The Gibson ES-333 is a semi hollow body electric guitar made by Gibson Guitar Corporation.
The ES-333 is quite similar to the Gibson ES-335, but varies from the ES-335 in the following ways:
The body is made of arched, laminated wood, with the exterior and interior laminations being made of maple. There is a maple central core in the body, to which the top and bottom, and neck are attached. The neck is one baulk of mahogany, with a rosewood fingerboard and pearloid dot markers. The hardware is nickle plated. As delivered by Gibson, the ES-333 had no pickup covers, nor pickguard, and came with black "bell" knobs. Switch tip color was alternately black or creme. The truss rod cover is unadorned, and the headstock overlay is the fibre material used on many contemporary Gibson models.
The ES-333 was available in "worn" brown and red finishes, which are thin satin nitrocellulose lacquer. These finishes will take on the appearance of old instruments, after a period of being played, through the action of the players hands rubbing the satin finish to a fairly glossy patina wherever the hands make frequent contact with the instrument. There were also natural (very light amber) and three color sunburst finishes available from some of the larger retailers.
Contents |
| Gibson Tom DeLonge Signature ES-333 | |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Gibson Guitar Corporation, Epiphone, Baratto |
| Period | 2003-present |
| Construction | |
| Body type | Semi-Hollow |
| Neck joint | Set |
| Woods | |
| Body | Maple or Poplar |
| Neck | Mahogany |
| Fretboard | Rosewood Fingerboard |
| Hardware | |
| Bridge | Nashville TOM bridge, stopbar tailpiece |
| Pickup(s) | 1 Gibson Dirty Fingers humbucker |
The Gibson Tom DeLonge Signature ES-333 is the signature guitar of Tom DeLonge with Dirty Fingers humbucker in the bridge pickup position.
Tom Delonge first started with a basic red Gibson ES-335 while touring with Box Car Racer, which the guitar was eventully covered with stickers. While recording blink-182 with blink-182, this guitar was often seen. During this period, his contract with Fender was due to expire, and instead of renewing his contract, he switched to Gibson to make the custom Tom Delonge ES-333. The first guitar of this model was brown w/ orange Stripe, which is considered a prototype. Delonge has never used this guitar live, but instead uses it for recording and rehearsing. It was recently seen on the Angels & Airwaves Facebook fan page when the band was recording their album LOVE in 2009/2010. Delonge later had another model made, a Brown body w/ Cream Stripes, this guitar became his main guitar. This guitar has been seen with the blink-182 smiley face or with the Angels & Airwaves "Moon-Man". After the indefinite hiatus of blink-182 in 2005, Angels & Airwaves formed. After their album We Don't Need To Whisper, their tour was set out. Delonge had 3 new guitars. A matte black w/ glossy black stripe, which was used primarily for the song "The Adventure" at the time. The second being white w/ black stripes, and the third being cream w/ black stripes which was featured in "The Adventure" video, which is not used as much as the other 2. After blink-182 reformed in 2009, Delonge used his basic brown w/ cream stripes, which either has a blink-182 smiley face or an Angels & Airwaves "Moon-Man", and used his cream w/ black stripes, which later had scrapes, burns, and stickers applied to it. He used the same guitars for the following Angels & Airwaves tour in 2010, except his matte black w/ glossy black stripes guitar, which also has an Angels & Airwaves logo on it, as well as some scrapes and burns. For the Honda Civic Tour 2011, Delonge used his white w/ black stripes, which now has tape, scrapes, and burns on it, and used his matte black w/ glossy black stripes guitar which now also has tape, scrapes, and burns on it. He used the brown w/ cream stripes as a back-up for this tour. Tom also used a black w/ cream stripes guitar, which is actually made by Baratto. This version of the guitar has no neckplate and was painted with a Natural, which as no stripe, and a copy of his basic Brown w/ Cream Stripes.