Frenchy wrote:
...It must of been fun for you to actually play with 3 of these rare birds...
Didn't get too much playing time on them, just a quick test in the shop. They were all circa 1965 instruments, two red ones and a rare pelham blue! Played and sounded much like a 335. The vintage HB pups had great tone as you'd expect!
They are a tad heavier though, primarily because of that wacky Firebird headstock, and one had a Bigsby!
The stereo version was especially heavy because of the shielding "cans" on the pots and massive "chokes" which were part of the varitone circuit:
http://030be21.netsolhost.com/WordPress/2010/06/16/what-the-heck-is-a-shielding-can/ (Technically I suppose it was an ES-345)
Didn't care too much for that feature. Neither did the owner and he wanted it all replaced, especially since a standard mono jack plug can only engage one pup at a time depending on where you stop while inserting it. I talked him out of doing it to avoid killing the vintage value, and instead rigged up a stereo plug to convert to mono output. Et voilà la fromage!
He was a happy camper!