Gibson ES-345T, Sunburst (1960)

Just two years ago we saw the most gorgeous and well-preserved 1959 Gibson ES-345T in Cherry Red walk through the front door of our shop, and it still remains the cleanest Gibson semi-hollow electric we've ever had. But this guitar comes REAL close...

This early 1960 Gibson ES-345T in Sunburst finish was acquired by the nephew of the original owner, who'd purchased it new on March 30, 1960 from Pacific Music Studio in Inglewood, California. We have the original receipt to prove it! It's an incredibly clean instrument - awfully close to the condition of that Cherry 345, with no visible lacquer checking really anywhere on the guitar.

Entirely '59 in its spec, it features a wonderful playing medium/full C neck with the long pickguard, amber bonnet knobs, and pre-'Stereo' truss rod cover. It was also completed early enough in the year before Gibson changed the 'T' suffix to 'TD' indicating the Thinline Double configuration of a two-pickup electric of this style. Unsurprisingly, this ES-345 has a fantastic sounding pair of PAFs. We discovered zebra bobbins in the neck pickup and double white bobbins in the bridge, fully intact with undisturbed solder on the gold covers. The neck pickup sounds full and warm with nice articulation and clarity, while the bridge pickup breathes some fire, with great midrange character and some strong fundamental treble response. It remains tight and punchy even in some of the higher gain situations, with a truly satisfying voice that could scare some of the meanest of LPs.

Upon our initial inspection, the guitar proved to be entirely original with the exception of the tuners, which were installed in 1986 (we have that receipt too!). Thankfully, they were drop-in replacements, and the original gold single line Klusons were with the guitar! The original tulip buttons had disintegrated, so we re-tipped the original tuners with new buttons and put them back on the guitar. Most of the gold plated hardware is very clean, with some light wear on the pickup covers, and all of the plastics are in excellent shape.

In true collector-grade fashion, it's accompanied by its original (and exceptionally clean) Lifton hardshell case, original sales receipt, varitone user guide, and PAF adjustment card.

This guitar an incredible specimen of a semi-hollow electric in every way, and we're thrilled to release another uncirculated gem like this back into the wild.