The Gibson ES-335

It’s kind of an ugly word and it has lots of ugly connotations. A crack kills an awful lot of guitar deals and often, it kills them for me. But there are an awful lot of ways that wood can crack and some are a lot worse than others. It’s important to understand what cracks are benign or cosmetic and what cracks are a flashing red light with sirens and bells. Wood is durable and fragile at the same time. It can be extremely flexible and extremely rigid. It will take a lot of abuse but only up to a point and then it gives up, usually all at once.

Wood has grain and is weaker along the grain lines. A quarter sawn neck takes advantage of the strength across the grain and makes for a stable, strong neck. The cracks we see in a guitar neck are often the result of trauma. The guitar falls off the stand and the headstock cracks (or breaks off). No wood will withstand a fall every time. Headstock cracks can be an easy fix with little effect on the playability and tone once properly glued up. They can also be impossible to fix. The conventional wisdom is that the glue is stronger than the wood. That’s true but only if the repair is done properly. That’s another post. I generally avoid guitars with headstock repairs but I’ve had plenty of them over the years that have caused no problems at all. The ones I have had that have caused me trouble usually re-break right at the repair which, of course, calls the conventional wisdom into question.

Another common neck break, especially in 335’s, is the truss rod crack. Guitars with a very slim (front to back) depth have very little wood between the truss rod and the back of the neck. When overtightened, the neck will crack vertically-usually along the grain. The crack usually starts at the third fret or so and can extend from 1″ to as much as 14″ in a very straight line. Folks call it a check, a scratch…anything but a crack. A crack means big trouble to most folks. But a truss rod crack really isn’t that big of a deal. It’s really mostly cosmetic. There is very little stress in that direction-the force vector of a strung up guitar is perpendicular to the neck (remember your high school physics). So, it isn’t likely to get worse unless you overtighten the truss rod again. I’ve had my luthier float a little super glue in there but that’s not even necessary in most cases.

Sticking with 335 cracks, there is another type that is largely cosmetic but cause all sorts of anxiety in buyers. A top crack on an acoustic guitar is kind of a big deal. The top is what generates most of the sound and a crack will diminish that. In a 335, there isn’t a whole lot of top vibration (due to the center block) so a top crack is less of an issue. On top of that, the crack in the top (or back) of a 335 is usually limited to the top ply of the plywood. It is most unusual for plywood to crack through more than one ply. So, even with a top crack, there isn’t a significant amount of disturbance to the vibration of the top. ES models made of plywood do this a lot. The top ply will crack from changes in humidity or temperature especially where the wood in the plies is different ply to ply. Different woods will expand and contract at different rates and when that happens, something has to give and it’s usually the top maple ply. Also, you can’t see the other plies so who would know?

There are cracks to the rim which can be trouble in a deep body guitar but rarely in a 335 or other thinline. They simply don’t happen very often. The crack in the headstock between the tuners (or just beneath them) is a pretty frequent issue. Sometimes it’s a separation in the “wings” of the headstock which isn’t a crack at all-it’s just a glue issue. If the crack is between the tuners, then it can be significant. get it glued up and it shouldn’t cause any further trouble. It can happen when tuners are changed and the new screws are slightly larger than the old ones. The headstock veneer on a 335 from the 50’s or 60’s is holly. It’s a hard, brittle wood that takes the black paint very well. It also cracks really easily. If you come across a guitar with a crack between the tuners, look to see if it goes all the way through the headstock. If it doesn’t, it’s not a big issue and won’t cause problems later. If the crack goes all the way through the headstock and you can see the same crack on the back of the headstock, then have your luthier look at it. That can be trouble but is easily fixed.

