The Gibson ES-335

Here are 3 different Lifton Cases. the brown ones from the 50’s and early 60’s. The black from the early to late 60’s. You can see the badge on the open case.

The subject of ES-335 cases is a dull one. Cases just aren’t that interesting but they can be useful in identifying the era of the guitar in it. the problem is that it’s impossible to tell if a case is original. Oh, there are signs that will tell you it isn’t but none that will tell you it is. The best one is to look at the wear pattern-it should match the guitar in it and have no other wear. If you see wear from 2 different guitars, you can rest assured the case isn’t original. Look at where the strings hit the top and where the tuners hit the sides. The wear should be pretty well defined. But that isn’t what I’m writing about today. I’m going to try to identify all the cases used by Gibson during the 50’s and 60’s and try to make some sense of it. It’s particularly difficult to do this simply because in so many instances, the cases were provided by the music store and not by Gibson. While the shape of the ES-335 wasn’t common in 1958, by the time the end of the 60’s rolled around there were plenty of guitars “inspired by” the success of the 335 . In the early days, nearly all of the guitars were housed in brown Lifton cases with a hot pink interior. I’ve seen 2 different shapes-one with a more “hourglass” figure and the other, more common with a more subdued shape. I don’t know why the handles turn blue on these. There should be a Lifton “built like a fortress” tag on the case pocket. At some point in 1961, Lifton began making a black case with a yellow/orange interior. I’ve seen brown cases as late as 62. I’m sure they didn’t all get used up on Monday and the new ones arrived on Tuesday. Plenty of overlap as usual. The distinguishing mark of a Lifton, besides the badge, is the texture of the covering-a pebble grain, almost elephant grain that is distinctive. Liftons also often have a leather covered metal handle which the others don’t have. As the sales of 335s and their siblings went through the roof in the mid 60’s, more case makers came into play. I’m guessing Lifton couldn’t handle the increased demand. The Victoria Luggage Company of Los Angeles who worked with Fender early on stepped in and made a very similar case. Also black with a less orangey yellow interior, the Victoria case became very common in the mid 60’s. The vinyl covering was much finer with very little raised texture.

Victoria case. All the latches are the same on these. Fender also used these for their “inspired by” 335, the short lived Coronado line

If you have an early 60’s ES and it’s in a Victoria case, chances are it isn’t original. All of the latches on my Victoria case are the flip down type where you push a tab downward to lock the loop in place.  My 66 came in a Victoria, My 64 in a black Lifton. Another player, Ess and Ess of Brooklyn. NY showed up as a supplier in the mid 60’s as well. To complicate matters, their case was black with, you guessed it, a yellow/orange interior. What’s distinctive about the Ess and Ess cases that I’ve seen is that they have a spring loaded main catch while the others didn’t.  They also often had a catch on the back side of the case as well-you know the one you always forget to unlatch when you open the case. Neither my Lifton nor my Victoria cases have that feature.  There is a fourth case that shows up over and over again and I don’t know who the manufacturer is-I’ve always called them Gibson cases because they always have the Gibson badge. They are, once again, black vinyl covered with almost no grain and yellow/orange inside. They never have a manufacturers sticker inside like the other 3 usually have. They are a 5 latch case with the main latch being a flip down loop type and the other 4 are flip up loop types. This is the case that’s often identifiable by its broken handle. If you have one, you know what I mean. The “Gibson” case seems to be most common from 1963 on.  My ’65 ES 335-“The Mexican” came in a Gibson badged case (badges? we don’t need no stinkin’ badges) with a buffalo stenciled on it. Did they even have buffalo in Mexico (OK, purists, “bison”).

Ess and Ess with a ’65 cherryburst trap tail. Note the sprig loaded main latch. That’s how they do it in Brooklyn.

The “Gibson” case. Note the badge and the flip down latch. All the others flip up. These are most common in the mid 60’s to late 60’s

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010 at 3:49 pm • Gibson General • RSS 2.0 feed • leave a response or trackback