The Gibson Les Paul is so dang ubiquitous, that’s it’s sometimes easy to forget the importance and greatness of Gibson’s semi-hollowbodies. Gibson’s ES–339, which married the semi-hollow construction of the legendary ES–335 with the smaller body size of a Les Paul is a great reminder of the of the guitars’ shared heritage, and not surprisingly, was an instant hit almost immediately upon its release several years ago. Unfortunately, the price tag of a USA-made Gibson kept it out of reach for some. For these budget-conscious guitar aficionados, Epiphone’s new Ultra-339 might just be the answer to their prayers.
More Than Meets the Eye
Like virtually all ES guitars, the Ultra-339 is built from a laminated maple body with a solid center block, and on the surface, it seems like a typical Gibson semi-hollow guitar. Look closely though and you’ll see where the Ultra designation comes into play. Discreetly planted at the end of the fretboard is a pickup called the NanoMag [engineered by Shadow Germany], a low-impedance magnetic pickup that uses 3 Samarium-Cobalt magnets, and on the side of the guitar, you’ll find two output jacks for mono or stereo routing options. There are four knobs that look like the conventional Gibson volume/tone/volume/tone configuration, but are actually much more. While the Ultra-339 does have individual volume controls for each pickup, in place of individual tone controls you’ll find a master tone control and a dual-function control consisting of a NanoMag volume knob and a push-button switch for choosing between the humbucking pickups, piezo pickup, or both. On the back of the guitar you’ll find a set of controls for the NanoMag —treble, bass, and gain—located next to the battery compartment cover (the NanoMag requires a 9V battery).
The Ultra-339 features an onboard tuner, which is activated by a miniscule on/off button, stealthily located on the bridge pickup ring alongside the tuning indicator lights. The pickup ring is also home to two LEDs (red and blue) that indicate the pickup configuration in use. One or both of these two LEDs remain illuminated when the guitar is plugged in so that you know which pickup is being used, but they shine discretely and looking at the guitar head on, you might not even notice it. That’s a good thing, given how traditionally minded Gibson fans can be.
While the piezo pickup and onboard tuner might not ruffle too many feathers, the Ultra-339’s USB jack—which is located next to the input jacks and allows direct connection to a computer, might raise a few purists’ eyebrows. If you don’t require any computer connectivity, you can easily ignore it. But it’s likely that very presence of a USB jack will likely be a point of contention for purists who might do well to consider the more bare bones Epiphone ES–339 Pro.
Puritanical concerns aside, the USB jack is well implemented here. When I connected the guitar to my Mac, GarageBand recognized it immediately. And the fact that I didn’t have to download drivers and spend a lot of time trying to configure the setup me made me much more inclined to make use of the feature, which is great in home studio situations.
Ne Plus Ultra
It took no time to get comfortable on the Ultra-339’s 22-fret neck. The guitar came out of the box with an excellent medium-action factory set up. While I generally prefer a lower action, the Ultra-339’s D-profile neck, which is comparable in size to the 30/60 neck option on the Gibson ES-339 [the fatter ’59 neck profile option is not currently offered by Epiphone] is a delight to play—with its 12” radius, 24.75” scale length, and medium jumbo frets.
Both acoustically and plugged-in, the Ultra-339 sounds remarkably alive. Playing through vintage Fender blackface Deluxe Reverb and Fender Super-Sonic amps and the guitar’s tone control up relatively high you can get a nice percussive-but-mellow Grant Green-style tones. Rolling the tone knob down further gets you a warmer, less biting tone perfect for chord melodies.
For comparison, I pulled out my Gibson ES–339 and A/B’d the two guitars. The Epiphone’s Alnico II ProBuckers were mellower, a tad warmer and less aggressive than the Alnico II ’57 Classic pickups in the Gibson. And while you won’t get the delicious bite and high-end detail of the ’57 Classic pickups, I certainly wouldn’t rush to swap out the Ultra-339’s pickups. It’s worth noting too that the Epiphone does not have the Gibson’s Memphis Tone Circuit, which helps retain high-end content when the volume knob is lowered.
Kicking in an overdrive, it was nice to hear how detailed the Ultra could be in higher gain situations. The guitar can easily get into that Carlton/Ford bluezak territory, but it can also go into full-on shred. With the gain set high on the Super-Sonic, the Ultra-339 bloomed with sustain while retaining note clarity. The Ultra’s semi-hollow construction helped tap into some beautifully musical feedback that wasn’t appreciably harder to control than that which you’d get from a solidbody.
Ratings
Pros:
Incredible sounding guitar at a price that’s right. Built-in NanoMag piezo pickup adds dimension and versatility.
Cons:
Humbucker output could have more bite.
Tones:
Playability:
Build:
Value:
Street:
$799
Company
epiphone.com
Where the magic really happens though is in blending in the NanoMag with the conventional pickups, which can yield some very three-dimensional tones that are simultaneously crisp, thick, and full. The effect is enhanced by the harmonic and resonant properties of the semi-hollowbody, and once you get used to the possibilities of the blended sounds, it’s hard to go back to a straight-ahead pickup sound. In musical contexts that depended less on the cutting qualities of the humbuckers, disengaging the NanoMag and using just the humbuckers, things sounded a little duller. And when you’re in a musical situation that benefits a fuller tone, the sound of the blended pickups sounds are sublime.
