused by the pickup leads shorting out the three way by touching it. Gibson was aware of the problem and very often wrapped the three way in electrical tape (yes, that tape is usually factory). So, I did that. No luck. OK, maybe the ground wire isn’t making contact with the stop tail bushing, so I tightened that down. Nope. How about I remove the ground wire that runs from the stop tail? That didn’t work either. I really didn’t want to pull the harness (I had checked the codes with a dental mirror). But since it was only the bridge pickup, I figured it had to be something in the harness since the guitar was properly grounded to the harness. So, I loosened the bridge pickup tone and volume pots and pulled them out the f-hole (no other way to get to them on a dot neck-no cutout in the center block until years later). I was nearly two hours into this fiasco with the buyer in the room with me (which always makes me nervous).

Everything looked right. The ground wires that run from pot to pot were all there and appeared to be intact at least on those two pots. So, I decided I’d better pull the entire harness. No fun. But, as I pulled the bridge volume pot through the f-hole, I saw that the braid that is supposed to be soldered to the pot cover (and the third leg of the pot is supposed to be bent so it touched the pot cover) didn’t look right. BTW, don’t ask me why the third leg of the pot has to be soldered to the pot cover. I have no idea. BUT, the braid was soldered to the pot cover but the leg of the pot had pulled away from the cover. I dropped a blob of solder in there and put it back together. Voila. Quiet as a whisper on a calm day. Great but why did it work perfectly when set up as a stop tail and then not work when I set it up as a Bigsby. If the problem was the leg of the volume pot not being connected to the back of the pot with the stop tail installed, it should have been the same with the Bigsby installed. I have no answer other than maybe the leg of the pot came unsoldered when I installed the Bigsby. I can’t think of any other possible reason other than grounding is mystical and capricious.

I guess the larger point is that you can work on these things for years and years and still not know everything. I suppose taking a class in electronics wouldn’t hurt so instead of using rote memory, I’m using knowledge and understanding but, hey, I’m an old guy. I don’t learn so good these days.

Not the best example but you can see the leg of the pot that is soldered to the back of the pot cover. I don’t know exactly why but it’s part of the ground circuit. If it comes undone, the ground loop is broken and you pickup will be noisy.

Thursday, January 9th, 2025 at 5:07 pm • ES 335 • RSS 2.0 feed • leave a response or trackback