Back to the Future Guitars
- Thread starter mrsmartypants
- Start date
WAAAAAAAAANT xD
... TOOOOOOO!!!!
That looks really nice! I'm anxious to see how well it plays.
They put the wrong model Bigsby on it, the B700. The guitar in the movie has the made-in-the-USA B7 model. To save a bit of cash on a replica, you could opt for the "licensed version" of the B7, which is the B70. It looks almost exactly like the B7, and is what Epiphone used on their ES-345 replicas.
Here's a pic of the accurate B7 and its cousin the licensed B70. The colors aren't accurate to the movie's gold-plated one, but this gives you an idea of the correct shape.
Not trying to rivet count, but if other folks go through this same supplier and he can make a few alterations for accuracy, I think the others would appreciate it.
Here's what I see so far he could change:
• The binding color to cream (though I believe both the Gibson re-issue and the Epiphone copy came with non-accurate white binding). Also look at the first cherry guitar hanging on the rack behind yours. It has cream binding, so we know they could have used this.
• The Bigsby model he attaches to it (change it to either the B7 or at least the almost-identical B70).
• The knobs (to black ones with gold reflective tops).
• The Varitone dial base and output jack to gold from the current silver (at least I see gold on all pics of the '63s and the movie guitar).
• Remove the binding from the f-holes. The originals had none, and the inside edges of these F-holes were simply stained red like the rest of the guitar.
The original movie guitar had a tune-o-matic bridge originally installed and the Bigsby B7 was retrofitted, with the two large screws that originally secured the tune-o-matic bridge retained. You'd have to add those two large screws to be completely accurate.
The above said, there's a lot of stuff that this guitar gets right that many other replicas don't, such as:
• The accurate headstock shape, emblem, and Gibson logo, since most commercially-available replicas aren't willing to violate Gibson's copyright on these (even the Epiphone replicas only use the correct logo but still say "Epiphone" and use a slightly different headstock shape).
• The parallelogram inlays. No commerically available non-Gibson non-Epiphone replicas are available with these. A big one.
• The body shape. For copyright reason, most commercially-available replicas change the shape of the horns and they look too pointy or otherwise odd.
• The Varitone dial.
• The shorter pick guard.
• Thick binding on the neck to match that of the body. ES-335 dots that get upgraded don't have thick binding on the body and have no binding on the neck.
• Classic green plastic tuners as opposed to semicircular metal ones.
• Output jack on the front, as opposed to the back edge. Even the Epiphone ES-345 copies came with the stereo option with two output jacks on the edge of the guitar. the movie version was mono with its single output jack on the front face.
If it actually plays well, or could be easily made to play well with a decent setup, and they could fix some of the remaining inaccuracies then this would go from great to stupendous.
They put the wrong model Bigsby on it, the B700. The guitar in the movie has the made-in-the-USA B7 model. To save a bit of cash on a replica, you could opt for the "licensed version" of the B7, which is the B70. It looks almost exactly like the B7, and is what Epiphone used on their ES-345 replicas.
Here's a pic of the accurate B7 and its cousin the licensed B70. The colors aren't accurate to the movie's gold-plated one, but this gives you an idea of the correct shape.
Not trying to rivet count, but if other folks go through this same supplier and he can make a few alterations for accuracy, I think the others would appreciate it.
Here's what I see so far he could change:
• The binding color to cream (though I believe both the Gibson re-issue and the Epiphone copy came with non-accurate white binding). Also look at the first cherry guitar hanging on the rack behind yours. It has cream binding, so we know they could have used this.
• The Bigsby model he attaches to it (change it to either the B7 or at least the almost-identical B70).
• The knobs (to black ones with gold reflective tops).
• The Varitone dial base and output jack to gold from the current silver (at least I see gold on all pics of the '63s and the movie guitar).
• Remove the binding from the f-holes. The originals had none, and the inside edges of these F-holes were simply stained red like the rest of the guitar.
The original movie guitar had a tune-o-matic bridge originally installed and the Bigsby B7 was retrofitted, with the two large screws that originally secured the tune-o-matic bridge retained. You'd have to add those two large screws to be completely accurate.
The above said, there's a lot of stuff that this guitar gets right that many other replicas don't, such as:
• The accurate headstock shape, emblem, and Gibson logo, since most commercially-available replicas aren't willing to violate Gibson's copyright on these (even the Epiphone replicas only use the correct logo but still say "Epiphone" and use a slightly different headstock shape).
• The parallelogram inlays. No commerically available non-Gibson non-Epiphone replicas are available with these. A big one.
• The body shape. For copyright reason, most commercially-available replicas change the shape of the horns and they look too pointy or otherwise odd.
• The Varitone dial.
• The shorter pick guard.