Verdict
The fact that the Ultra-339, with a street price of around eight hundred bucks can hold its own against the Gibson ES-339, which costs more than twice as much, speaks volumes about Epiphone’s quality standards. But the Ultra does more than work as a budget equivalent of its Gibson twin—the NanoMag and tone-shaping options make it an instrument with its own unique voice and potential.
Duane Denison of the Jesus Lizard, EGC Chessie in hands, coaxing some nasty tones from his Hiwatt.
The Jesus Lizard’s sixth album, Blue, served as the band’s final statement from the frontlines of noisy rock for the next 26 years. By the time of their dissolution in 1999, they’d earned a reputation for extreme performances chock full of hard-hitting, machine-like grooves delivered by bassist David Wm. Sims and, at their conclusion, drummer Mac McNeilly, at times aided and at other times punctured by the frontline of guitarist Duane Denison’s incisive, dissonant riffing, and presided over by the cantankerous howl of vocalist David Yow. In the years since, performative, thrilling bands such as Pissed Jeans, METZ, and Idles have built upon the Lizard’s musical foundation.
Denison has kept himself plenty busy over the last couple decades, forming the avant-rock supergroup Tomahawk—with vocalist Mike Patton, bassist Trevor Dunn (both from Mr. Bungle), and drummer John Stanier of Helmet—and alongside various other projects including Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers and Hank Williams III. The Jesus Lizard eventually reunited, but until now have only celebrated their catalog, never releasing new jams.
The Jesus Lizard, from left: bassist David Wm. Sims, singer David Yow, drummer Mac McNeilly, and guitarist Duane Denison.
Photo by Joshua Black Wilkins
Back in 2018, Denison, hanging in a hotel room with Yow, played a riff on his unplugged electric guitar that caught the singer’s ear. That song, called “West Side,” will remain unreleased for now, but Denison explains: “He said, ‘Wow, that’s really good. What is that?’ And I said, ‘It’s just some new thing. Why don’t we do an album?’” From those unassuming beginnings, the Jesus Lizard’s creative juices started flowing.
So, how does a band—especially one who so indelibly captured the ineffable energy of live rock performance—prepare to get a new record together 26 years after their last? Back in their earlier days, the members all lived together in a band house, collectively tending to the creative fire when inspiration struck. All these years later, they reside in different cities, so their process requires sending files back and forth and only meeting up for occasional demo sessions over the course of “three or four years.”
“When the time comes to get more in performance mode, I have a practice space. I go there by myself and crank it up. I turn that amp up and turn the metronome up and play loud.” —Duane Denison
the Jesus Lizard "Alexis Feels Sick"
Distance creates an obstacle to striking while the proverbial iron is hot, but Denison has a method to keep things energized: “Practice loud.” The guitarist professes the importance of practice, in general, and especially with a metronome. “We keep very detailed records of what the beats per minute of these songs are,” he explains. “To me, the way to do it is to run it to a Bluetooth speaker and crank it, and then crank your amp. I play a little at home, but when the time comes to get more in performance mode, I have a practice space. I go there by myself and crank it up. I turn that amp up and turn the metronome up and play loud.”
It’s a proven solution. On Rack—recorded at Patrick Carney’s Audio Eagle studio with producer Paul Allen—the band sound as vigorous as ever, proving they’ve not only remained in step with their younger selves, but they may have surpassed it with faders cranked. “Duane’s approach, both as a guitarist and writer, has an angular and menacing fingerprint that is his own unique style,” explains Allen. “The conviction in his playing that he is known for from his recordings in the ’80s and ’90s is still 100-percent intact and still driving full throttle today.”
“I try to be really, really precise,” he says. “I think we all do when it comes to the basic tracks, especially the rhythm parts. The band has always been this machine-like thing.” Together, they build a tension with Yow’s careening voice. “The vocals tend to be all over the place—in and out of tune, in and out of time,” he points out. “You’ve got this very free thing moving around in the foreground, and then you’ve got this very precise, detailed band playing behind it. That’s why it works.”
Before Rack, the Jesus Lizard hadn’t released a new record since 1998’s Blue.
Denison’s guitar also serves as the foreground foil to Yow’s unhinged raving, as on “Alexis Feels Sick,” where they form a demented harmony, or on the midnight creep of “What If,” where his vibrato-laden melodies bolster the singer’s unsettled, maniacal display. As precise as his riffs might be, his playing doesn’t stay strictly on the grid. On the slow, skulking “Armistice Day,” his percussive chording goes off the rails, giving way to a solo that slices that groove like a chef’s knife through warm butter as he reorganizes rock ’n’ roll histrionics into his own cut-up vocabulary.
