Best Vintage Guitar Mods! — '67 Gibson ES-335 Gets Stainless Steel Re-Fret & Emerson Treble Bleeds
The 1967 Gibson ES-335 is back from the shop — stainless steel refret and Emerson Custom Treble Bleeds on both volume pots. Would you mod a vintage guitar? Let me know in the comments. Welcome back to Edge of Breakup.
In this episode the 1967 Gibson ES-335 takes center stage — freshly refretted with stainless steel and fitted with Emerson Custom Treble Bleeds on both volume potentiometers, into the Benson Amps Earhart 2x12" with Scumback speakers via the Boss Waza Tube Amp Expander. The Effectrode Tube Vibe, Echo Fix EF-X3 Chorus Echo, and three Expresso FX pedals — Ge Fuzz, Octave Fuzz, and Ge Boost — feature from 09:33 onward.
Grab Emerson Custom Treble Bleeds: https://emersoncustom.com/products/2017-treble-bleed-circuit-volume-mod?sca_ref=6282128.5O9h8BhMpG
Grab an Emerson Custom ES-335 Prewired Kit: https://emersoncustom.com/products/335-prewired-kit?sca_ref=6282128.5O9h8BhMpG
Two mods, same philosophy. The stainless steel refret replaces the original worn frets with stainless steel wire — harder than nickel silver, meaning the frets will outlast any standard refret by a significant margin with a smoother, more consistent playing feel across the entire neck.
The Emerson Custom Treble Bleeds are the more tonally significant mod. Original 1967 ES-335 wiring bleeds treble progressively as you roll back the volume pots — darkening the tone as you clean up. The Treble Bleed mod keeps high-frequency content present through the entire volume sweep. Both volume pots have independent Treble Bleeds, so the neck and bridge controls each preserve their own high-frequency response independently. The difference is explored throughout from 04:54 onward across all three pickup positions.
The Expresso FX triple stack from 09:33 — all three built by Sof in the UK with NOS components:
Ge Fuzz: Fuzz Face-style, dual CV7005 Newmarket germanium transistors. Warm, touch-sensitive, glassy cleanup.
Octave Fuzz: switchable diode clipping — switch up is germanium diodes (warmer, more vintage octave character), switch down is silicon diodes (tighter, more aggressive). The Ge vs. Si diode comparison explored directly at 11:57 and 12:52.
Ge Boost: AC107 germanium transistor, Rangemaster-style boost. OC141 replaced with AC107 on this build. Into a cranked Earhart from 14:25.
🎸 Emerson Custom: https://emersoncustom.com
🎛️ Expresso FX: https://expressofx.com
🔊 Benson Amps: https://www.bensonamps.com/guitar-amplifiers
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🎸 1967 Gibson ES-335 | Original 1967 Gibson Humbuckers | Stainless Steel Refret | Emerson Custom Treble Bleeds (Both Volume Pots)
🎛️ Expresso FX Ge Fuzz (CV7005 x2) | Expresso FX Octave Fuzz (Ge/Si Diode Switch) | Expresso FX Ge Boost (AC107)
🎛️ Also: Effectrode Tube Vibe | Echo Fix EF-X3 Chorus Echo
🔊 Benson Amps Earhart 2x12" | Scumback Speakers | Boss Waza TAE
Recording: Universal Audio Apollo x4 | Ohma Ribbon | Lauten Audio LS-208 | Royer R10 & R121 | Ableton Live 12