• Thick binding on the neck to match that of the body. ES-335 dots that get upgraded don't have thick binding on the body and have no binding on the neck.
• Classic green plastic tuners as opposed to semicircular metal ones.
• Output jack on the front, as opposed to the back edge. Even the Epiphone ES-345 copies came with the stereo option with two output jacks on the edge of the guitar. the movie version was mono with its single output jack on the front face.
If it actually plays well, or could be easily made to play well with a decent setup, and they could fix some of the remaining inaccuracies then this would go from great to stupendous.
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I'm sure they weren't even thinking into that much detail at all. They probably just said, "hey, get a guitar that looks like Chuck Berry's," and they brought that one. As you already noted, that guitar didn't even come out until '58 and he had traveled back to '55. The model just fit with the gag. If they wanted to be really accurate, I suppose they could have used a Byrdland which is what Chuck would have been using in '55, but nobody would have recognized it. He's known for his cherry red 335/345/355. Also, back then they probably weren't considering HD and Bluray and never thought anybody would be freeze framing to get the exact pickup color
.To get pickups that look as close to the ones in the movie as possible I'd try Duncan Antiquities and then just order some gold pole piece screws from Stewmac. You'll probably want to age the screws a little though just so they're not bright and shiny.
Edit: I just noticed Duncan makes Antiquities in gold now with a lot of the gold already rubbed off. You could go that route too.
Probably right.
That Stewmac site is great. Didn't know about it. Great source if you just wanted to order a guitar with nickel silver pickup covers, steel wool them a bit to dull/age them, and then just add gold screws... Looks like you could also get a gold output jack if you needed to swap out a silver one...
If they won't sell you just the neck, Yifente will. He is on Ebay and Aliexpress. Here's a current auction on Ebay for three necks for $120: Three Electric Guitar Neck Mahogany Rosewood 24 75" 22 Fret Set In | eBay Offer him $40 for one and he should take it.
That said, replacing a "set-in" (glued in) neck isn't for the faint of heart. It can be done, but it involves drilling holes into the base of the guitar neck and using steam to try to loosen/dissolve the glue holding the neck in place. The guitar doesn't always play the same afterwards.
I'm not sure, but it may be less-traumatic for the guitar to have just the fretboard/fingerboard pried off and replaced instead of the complete neck. Check with your local guitar luthier/technician. These usually go for about $20.
DL4567
Sr Member
Interesting. That and the fact that those need staining and finishing make them no easy task. I'm intrigued by the idea of replacing the fret board. Is there a source for an accurate parallelogram one? This is the replica guitar I have, which I bought a couple years ago. I've always liked it, but now seeing the more accurate pearl inlays bugs me.... hehe
Yes Yinfente sells just the fretboards too. Here's an auction where he's selling the ES-355 big-block fretboard like the one you have on your guitar now: Rosewood Guitar Fretboard Fingerboard Binding 22 Fret Trapezoid 1x 24 75inch | eBay. I don't see a current auction for an ES-345 fretboard-only, but since he sells complete ES-345 necks I'm sure he could sell just the fretboard. One downside about just swapping out the fretboard is that it still leaves you with the ES-355 logo on the headstock as opposed to the accurate pineapple one.
Incidentally, it looks like your replica got an inaccurate B700 Bigsby as well, as opposed to either the 100% accurate B7 or the (asian-version-of-the-B7) 95% accurate B70. I wonder if the B700 is just the Bigsby model the Chinese replica factories have on hand in quantity... If you do swap it out for either a B7 or B70 get a gold-one for screen-accuracy.
If you want to swap out the knobs for ones that are more screen-accurate get these: Black w Gold Reflector Knobs Top Hat Guitar Knobs Fits Epiphone LP SG | eBay.
You could also paint the inside of the F-holes to match the originals which had no binding and were just stained red.
You can get the green plastic vintage tuners on Ebay here: Silver: Keystone Tuners Vintage Style Green Button | eBay., Gold: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Set-of-Gold...211?pt=Guitar_Accessories&hash=item232d4fddd3
If the output jack is silver and you want to swap in a screen-accurate gold one, the Stewmac site mentioned before has them.
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Ok. Finally took a pic of my McFly ES:
It's a Limited Edition (they sold out in early 2014) 2013 Epihone ES-335 Pro. Most ES-335's have simple "dot" inlays/fret markers and minimal binding, with none on the neck. The Limited Edition Pro has aged/cream binding, coil-tap pickups, vintage tuners, and block inlays. It's pretty much an Epiphone replica of a 1963 Gibson block-inlay ES-335.
So here's what it get's right and wrong. The following info can also serve as a guide to others.
• Guitar model: The original was a Gibson '57-ish ES-345 mono (not stereo). Mine, as already mentioned above, is a 2013 Epiphone ES-335 Pro.
