Gibson USA ES-335 Figured Iced Tea

Great Service, Great Guitar, minor Gibson QC issues

My first ES-335 but not my first Gibson. CME made it right, and they did a great job helping me throughout the purchase and QC issues. The guitar plays like a dream, and was set up well with one small exception and one QC issue that surprised me because Gibson has gotten better for QC. The G string buzzed at all frets and the fix was to use a nut slot file to file a burr out of the bridge slot that was causing the buzz. It never should have left the factory like that. The second issue was that the fret board wood, beautiful rosewood, was a relatively rough piece of wood. The courseness was rougher than my Les Paul or Firebird, and there were two marks from tools, one looked like a horseshoe stamp at the tenth fret, the second was a file mark around the third fret. Then there were 4-6 rough spots in the wood, they did not affect playability so I agreed to keep the guitar but I was tempted to send it back hoping to get a nicer fretboard. The rosewood they used was lighter than average for Gibson, and the rough spots were visible but did not affect playability and were either under the 6th string or behind the first fret, so even if my fingers touched the board during play they would not have touched a rough spot. They really should have rejected this piece of wood and sent it over to Epiphone. Even without the small rough spots, the grain of the board itself had large pores and was not as smooth as just about any fretboard I've ever seen. Having said all that, the guitar plays like a dream and is incredibly beautiful with a gorgeous top. The T-Type pickups have the classic ES-335 sound, very creamy and smooth, just fantastic sounding guitar. The setup was also spot-on except for the burr in the saddle slot causing the buzz, easily fixed but only because I possessed a nut slot file the right size. Overall I am happy with this guitar, it's the most expensive guitar I ever nought, so excuse my pickiness over the details. My QC issues were not as serious as those I have read about in the years before Gibsons new ownership, so I believe Gibson is on the right track again.