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Posted by: jdriver Aug 22 2008, 05:38 AM

Here's a pic of my new beauty. It's an Austin au796 (ES-335 clone), and if you believe the reviews on Harmony Central, just about as good as the real thing. It does sound great and plays very well. Appears to me to be higher quality than the $600 Gretsch I looked at.

I picked this one up for $165, including hard case on Ebay! I know they're dead common, but who cares.

Posted by: sigma7 Aug 22 2008, 05:48 AM

was this the one u had ur eye on? Wut a beauty

Posted by: audiopaal Aug 22 2008, 06:10 AM

Very nice

Looks awesome!!

Posted by: jdriver Aug 22 2008, 06:24 AM

Yes, this is the one. They said it was Mint, and it is, although I can see it was played a lot. It really does have better tone than I ever thought it would.

Posted by: mattacuk Aug 22 2008, 07:37 AM

That is beautiful, I love these hollowbodys. Im hoping to get one very similair for christmas

Posted by: Fran Aug 22 2008, 11:36 AM

Looks really good

Posted by: Bogdan Radovic Aug 22 2008, 11:42 AM

I love hollow body guitars , have one myself too

Congrats man , looks beautiful , and the price is great!

Posted by: Ian Bushell Aug 22 2008, 11:49 AM

Looks great! You got that for a good price!
Happy playing:)

Posted by: Gilmore Aug 22 2008, 11:55 AM

A nice semihollowbody.....looks just like Epiphone Dot I had for a short while before I sold it, but it was very nice.

Posted by: Gerardo Siere Aug 22 2008, 12:11 PM

Looks really nice, congratulations.

Posted by: kaznie_NL Aug 22 2008, 12:12 PM

oooww.. nice

Posted by: Ivan Milenkovic Aug 22 2008, 03:05 PM

Look great man, you change the pickups and you'll have one great guitar

Posted by: jdriver Aug 22 2008, 04:53 PM

Suggestions for pickups? I think these are Alnico, cheap ones of course. And how DO you work on the electronics on these things with no access hatch?

I'd like to put a B-7 Bigsby on it as well... I love that look and sound.

Thanks for all the kind words guys.

Posted by: Marshmall0wz Aug 22 2008, 05:05 PM

I'd get Gibson 57' Classic in the neck and 57' Classic Plus in the bridge. It will sound amazing!

Posted by: RIP Dime Aug 22 2008, 07:01 PM

I love hollowbodies, this thread is giving me GAS.

Posted by: jdriver Aug 22 2008, 07:15 PM

Great idea, but YOWCH!! the price! They both say bridge position, but one will work in the neck position? I've never replaced any.

Posted by: Marshmall0wz Aug 23 2008, 02:58 AM

it will sound very close to a gibson es-335 if you put in those pickups. try and find them on ebay. oh and the 57 classic PLUS is for the bridge, not the other one

PLUS = BRIDGE

Posted by: UncleSkillet Aug 23 2008, 04:03 AM

Adding a B-7 Bigsby would be awesome!! A set of new pickups as well and your ready to go.

Congrats on your new purchase!


Edit: PS, if it where me I might take off the pickguard to show the other "F" hole (see what it looks like). Just a thought.

Posted by: jdriver Aug 23 2008, 04:40 AM

OK, you talked me into it. B-7 is on the way. As for pups, the 57's sound like a good choice, but I'm going to wait for Ivan "Mr. Tone" Milenkovic to chime in.

Not sure if I trust myself to be careful enough after taking off the pick guard, we'll see.

Posted by: UncleSkillet Aug 23 2008, 04:45 AM

Man that's great!!

You can always put the pickguard back on. It's just a few screws. You have to see it.

Posted by: Toni Suominen Aug 23 2008, 10:41 AM

Looks very nice man, that thing must sound great on clean sounds

Posted by: kyldeee Aug 23 2008, 10:59 AM

Looks awesome mate, Gongratz

Posted by: jdriver Aug 24 2008, 01:17 AM

Thanks, yes it does sound great on clean channel, so much so, I think I will delay replacing the pickups until I've had some experience with these. It just sounds very sweet and smooth to me so far.



Thanks everybody for the kind words.

Posted by: Marcus Lavendell Aug 24 2008, 08:55 AM

Congrats on the new guitar jdriver

Posted by: jdriver Aug 26 2008, 01:38 AM

And here it is with it's newly installed Bigsby B-7!

Posted by: Moon Boots Aug 26 2008, 05:13 PM

Sweet! That looks amazingly authentic.

Posted by: jacmoe Aug 26 2008, 07:33 PM

I love your guitar!

Now I definately want one too!

Posted by: jdriver Aug 27 2008, 02:38 AM

They are all over Ebay, where I got this one, and you can buy them brand new for $300. The Bigsby is do it yourself +$100.

I think I've got a grand total of $265 in this one, with Bigsby and nice hard shell case.

Posted by: jacmoe Aug 27 2008, 04:07 PM

Well, if it's as good as the real thing, as you've said.. really sounds like a good deal!

Posted by: Marshmall0wz Aug 30 2008, 02:01 PM

dude you did a nice clean job on the bigsby. enjoy.