Gibson ES-135 Gothic

basig gibson crap. 22 frets.two humbuckers. 3way selector. 2 tones. 2 volumes. no coil taps. crapy tuners (grovers like 16:1 maybe not that good i replased mine with lsr tuners 40:1). standard gibson bridge. comes with ugly case.

it sounds ok. good tone.

this thing is made cheap like most gibsons. its like 1000 buck for plastic cnc mill crap. i dunno about the inlays but half the gibson inlays are shit plastic. the fretwire was filed like crap. the bridge came with all the saddles set down at the bottom wich is not at all right. the nut was ok but not great

it has held up well except i had a wobble in the strap pin so i replaced it for likr 5 bucks

its a gibson i recomend u dont buy one gibsons are all crap. i doubt there made in america due to the affilation with music yo. GIBSON IS A SELLOUT COMPANY. the crap is overprice and i recomend that nobody spends over 600 bucks on one of these guitars... o wait they dont make them for less than like 800 so no matter what ur getting ripped off

Functionally-wise, like pickups, hardware, etc., this is exactly what you'd expect from a Gibson. Gibson 57 classic Humbuckers, two tones, two volumes, 3-way pickup selector switch...normal les paul layout. Grover tuners. Gothic black finish. Tuneomatic bridge. Gibson case included.

In my opinion, the really interesting feature about this guitar is the "gothic" styling imposed on the more traditional and old school 135 body style. What were they thinking? Who's idea was this? Hella cool, if you ask me. These were discontinued very quickly, probably because the people that are into 135's are not into Gothic stylings and vice-versa. But what the hell do I know? Made in 99 or 2000.

I play most all rock styles, and this guitar sounds great to me. I think the tone is mostly due to the combination of the semi hollow body style and the '57 classic pickups. Those pickups sound killer on this guitar. I play everything from clean to overdriven to gainey hard rock music, and I prefer the sound of these pickups to the newer, higher output ceramic pickups or even the higher gain alnicos. This configuration gives me that perfect amount of growl i've been searching for without being too gainy and without sacrificing tone. This is a natural and woody sound.

Very full sound. Not bright at all. I prefer mellower and thicker sounds. I don't like that twang you get from a a bridge pickup, a single coil, and a bolt on neck. Just not my thing. This guitar is mellow and smooth and fat. And it's quiet. Great for clean, classic rock and modern rock tones.

I've used it for recording a few demos. Sounds great. I especially love the way it sounds live. I play through many different amps. Presently, a sansamp pre, solid state power, and celestion-equipped 4x12 cabinet. This guitar is a real rocker in this setup, although it does feed back on high gain settings. but the feedback is totally musical and controllable and I like it. Even the feedback is mellow and full, just like the tone on this beast.

I'm no guitar tech, but I seem to recall it being setup fine when I received it. I hate tinkering so I always have my guitars setup by the local nerd. So I don't really know. What the hell is fret dressing anyway? I just play. This one feels good to me. But it looks unusual as all hell.

It's a hollow 135, so it's lightweight. I do feel that I need to be careful when playing it live. I don't go crazy flailing around when playing out, so I don't foresee any problems. The hardware is great, high-quality gibson with grover tuners, etc. I've had it since 99 or 00 and it's been fine. Always have a backup! I don't care if it's a complete piece of shit. Be prepared, just like in boy scouts. I use an Epi 335 with '57 classics as a backup for this. Whenever I come back to the Gibson after the Epi I am reminded of how awesome this guitar is (and not how shitty the Epi is). I love the tone on this. But the Epi with the '57 classics...can't touch this. Much love to MC Hammer from Oakland.

it's lightweight and doesn't seem as durable as a les paul or a tele. or a 335. but it's definitely more durable than an acoustic. so much for durability.

N/A

I've been playing for 15 years. This is an average guitar for the price. If it were stolen or lost (lost?), I would not buy another. Would you look for the same girlfriend if yours was "lost"? Hell no! Variety is the spice of life. But I'd definitely get another Gibson. No question about that.

I've played many different guitar/pickup configurations and have not yet found one as pleasing to me as the semi-hollow body/'57 Classic combo. As with anything, I'd recommend you test this out before getting it to make sure it suits you.

