"Dot Neck". It only takes two words to describe the historic Gibson semi-hollow electric that - 65 years later - remains one of the most cherished electric guitar designs in history.

One fun fact of note- while the neck pickup shows a clean PAF sticker on the baseplate, the bridge pickup is without a sticker entirely. This has been known to occur in '61, and in particular with ES guitars. Both covers and pickups are completely undisturbed, so there's no doubt it's factory Gibson all the way.

While it's no question that most folks consider the '59 neck profile the Almighty, we'd be remiss if we didn't give credit to this Slim Tapered beauty. The guitar practically plays itself, with a speedy low action that feels very comfortable. The original frets dressed up very nicely here in our repair shop, and while the guitar got played, its frets never got worn down enough to warrant a refret.

We've waited until now to put some focus on condition, but there's just no denying how clean and well-maintained this 335 is. Aside from some expected play wear, the guitar exhibits very little lacquer checking, and practically no fading of the Sunburst finish. Again, the original owner clearly babied this guitar, and after his playing days were behind him, it remained in its original Lifton case for decades without being played at all.

There looked to have been an attempt to fill in some finish wear by the low E string on the side of the headstock and around where the tuner casing would sit on the back of the headstock. We cleaned up a small amount of residue during the tuner change, but left it largely as it was when it came in. The nut also looks to have been modified or perhaps changed out at some point, but we were able to effectively set the guitar up without the need to replace it. There are no breaks, enlarged routs, or modifications to the headstock. We even discovered that the truss rod nut had never been previously turned, as it still had factory lacquer sprayed over it.

The guitar includes original pickup instructions from Gibson along with a bottle of guitar polish, the tooled leather strap the owner paired with this guitar from the very beginning, and a printed photocopy of a collection of studio shots of the original owner with the guitar. The original Kluson tuners are also boxed up and included for posterity.

If you're a vintage collector and enthusiast who wants a Grade A dot neck 335, or a discerning player who's looking for that transcendently great vintage electric, look no further.