1985 Gibson ES-335 Dot Vintage Reissue Semi-Hollow Guitar Vintage Sunburst w/ Tim Shaw PAFs

Up for sale, a 1985 Gibson ES-335 Dot semi-hollowbody electric guitar in exceptional condition and in perfect working order with a gloss two-tone Vintage Sunburst nitro lacquer finish. The ES-335 Dot represents Gibson's first honest attempt at recreating the magic of the late '50s dot neck ES-335, and this very early iteration features a long tenon neck joint and original Tim Shaw PAF-style humbuckers.The Shaw PAFs were Gibson's first and arguably most successful bid at recreating the richness and harmonic content of Gibson's golden era humbucker. Wound in the high 7k ohms range, the Tim Shaw PAFs have a very dynamic sound with great top end complexity and clarity, a perfect pairing for the warmth of the semi-hollow construction. Strummed acoustically, this ES-335 has the classic low-mid warmth and smooth tonal qualities which have become a hallmark of the ES-335 sound, and the bold acoustic tone translates well through the pickups. The neck pickup has a detailed and round sound, pairing well with the bridge humbucker which provides plenty of kick, snarl and harmonic fullness, not to mention Gibson's classic near-endless sustain in every pickup position. Professionally setup here at Mike & Mike's Guitar Bar, this guitar weighs 8lbs 6oz, playing very comfortably with low action, solid intonation and fresh 10-46 strings.The mahogany neck has a slender C profile carve at the nut, gently increasing in shoulder and overall depth as you travel up the fretboard, measuring .820" deep at the 1st fret and .985" at the 12th. The bound rosewood fretboard retains the original wide/flat fretwire which retains its full factory height with well-rounded crowns, showing just a hint of wear beneath the plain strings on frets 1-3 and virtually no wear further up the fretboard. The guitar plays cleanly in every register with a straight neck and responsive, optimally adjusted truss rod. The stock nut measures 1 11/16" in width. The headstock sports a pearl Gibson logo and crown inlay, and the guitar retains its original set of nickel Grover Rotomatic tuning machines.On the body, all of the original electronics work as they should, and the Tim Shaw humbuckers have untouched solder on the covers and sequential ink stamps on the baseplates from February of 1985, also retaining the small foil "PAF" stickers on the edges of the original pickup rings. The Tim Shaws are wired to a traditional Gibson control layout with a three-way pickup selector switch and individual Volume and Tone knobs for each pickup with replacement gold reflector cap knobs. The wiring harness has been upgraded with more tightly spec’d 500k CTS pots, improving the treble clarity, overall punch and dynamic range of the PAFs, as Gibson notoriously under spec’d their pots in this era, with many reading closer to 300k and resulting in an appreciably darker tone than is ideal (or vintage spec for a 335).The neck pickup route reveals the long neck tenon and factory "VSB" stamp, denoting the Vintage Sunburst (i.e. Tobacco Sunburst) nitro lacquer finish. Hardware includes the original stoptail, Nashville bridge inserts, nickel pickup covers, and strap buttons, all of which have a uniform dusting of surface patina.The Vintage Sunburst nitro lacquer is framed by lightly ambered binding, and subtle curly maple figuring extends across the body, particularly behind the bridge on top and on the treble-side lower bout on the back. Exceedingly well-kept, the nitro shows only a few faint finish scratches on the body as a whole in the clear coat of the gloss, and the neck profile is nigh flawless.A modern black tolex Gibson Custom Shop hardshell case is included.