I won't repeat the features, as they're adequately described in the other reviews. Suffice to say that this is a very cool looking guitar, which a small percentage of the playing population will feel compelled to buy on sight (after first selling a kidney to afford it).

The guy in the other review that dogged this guitar for all applications was way too quick off the mark. This axe is a bit of a one-trick pony, but it does that one trick very well. When you need that dark, distorted tone, either for death metal rhythm work or Santana leads on the bass pickup, this guitar has a fantastic sound. I run this through the various amp simulators in the Roland VS-880 hard disc recorder. For the big stack amps, the metal rhythm sound is down right menacing. Best guitar I've played for that style (can't speak to feedback live, though). Likewise, playing leads through the bass pickup and the Saldano/Mesa-type amps gives Santana sustain forever. The problem with this guitar is that it sounds poor for all other applications. The high end response is particularly poor--very muffled sounding high end. No brightness for clean playing. This makes this a project guitar, used for certain recording applications, which makes it not too much bang for the buck.

Set up, action, etc. was good from the store. No major flaws. Nice case, too, with hot pink satin cover and fur.

With the TLC you should always give a hollow-body on gigs, I see no reason this shouldn't last a long while. I wouldn't use it without a backup because I wouldn't use ANY guitar without a backup (been burned on that one before). However, the only way this could be your main guitar is if you play live exclusively within the styles listed above.

haven't tried yet (though Mars support, as everyone knows, sucks hard and long).

I've been playing over 20 years, in styles ranging from hard rock to blues rock to whatever-rock to flamenco to bluegrass to funk to world music to (whatever interests me tomorrow). I think I was so fired up about the guitar in the store--with the idea that the Gothic styling was being put on this "fringe" Gibson style, and looked so much better than the Gothic style on the "metal" guitars--that I failed to notice its tone limitations. Luckily, I don't need this to be my main guitar--it was a "foolish purchase", as my friends and I call gear purchases that we don't need and can't afford, and, for those limited styles listed above, it sounds awesome in the recording projects I've used it on. Just don't try it for rockabilly, for instance, or you'll hate yourself for the muddy tone on your recording. Too expensive to be sensible, really, but man....a very cool looking, odd-ball guitar. For a jazz box style, it sounds like crap for that type of playing, too.

This is an es-135 gothic series guitar, made in the USA, it has a nice satin black finish, no fret markers, etc (I'm sure your familiar with the gothic series by now). What blew me away the most was that most of the gothic series guitars are "metal" style, like the explorer, flying V etc, but this is the classic granddaddy hollow body 135, and to put the gothic touch on this model made it even more unconventional. It has 2 passive 57 humbuckers and a three-position switch. It has the nice old style trapeze tailpiece and really nice Grover tuners that function smoothly and accurately. It comes with a really sweet case as well. The neck is pretty wide and would probally throw off most people at first, but I normally play acoustic guitar, so transferring from one to the other is smooth. The body is laminated maple with Chromyte center block, which I'm still trying to figure out what chroymte is, although I'm under the impression that it's some sort of laminate, but I'm probably wrong. All together it's a nice simple design, probably to humble a guitar for your average lead-guitar-egomaniac, but I dont' think that's who these are marketed for.

I write all my music on acoustic guitar and transfer some to electric. The sound I was after was an acoustic with an edge and his guitar fits the bill perfectly. I play indi/slacker/whatever-rock and the guitar has a wonderful round tone with really ringing highs. I don't bury the tone with distortion, just probably a little more than an average overdrive, and each note stands out and is discernable, rather than one blast of distortion coming at you. Clean, the thing sounds absolutely great,clear, crisp and warm. If you kick the distortion into full hair-metal mode, it sounds good but looses some bottom end but maintains its clarity. I didn't try it, but I imagine that at high levels this thing would howl and feedback like a rabid banshee due to the hollow body, but I'd recommend only doing that for effect<G>.

