Through all the Deuzey stuff, I couldn't get this guitar that I worked on over the summer out of my head. I had done a fret level & recrown on an ES-335 for one of the players in town. It was a really nice instrument. I've had a few 335 variants (Washburn, Epiphone, Starcaster-style build) and I never got along with them. But this 335 was quite a lot nicer and had a certain clarity to the sound that was always missing in my other, wannabe 335 knock-offs. And I couldn't stop thinking about how well it did what it did. So I finally went out a got a new ES-335 knock off.
Meet my new-to-me 2002 Gibson ES-333.
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20 years old, thin nitro finish, vintage sunburst. That's the good stuff that came with this guitar. ES-333's were made for just a few years in the early aughts as a lower cost 335. Stock, these also came with uncovered Gibson 490 pickups (I don't like those), no pick guard (meh, I can go either way), and also has a silkscreened log instead of inlaid pearloid and leaves off the cool ES-335 crown inlay in the headstock.
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Also, 333's have a cutout on the back of the guitar, which is great for us freaks that tend to change cap values and pickups as almost as often as we change our strings.
(i.e. hollowbody guitars are a PITA to work on the electronics)
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So, I was kind of watching 333's for a while, but the prices on them went way up during the pandemic (I know, because of people like me, buying a bunch of guitars). And I'd have to make all these mods to it- put on 1958-style gold top hats, add a bigsby, install boutique pickups, probably do a fret job and give it a new bone nut, you know, all that usual stuff. Then this guitar showed up on Reverb with everything I wanted to do to it already done and listed for the same price as non-modded versions! And it sat for two months while I stewed on it. One day in January, the seller suddenly lowered the price by 20% and I couldn't smash that buy it now button fast enough.
This guitar smokes. Great feeling neck. The frets were so well done and the fingerboard binding feels luxurious. No sharp edges anywhere. A lot of semi-hollowbody guitars neck dive a bit and players often try to get a strap pin installed on the upper bough, like where you find it on a strat. The bigsby balances that out and this thing hangs perfectly at like a 15 degree angle. It's hard to describe, but when I wear this guitar it feels like it's a part of me. When I take both hands off to shake them out, it stays put. I think that I keep going on like a lunatic about how a guitar hangs because I play a lot of 3-4 hour bar gigs.
And how invasive a guitar feels when strapped on comes to matter a lot after a while. I'm sorry, but I forget which brand pickups this guitar has in it. Some boutiquey, hand wound job. But what I care about is that they are low wind with weak alnico magnets. This makes them play brighter and clearer than your more modern, overwound humbuckers. The neck pickup is bright and hollow sounding enough, with minimal woofiness. And the bridge pickup has that great PAF "tele on steroids" bright and brash thing to it. I love it. I was able to dial in the pickup height just right so when I switch back and forth between this and my tele, there is minimal change in rig volume.
Anyway, long live the ES-333! I'm very happy with it. Now to scratch this Gretsch itch...
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Thanks a pantload!! 
Thanks Jeff!