Lastly, we all love the thin top 335’s made in 58 (and a few in 59 and even 60) but they are prone to cracks around the area of the jack. A straight plug puts a lot of stress on the top due to the leverage caused by the length of the plug. Again, go back to your high school physics-you see it wasn’t a total waste of time. A 90 degree plug reduces that stress so a top crack around the jack is less likely. Too late if your 58 already has them (and more than half of them do) but as long as you’re careful (and use a 90 degree plug, it shouldn’t be a big issue. It is fixable. My luthier fixed my blonde 58 by gluing a round layer of wood inside the guitar around the jack hole. The area is much more stable now.

A crack doesn’t have to be a dealbreaker. One of my personal players has a “smile” crack at the headstock and was probably repaired 30 years ago and has never been an issue. A well executed repair can save you thousands. A cosmetic crack can also save you significant money even though it will never get worse or cause you trouble. So, is a guitar with no cracks of any kind more desirable than one with a small crack somewhere? No, the crack free guitar will always be more money and more desirable but if your heart says you must have a dot neck and your budget says block, maybe you should look at a dot with a crack somewhere. An experienced luthier will know whether it will be trouble down the road.

This type of crack is generally limited to thin top 58’s but is possible on later 3×5’s as well. This early 58 was repaired by essentially adding a layer to the plywood inside the guitar. it is totally stable now.

This 59 blonde walks into a guitar dealer and it looks pretty awful. It’s sticky and it smells like feet. Do you sell it as is? No? I didn’t think so.

Aging new guitars was an interesting new concept a few decades ago and it seemed a little silly at the time to those of us who were already into vintage instruments. It was the mid 1980’s and what are now considered vintage guitars were simply considered old. The aging concept caught on and is big business today. The idea of paying extra to have someone beat up your guitar seemed ridiculous but I have been proven wrong and, frankly, it’s nearly an art form here in 2025. They scrape them, scratch them, add dings and checking and buckle rash. They tarnish the hardware and warp the plastic and even add fake headstock breaks on certain “artist” models. What they don’t do is add dirt and all that toxic crud that builds up on a vintage piece after decades in smoky bars (remember smoky bars?). Nobody wants their guitar to rub off on their arms or clothing. The crud that accumulates from sweat, smoke and spilled beer is not something you want to be touching at your regular gigs. It is probably dangerous. I suppose the “VOS” concept which is simply fake oxidation, is as close as anyone gets.

So, that leads me to my topic for today’s post. I buy a lot of very old guitars and usually they are relatively dirt free and don’t require any cleaning at all-maybe under the guard but not much else. I rarely touch the finish but when I do, it’s with a product that isn’t abrasive (I use Virtuoso Cleaner). But sometimes I get a guitar that is so covered with something brown and sticky and smelly that I have to do something. Usually the Virtuoso Cleaner will remove it. It’s made to dissolve organic matter and much of what accumulates is, in fact, organic. Tar from cigarette smoke is probably organic too but it doesn’t come off easily and will usually require some serious elbow grease and maybe an abrasive polish. Fortunately, most of the polishes available for musical instruments aren’t terribly abrasive so you aren’t removing much, if any, finish. But when it’s been twenty or thirty years of buildup, a turn on the buffing wheel might be the only way to get it off. Buffing a guitar is a tricky maneuver. I don’t do it-I don’t even have a buffing wheel. I might do some serious hand buffing with StewMac fine compound but I’d be afraid of buffing right through the finish with a wheel, so I leave that to others more skilled than me.

The photo at the top is a 1959 ES-335 blonde that spent way too much time in bars. The buildup appears dense, sticky and truly unsightly so it made sense to clean it up. I wouldn’t buy, let alone sell a guitar that was covered in human and non human debris. But I’m not the one who buffed that one. I bought it after the buffing was done. The previous dealer who had it doesn’t remember if it was done by hand or on a wheel but it’s done and no harm came of it. In fact, it looks great and has taken on a deeper blonde color. The larger question is whether buffing out a guitar damages the value and I’m kind of on the fence about that. In fifty years when the “relics” made today are considered vintage, will the man made artificial relic work be considered a negative? Is “unrelic’ing a vintage guitar by buffing it something to be avoided? It’s not an easy question. On the plus side, nothing has been added like it would be if it was oversprayed or refinished. The finish is still the factory finish. Some may have been removed by buffing but playing a guitar for fifty years also removes finish and that doesn’t bother anybody. Plenty of guitars out there with arm wear on the lower bass bout and lots of wear on the back of the neck.

