Description
What makes this guitar special: A magnificent specimen with that perfectly worn, authentic vintage look we all love. This gorgeous ES-335 was just recently acquired from the second owner, who purchased the guitar from the original owner in 1971. The Bigsby is of course original with the Custom Made plaque in place of the stopbar. The double PAF humbuckers sound fantastic & deliver that warm, rich, signature Gibson tone with marvelous sustain. The guitar is all original & has been fully inspected by the experts at Cream City Music.
Cosmetic Condition: Well played & well loved over the past five decades - various nicks, chips, dents & dings; scratches, weather checking & some finish wear. No cracks, breaks or repairs. The G tuner is bent, but still functions properly & one of the volume knobs is missing its cap. The bass side of the bridge shows a lot of play wear, but the saddles function fine & the guitar has been intonated by our luthier. The frets show a lot of wear, but are still playable, however, a pro refret would indeed make this guitar a much better player. But of course that would detract from its originality. Overall the guitar has a wonderful, true vintage look to it with a beautiful patina.
Neck: Very slender profile mahogany neck with nicely aged cream binding & black side-dots. Beautiful, dark Brazilian rosewood fingerboard with mother of pearl dot inlays. Kluson Deluxe tuners are in good working condition. It looks like there's a number "2" pressed into the back of the headstock at the very top, indicating the guitar was a factory second. The serial number is 16912, which matches the serial number on the orange label. 1 11/16" nut width; 24 3/4" scale length. Neck is straight & truss rod functions.
Body: Double-bound, semi-hollow maple body with dual F-holes. Bigsby tremolo tailpiece & ABR-1 bridge with Custom Made plaque riveted to the top. 5-ply small black pickguard is in great shape with no cracks & only slightly warped, which is typical for these. Guitar weighs 8 lbs 9.5 oz.
Electronics: Original Gibson PAF humbuckers with black bezels. The neck pickup still has most of the PAF sticker underneath it, but the one on the bridge pickup unfortunately is missing. Bridge - 7.54K ohms; Neck - 7.75K ohms. Dual volume & tone controls with gold "top hat" knobs; 3-way toggle switch. All electronics are in good working condition.
Case: Original brown Lifton hardshell case included. The case is quite rough, with portions of the lid separating from the sides. But it's all there & still serves its purpose well. Not to mention it looks just as cool as the guitar itself!