• Headstock shape: Should be Gibson, but instead mine is Epihone's slightly different headstock shape.
• Brand name on headstock: Should be "Gibson" but says "Epiphone" since that's what it is.
• Headstock logo inlay: Should be pineapple logo, and it is since Gibson owns Epiphone and allowed them to use it on this guitar.
• Truss rod cover: Should be black with no engraved writing present. Mine has it's model name, "ES-335 PRO", engraved in white as do most limited or special edition guitars. I don't plan on changing this.
• Tuners: Should be vintage style green plastic "tulip" tuners, and they are.
• Neck: Should be 24.75" scale, and of the set-neck (glued-in) construction type, as opposed to bolt-in (like some replicas such as the Oscar Schmidt OE30CH), and mine is correct.
• Neck binding: Should be present (missing on many ES-335 "dot" models), and it is.
• Fretboard inlays: Should be split parallelograms; mine are small block (as opposed to the large-block inlays on ES-355s).
• Body Shape: Should be the accurate ES body shape (no deformed (too rounded or too pointy) horns), and it is since Gibson owns Epiphone and allows them to use the accurate shape, mine is.
• Body color: It should be translucent red stain (not almost solid so that the wood grain doesn't show and it looks almost like red paint), and mine is.
• Body wood grain: It should run vertically (with the guitar viewed standing up) as one piece (not be of the "flamed" variety where two symmetrical pieces of veneer are used with a seam down the middle and the wood grain running horizontally), and mine does.
• Body clear coat: The body should have a near-gloss finish (not satin or aged), and mine does.
• Hardware color: Gold, though the pickups should appear silver with the gold rubbed off. My hardware, including the aftermarket Bigsby, is all nickel silver, as I prefer that look to gold.
• Stop piece: The guitar should have come originally with a Tune-O-Matic stop piece that was removed and the large screws that originally secured it left in. Mine originally came with the Tune-O-Matic, and when the Bigsby was swapped in I left the large Tune-O-Matic screws in place for that screen-accurate look.
• Vibrato: The vibrato should be a Bigsby unit, the B7 (made-in-the-USA) model. Alternatively the overseas-made "licensed" version of the B7, the B70, could be used with only a small decrease in accuracy. Mine has the B7, though as with all of my other hardware, in nickel silver as opposed to the accurate gold plating.
• Knobs: Their should be two volume and two tone knobs, of the black "top-hat" "gold reflector" variety. Mine are the correct shape and are reflectors (my ES-335 Pro didn't come with these—I had to swap them in), but the reflectors are silver-topped to match my choice of nickel silver hardware. When swapping out knobs, you must take care to note that the knob posts for genuine Gibsons are a different diameter than those for guitars made in Asia, including Gibson's own Epiphone Asian guitars.
• Pick Guard: This should be the short-style black/white 5-layered Gibson-shaped pick guard that ends parallel to the bottom edge of the bottom pickup, not the longer style guard that ends parallel to the stop bar.
• Varitone: Gibson-made ES-345s came with a 12-position tone control dial called a "Varitone" switch. This switch and circuitry should be present. The dial bezel should be gold with black writing, or silver if you (like me) have chosen to go with silver hardware. While aftermarket Varitone dials and circuitry are readily available, gold bezels are not. I have chosen not to fit a Varitone switch to my guitar.
• Strap: This should be in brown leather, and 1" width, with a belt-buckle style length adjustment. I went with a slightly wider 1.5" strap for comfort.
• Upper strap mounting point: This should be installed in the REAR of the body behind the top horn, not on the outer edge of the top horn as is done on some replicas. Mine has this.
I think that's it. As you can see, my guitar has its own inaccuracies, but I love it. I hope the above info is helpful to those evaluating certain guitars to decide if they are accurate enough for you and what things may need to be upgraded. If anyone sees any inaccuracies in what I've written above, please let me know.
It's a Limited Edition (they sold out in early 2014) 2013 Epihone ES-335 Pro. Most ES-335's have simple "dot" inlays/fret markers and minimal binding, with none on the neck. The Limited Edition Pro has aged/cream binding, coil-tap pickups, vintage tuners, and block inlays. It's pretty much an Epiphone replica of a 1963 Gibson block-inlay ES-335.
So here's what it get's right and wrong. The following info can also serve as a guide to others.
• Guitar model: The original was a Gibson '57-ish ES-345 mono (not stereo). Mine, as already mentioned above, is a 2013 Epiphone ES-335 Pro.
• Headstock shape: Should be Gibson, but instead mine is Epihone's slightly different headstock shape.
• Brand name on headstock: Should be "Gibson" but says "Epiphone" since that's what it is.