“During recording sessions, his first solo takes are usually what we decide to keep,” explains Allen. “Listen to Duane’s guitar solos on Jack White’s ‘Morning, Noon, and Night,’ Tomahawk’s ‘Fatback,’ and ‘Grind’ off Rack. There’s a common ‘contained chaos’ thread among them that sounds like a harmonic Rubik’s cube that could only be solved by Duane.”
“Duane’s approach, both as a guitarist and writer, has an angular and menacing fingerprint that is his own unique style.” —Rack producer Paul Allen
To encapsulate just the right amount of intensity, “I don’t over practice everything,” the guitarist says. Instead, once he’s created a part, “I set it aside and don’t wear it out.” On Rack, it’s obvious not a single kilowatt of musical energy was lost in the rehearsal process.
Denison issues his noisy masterclass with assertive, overdriven tones supporting his dissonant voicings like barbed wire on top of an electric fence. The occasional application of slapback delay adds a threatening aura to his exacting riffage. His tones were just as carefully crafted as the parts he plays, and he relied mostly on his signature Electrical Guitar Company Chessie for the sessions, though a Fender Uptown Strat also appears, as well as a Taylor T5Z, which he chose for its “cleaner, hyper-articulated sound” on “Swan the Dog.” Though he’s been spotted at recent Jesus Lizard shows with a brand-new Powers Electric—he points out he played a demo model and says, “I just couldn’t let go of it,” so he ordered his own—that wasn’t until tracking was complete.
Duane Denison's Gear
Denison wields his Powers Electric at the Blue Room in Nashville last June.
Photo by Doug Coombe
Guitars
- Electrical Guitar Company Chessie
- Fender Uptown Strat
- Taylor T5Z
- Gibson ES-135
- Powers Electric
Amps
- Hiwatt Little J
- Hiwatt 2x12 cab with Fane F75 speakers
- Fender Super-Sonic combo
- Early ’60s Fender Bassman
- Marshall 1987X Plexi Reissue
- Victory Super Sheriff head
- Blackstar HT Stage 60—2 combos in stereo with Celestion Neo Creamback speakers and Mullard tubes
Effects
- Line 6 Helix
- Mantic Flex Pro
- TC Electronic G-Force
- Menatone Red Snapper
Strings and Picks
- Stringjoy Orbiters .0105 and .011 sets
- Dunlop celluloid white medium
- Sun Studios yellow picks
He ran through various amps—Marshalls, a Fender Bassman, two Fender Super-Sonic combos, and a Hiwatt Little J—at Audio Eagle. Live, if he’s not on backline gear, you’ll catch him mostly using 60-watt Blackstar HT Stage 60s loaded with Celestion Neo Creambacks. And while some boxes were stomped, he got most of his effects from a Line 6 Helix. “All of those sounds [in the Helix] are modeled on analog sounds, and you can tweak them endlessly,” he explains. “It’s just so practical and easy.”
The tools have only changed slightly since the band’s earlier days, when he favored Travis Beans and Hiwatts. Though he’s started to prefer higher gain sounds, Allen points out that “his guitar sound has always had teeth with a slightly bright sheen, and still does.”
“Honestly, I don’t think my tone has changed much over the past 30-something years,” Denison says. “I tend to favor a brighter, sharper sound with articulation. Someone sent me a video I had never seen of myself playing in the ’80s. I had a band called Cargo Cult in Austin, Texas. What struck me about it is it didn’t sound terribly different than what I sound like right now as far as the guitar sound and the approach. I don’t know what that tells you—I’m consistent?”
YouTube It
The Jesus Lizard take off at Nashville’s Blue Room this past June with “Hide & Seek” from Rack.
This outing of Dipped In Tone kicks off with an exciting update from Zach Broyles’ camp: He’s opening a brick-and-mortar guitar shop in Nashville, called High Voltage Guitars. Opening on October 8, the store will carry gear from Two-Rock, Divided By 13, Dr. Z, Castedosa, Fano, Novo, and of course Mythos Pedals. Zach hints that there might be some handwired JHS pedals from Josh Scott himself, too, and Rhett reveals that he plans to consign some of his guitars at the shop.
The business side of Zach’s new venture brings them to a key piece of today’s episode: Rhett and Zach aren’t running charities. They do what they do to make money; guitars, gear, podcasting, and content creation are their literal jobs. And they’re not as glamorous and breezy as most armchair commentators might guess.
Want to do what Rhett and Zach do? Welcome to the club. The guitar-influencer field is what one might call “oversaturated” at the moment, and it’s difficult to break out—but not impossible. As our hosts explain, it requires putting in 60-hour work weeks, a diverse skillset, a knack for catching people’s attention, and a certain level of genuineness. Rhett knows this path well, and he has hard-earned advice for staying true to oneself while building a following in the gear world.
Tune in to learn why Rhett thinks Fretboard Summit, a three-day guitar festival organized by Fretboard Journal, blows NAMM out of the water and builds legitimate connections between guitarists, and catch the duo dipping a Dick Dale-inspired, all-Fender rig.