At first I wasn't into the factory setup. I figured the action was kinda funky up towards the 12th fret. Once I played it though I got used to it and figured it not to be funky,but someplace around average. There's no accounting for personal taste, and I find the setup to be acceptable for generic type music store "one setup fits all" but I'm going to have the neck worked on a bit to better suit my needs. Perhaps the guitar was neglected in the store and slipped out a bit. I'm probally going to have to have the intonation reset as well, as the bottom E string sounds harmonic-ly dead at the fifth fret. Also the guitar was missing 2 of the control knobs. I'm pretty sure this was not because of the factory but the music store,(becuase I called Gibson about it) but the fact that this was let go makes me sick. I seriously boo the not to be named music store, (let's just say it's a chain that names itself after the 4th planet from the sun).BOO HISS HISS!!!

Since It's a hollow body i'd be very careful playing it live, because a properly kicked mic stand just might crack it near the f-holes, although I'm not going to test this(But i've seen it happen to a 335). It appears that if played within reason the guitar should last forever. I don't think I'd let any nieces or nephews touch it, and probally not any drunk friends either. All the hardware seems solid and I suppose time will tell the rest. Dings and scratches ain't nothing but character anyway<G>

When I called Gibson about the knobs they were very helpful and also seemed pretty shocked that there were knobs missing and set me on the right route to replace them. (without me paying of course)

I've been playing music for about 16 or so years, Bass for 13 years, and guitar for about 7 years. If it was stolen I'd probally not be able to replace it because it was so damn expensive. I've had to do everything short of donate my body to sience to afford this thing cuz with tax and stuff it was over 1000$ which is a lot for a poor guy like me. but once I saw this guitar I knew that my search was over and I might as well buy once and buy right. I assume like name brand clothes, I paid out the a$$ for the Gibson name, but I feel that that name also brings with it a mark of quality that will help the guitar maintain it's value. But overall I think the $800 dollar range would have been more realistic. I kind of feel like I had to pay for the novelty of the body/style as well.

The ES 135 Gothic is a 135 with dual exposed coil humbucking pick-ups; tune-o-matic bridge;trapeez tailpiece; position marker only at the 12th fret and cheap black Gothic finish. This is a basic thinline that Gibson produced to appeal to a particular sect of artist. I've always been under the impression that guitars finished in black used the worst woods or used multi pieced wood bodies. Hearing is believing.

I used this guitar to demo a white Marshall 1987XW half stack. The ES 135 Gothic is a PIG. NO TONE. It's a VERY uninspiring guitar that should be thrown into a fire place. What a piece of garbage. Even acoustically this guitar has no soul. WHAT A DISASTER.

Funny thing about Gibsons.....the price is boutique but the fret dressing is a train wreak. You can cut cold cuts with the fret over hang. I expect this from some mongrel guitar from Korea. The neck on this garbage should be rated as a minus 10.

Don't know.......didn't buy it......nor should you.

Gibson is a strange company. They can make the best guitar and the worst on any given day. The ES 135 Gothic is the worst. Walter Carter is no longer with Gibson. Whoever is left at the company is not very swift.

Has all the quality and appeal as the Titanic.

The guitar was made in 1998 in the U.S. and I bought it in January 1999 in Austria.The ES 135 (hollowbody)Gothic is finished in flat black with a moon and star inlay at the 12th fret.There are no dots but side markers.It is equipped with two '57 classic humbuckers with two volume/two tone controls and a 3-way selector.The body is made of laminated maple with a chromyte center block.It has a maple neck and an ebony fingerboard.The bridge is a tune-o-matic (tailpiece Trapeze).Scale is 24.It was delivered in a case (very good one).

Our music is a punk/hardcore mix.My main guitar is an old Charvel with a DiMarzio Super3.I use the ES135 for about 30% of our songs.I play it through a Peavey 5150 and a Peavey 5150 box.I use the ES135 especially for songs with clean passages and songs which are not that hard.The guitar produces a great clean sound, real warm and rich.Distorted it sounds like an ES335.The feedback may be a problem if you are playing with too much distortion.

The factory set-up was very well.Actually there's not much space between strings and fretboard but the strings don't touch the frets, even if you beat them real hard. All in all everything was perfect.

I guess the hardware will last (I only changed the strap buttons) and I'm sure you can depend on it.But I think you've got to be careful with the body.The finish is good but there is no binding.For that reason I really handle it with care not to destroy the really good look of that guitar.

I never dealt with Gibson.

I play for about 15 years and this is the first Gibson I own.The ES135 Gothic is a great rock guitar and, for me, a real alternative to the ES335.I would definitly buy it again.