Gibson ES-347 – The ‘Hot Rodded 335’
09.24.2014Gibson ES-347 – The Gibson ES-347 is one of a number of guitars that the company built as variants of their famous ES-335 model. The ES-347 shares the same center-block construction employed on the 335 and if you like players like Larry Carlton and Robben Ford you will be in sonic heaven within seconds of plugging in this guitar. Equally if you want Cream-era Clapton or Eric Johnson tones, they are all here in abundance.
Like the ES-345 and ES-355, (other well known variations on the classic ES-335 design) the ES-347 has a good number of very high quality design features such as a solid ebony fingerboard, all-gold hardware and a multi-bound headstock. The guitar just looks stunning. The double cutaway gives you easy access and fingering throughout the length of the fingerboard and the innovative TP-6 bridge is a very useful addition for those moments when you just need to fractionally fine-tune your strings in between songs. Very useful on a gig or at an important recording session.
Sonically, this guitar covers a lot of musical territory and is one of the most versatile Gibsons you can get your hands on. You’ll immediately here why these guitars became popular in the session guitar world and with gigging musicians who needed a lot of tonal variety from a single instrument.
Everything from articulate, clean toned jazz runs and chord melodies to screaming rock and blues tones are immediately at your fingertips. These guitars are becoming increasingly collectable as relatively few were made by Gibson, so if you are after a 335 style guitar with the ability to play both as a single coil and a humbucker equipped guitar (the ES-347 has a coil tap feature on both pickups) then look no further. One of the best thinline guitars ever made by Gibson and still something of a secret amongst ‘those who know’ in the guitar world.
My 347 is very rare.23 3/4 scale black and gold 1979. Beautiful and better than my Les Paul Custom. P90’s sounds too. Very collectible now.