ES-347?

[TexGoneNW]

I got one on the cheap when it was pretty new, but the guy that had it before me shaved the neck down and PAINTED the binding back on.

Ah, well...

I've always had a battle on my hand with the ridiculously high gain pickups, but running this through and old Silvertone or any good tube amp tames it down pretty well, and I'm growing to like it.

I like the coil tap. If I roll off the pickups in double coil mode and roll back up again in single coil, I enjoy the heck out of it.

[bill]

Ohmygosh, TexGoneNW,

You must be the other person in america who owns a 347! I got mine used in the early 80's. I know what you mean about the pickups. Just a month or so ago, I had a set of Fralin humbuckers installed. It took the edge off the sound. I also had the brass nut replaced with bone years ago.

Is yours on the heavy side, and neck heavy? Mine is. It weighs about 9 1/2 pounds.

However, it sounds really good. And I love the looks. In fact, my wife the other week said that we needed something arty to hang over the fireplace and suggested my guitar. So that's where it is now. I rigged up a wire so it hangs like a painting and I can take it down from above the mantle and play it.

Here's a link to a photo of mine.

http://community.webshots.com/sym/image5/0/90/69/69109069STgshb_fs.jpg

Shoot me an email (you can get it from my profile) if you ever want to gab about 347s.

Bill Baeck

[Wally]

Bill, once again I cannot see your picture. hehehe
I am keeping your Gibson in my prayers. Fireplaces and guitars do not mix well. The heat and dryness can do horrible things to the wood and glue. Maybe put a Tele up there...it doesn't have any glue joints, at least. hehehe
Seriously, take care with that Gibson. If you notice accelerated finish checking, popping frets, a loose neck joint......oh well, good luck. I am sure that it looks great up on the wall....above the fire....unprotected....drying and shrinking....
Is that enough of 'Six String Fear Factor'? hehehehe

[bill]

Wally, Wally, Wally....what can I say?

OK,

Here's my general photo site, where you can click in and look for the one labeled ES-347:

http://community.webshots.com/user/billbaeck

And here's the guitar, I hope:

http://community.webshots.com/photo/69108296/69109069STgshb

Regarding the fireplace, I should have been clearer. We never have fires in it. Just candles once in a while. The wall doesn't heat up, and the humidity seems to stay around 40-60 percent year round. (We live in the bay area in California.)

But do you think it's still dangerous? (You've got me concerned now.)

Bill

[Wally]

Bill, that is nice group of guitars you have there. No, if you don't burn fires in the fireplace, there should be no worries. My wife has to have some wood burning in the fireplace, so I took it for granted that the fireplace was in use. My apologies. The humidity sounds as if it is ideal for humans and wooden instruments. Out here on the High Plains, 60% humidity is kinda muggy..hehehehe

[ESpfan]

Bill, looks like you got a thing there for natutral finish guitars. Nice group of 'old men' too.

Russ

[bill]

Yeah, I never thought about it, but I've never owned a guitar with a solid finish. Always like to see some grain in there.

Bill

[TexGoneNW]

I got the tobacco sunburst version. Nice natch'ul you got there.

I'm still keeping it as stock as I got it. Brass nut and all.

Yep, it's heavy, but the little bit I've used it on gigs, I've enjoyed it.

Nice collection there, bud....

[jneil]

I played a bunch of 3xxs when I was shopping for a semi-hollow, and most of them were too expensive, hard-to-play (narrow necks, etc) or both.

Walked away with a 1978 347 that plays like a dream. I've gotten some decent sounds recording it with the original high-output pickups, but I keep thinking about someday dropping in some Fralins or other more modest pups instead (would've done this ages ago but it's a whole different thing from swapping out pups on a Fender).

Anyway, here's a little page I made with pictures of my guitar and a couple of closeups that I pulled off other sites (before I got my own digital camera):

http://www.jneil.com/jneil/gibson347.html

[bill]

Hi Jneil,

I was looking over at review of the guitar on Harmony Central, and it seems like occasionally, they didn't put in the "Dirty Fingers" but used some lower output regular humbuckers instead. Before you swap pickups you might want to check. (Although it sounded like the reviewer liked Gibson's regular humbuckers of the time even less than the Dirty Fingers ones.)

Here's that article, it's the first one in the set of reviews:

http://harmony-central.com/Guitar/Data4/Gibson/ES-347TD-01.html

Bill

[jneil]

Thanks for the tip.

I think mine is from 1978, which would make it the first year of production, so I'm reasonably sure that the pups are the original high-output models (whatever they want to call them). I measured them at one point and I think they were both in the 16K range, though that was a while ago so I might be off a bit.

I've mostly used them at home, recording, and as I said I've gotten some nice recordings with them, but then again I usually roll off the volume to get the sound I want.

With a guitar with this much body and sustain I'd think some lower-output pups with more tone would sound awesome, but these are plenty usable as is, and there always seems to be others things to spend my money on before swapping them out...