• Headstock logo inlay: Should be pineapple logo, and it is since Gibson owns Epiphone and allowed them to use it on this guitar.
• Truss rod cover: Should be black with no engraved writing present. Mine has it's model name, "ES-335 PRO", engraved in white as do most limited or special edition guitars. I don't plan on changing this.
• Tuners: Should be vintage style green plastic "tulip" tuners, and they are.
• Neck: Should be 24.75" scale, and of the set-neck (glued-in) construction type, as opposed to bolt-in (like some replicas such as the Oscar Schmidt OE30CH), and mine is correct.
• Neck binding: Should be present (missing on many ES-335 "dot" models), and it is.
• Fretboard inlays: Should be split parallelograms; mine are small block (as opposed to the large-block inlays on ES-355s).
• Body Shape: Should be the accurate ES body shape (no deformed (too rounded or too pointy) horns), and it is since Gibson owns Epiphone and allows them to use the accurate shape, mine is.
• Body color: It should be translucent red stain (not almost solid so that the wood grain doesn't show and it looks almost like red paint), and mine is.
• Body wood grain: It should run vertically (with the guitar viewed standing up) as one piece (not be of the "flamed" variety where two symmetrical pieces of veneer are used with a seam down the middle and the wood grain running horizontally), and mine does.
• Body clear coat: The body should have a near-gloss finish (not satin or aged), and mine does.
• Hardware color: Gold, though the pickups should appear silver with the gold rubbed off. My hardware, including the aftermarket Bigsby, is all nickel silver, as I prefer that look to gold.
• Stop piece: The guitar should have come originally with a Tune-O-Matic stop piece that was removed and the large screws that originally secured it left in. Mine originally came with the Tune-O-Matic, and when the Bigsby was swapped in I left the large Tune-O-Matic screws in place for that screen-accurate look.
• Vibrato: The vibrato should be a Bigsby unit, the B7 (made-in-the-USA) model. Alternatively the overseas-made "licensed" version of the B7, the B70, could be used with only a small decrease in accuracy. Mine has the B7, though as with all of my other hardware, in nickel silver as opposed to the accurate gold plating.
• Knobs: Their should be two volume and two tone knobs, of the black "top-hat" "gold reflector" variety. Mine are the correct shape and are reflectors (my ES-335 Pro didn't come with these—I had to swap them in), but the reflectors are silver-topped to match my choice of nickel silver hardware. When swapping out knobs, you must take care to note that the knob posts for genuine Gibsons are a different diameter than those for guitars made in Asia, including Gibson's own Epiphone Asian guitars.
• Pick Guard: This should be the short-style black/white 5-layered Gibson-shaped pick guard that ends parallel to the bottom edge of the bottom pickup, not the longer style guard that ends parallel to the stop bar.
• Varitone: Gibson-made ES-345s came with a 12-position tone control dial called a "Varitone" switch. This switch and circuitry should be present. The dial bezel should be gold with black writing, or silver if you (like me) have chosen to go with silver hardware. While aftermarket Varitone dials and circuitry are readily available, gold bezels are not. I have chosen not to fit a Varitone switch to my guitar.
• Strap: This should be in brown leather, and 1" width, with a belt-buckle style length adjustment. I went with a slightly wider 1.5" strap for comfort.
• Upper strap mounting point: This should be installed in the REAR of the body behind the top horn, not on the outer edge of the top horn as is done on some replicas. Mine has this.
I think that's it. As you can see, my guitar has its own inaccuracies, but I love it. I hope the above info is helpful to those evaluating certain guitars to decide if they are accurate enough for you and what things may need to be upgraded. If anyone sees any inaccuracies in what I've written above, please let me know.
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DL4567
Sr Member
Wow, it looks like you know the details of the movie guitar inside out. Thanks for all those links. The most tempting quick-fix is the black knobs. And yeah, the non-pineapple logo actually bothers me too, as the pineapple one looks so much better. Is that just a matter of exchanging a faceplate? Even though my pearl inlays are not parallelogram, I'm glad I at least don't have the simple dots on the fret board -- I almost bought an Epiphone dot a few years ago, but glad I didn't. I'd probably leave the tuners alone, even though they're inaccurate to the movie, I actually like the gold colored tuning keys better than the green plastic style.
It seems like the details of my replica as it is, match this guy's (presumably real) guitar perfectly. (from The "Roots" band on the Tonight Show).
You can get new faceplates (there was a link earlier in the thread to them), but I honestly don't know how hard it would be to swap out, sorry.
I didn't like the green tuners either at first, but they grow on you, and do give it a vintage feel.
That Roots guy's guitar is definitely an ES-355, yeah. Looks like he has the maroon tortoise-shell pick guard on it. That was an alternative to black.
Looks sweet!
