Gibson ES-333


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 finish is a thin satin finish, versus the ES-335's thicker full gloss finish.
  • The headstock has a silkscreen Gibson logo, versus the ES-335's inlaid pearloid logo.
  • The headstock has no further decorative inlay, versus the ES-335's "crown" headstock inlay.
  • The pickups are Gibson type 490R and 498T, versus the ES-335's Gibson 57 Classic pickups.
  • The back of the body has an access cover for the electronics, versus the solid rear of the ES-335.
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 piece of mahogany, with a rosewood fingerboard and pearloid dot markers. The hardware is nickel-plated. As delivered by Gibson, the ES-333 had no pickup covers, nor pickguard, and came with black "speed" 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 "faded" brown, cherry red, natural and sunburst 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 and three color sunburst finishes available from some of the larger retailers.

Tom DeLonge Signature

The Gibson Tom DeLonge Signature ES-333 is the signature guitar of Tom DeLonge, the guitarist of popular bands Blink-182, Box Car Racer, and Angels & Airwaves. The guitar features one volume knob and a Gibson Dirty Fingers humbucker in the bridge pickup position.

History

DeLonge was first seen with an ES-335 style guitar while on tour with Box Car Racer in 2002. It was a plain-top Cherry Red Gibson ES-335. Many stickers were put on the guitar and the bridge pickup was replaced with a Seymour Duncan Invader pickup, which DeLonge had previously used in Gibson Les Pauls and Fender Stratocasters, including his signature model of the latter. The neck pickup was most likely kept stock since the cover was never removed. In 2003, Delonge began a signature guitar contract with Gibson. The first prototype guitar featured a satin brown finish but had bright orange racing stripes instead of the more commonly seen cream. The intention of the guitar was to be a simple, durable and fashionable modern ES-335 / 333 Gibson. All incarnations of the guitar feature one Gibson Dirty Fingers pickup in the bridge position. It features Gibson's typical Tune-O-Matic bridge plus Stopbar tailpiece layout. The guitar is a through-neck construction with a maple body and mahogany neck with rosewood fretboard. Most variants feature a mahogany veneered headstock, and cream binding on the body and fretboard. Gibson released a limited production run of Tom Delonge Signature ES-333s in the mid 2000s. The production version features the standard satin brown with cream stripes, and Sperzel locking tuners. Epiphone currently offers a Chinese-made, lower priced version of the guitar with all the same specs. Tom debuted his Gibson signature guitar live on Blink-182's self-titled tour in 2003-2004. Since the formation of Angels And Airwaves, several other custom color combinations have been made for Tom. Since early 2012, Tom has stopped using most striped models on stage and has primarily been using either a solid white or solid black model with no stripes. In later years, the guitars Tom used live had burns, stickers, tape and other cosmetic alterations. In 2022, DeLonge began using Fender Starcasters upon his second return to Blink-182, effectively retiring his ES-333 guitars.

Colors

  • Brown w/ Orange Stripes
  • Brown w/ Cream Stripes
  • Black w/ Gloss Black Stripes
  • Natural w/ Black Stripes
  • White w/ Black Stripes
  • Black w/ Cream Stripes
  • Natural
  • White
  • White
  • Black
  • Blue
  • Walnut
  • White and green separated with yellow stripe with two red stripes with To The Stars.. under the stripes with gold hardware