Conclusion? I would rather have a guitar that wasn’t buffed but if it’s covered with toxic crud, I’d rather somebody got rid of it. I don’t think buffing should harm the value but I think it should be disclosed so that you can form your own opinion. But until Tom Murphy and company start adding “genuine human sweat, cigarette smoke and stale beer” as an extra cost aging option, I’ll stick with clean, non toxic guitars-buffed if necessary.

This is the same guitar after being buffed out. The crud is gone and it looks and smells very nice. Plays pretty well too. I’m sure someone will tell me that it sounded better before it was buffed.

Why call this post “Platypus”? A platypus is an animal that appears to have been constructed from left over or spare parts. Part mammal, part bird and maybe part reptile or amphibian. In any case it’s not like any other animal in the animal world. Shift gears to the guitar world and we’ll look at an ES guitar that is something of a platypus. It is a custom order from the days before Gibson had the Custom Shop when they would build just about anything you wanted to order. It took a while and cost extra but there are a fair number of one offs out there in the often homogenous guitar world.

OK, what makes a 335 a 335? What makes a 345 a 345? What makes a 355 a 355? I’ll take a run at this but the lines tend to blur the farther into this you go. A 335 is mono unless special ordered in stereo. A 345 is always stereo. A 355 is either. A 335 and a 345 have a simple headstock with the crown inlay whereas the 355 has the big headstock with the “split diamond” inlay. A 335 has dot markers or, later, small blocks. A 345 has split parallelograms and a 355 has big MOP block markers. 335’s have nickel hardware and single ply top binding. 345’s have gold hardware and three ply top binding. A 355 has gold hardware and 7 ply top binding. Back of the body bindings vary as well. 335’s and 345’s have rosewood fingerboards while the 355 has ebony. Other than these aspects, they are largely the same guitar. Suppose you got an ES guitar that had a mono circuit, gold hardware and an ebony board with big block markers. What would that be? It would be a mono 355. But what if that same guitar had the “crown” headstock and two ply binding on top? Those are both 345 features but, being mono, can’t be a 345. Or can it?

It was marketed as a 345 and the label says 345. I have never owned or even seen a mono 345 from 59 to 65. There are modern ones. That, to me, says it isn’t a 345 or else it’s perhaps the only mono 345 on the planet. The only feature of this guitar that is unique to a 345 are the body bindings. The gold hardware and the ebony board suggests a 355 but where’s the big split diamond headstock that is unique to 355’s (yes, other Gibsons have it but we aren’t talking about other Gibsons). I could, I suppose call it a mono 345 with a 355 board but mono kind of eliminates the 345 in my mind. More likely, I would call it a 335 with a 355 board and gold hardware (and 345 bindings). Or not. It is a true platypus.

So, how do I market it? I can simply call it a one off 345 as the previous seller did. But, the one thing that makes a 345 less desirable than a 335 is the stereo/Varitone circuit. So, I do the guitar a disservice to simply call it a custom 345. I’ll give you a similar situation…I had a red 59 ES-335 which is one of the rarest of the rare varieties. there are only 8 known. One of them is stereo with a Varitone that was special ordered. It sold for about 70% of what a stop tail red 59 335 would have brought. I know because I had a red 59 stoptail at the same time as I had the one with the Varitone. So, do I take that 30% reduction and turn it into a 30% increase in value? I’m not sure but being mono certainly should add value to a “345”. Because of the headstock, I don’t think I can call it a 355 even though the ebony board and the MOP block markers are clearly ES-355 country. I’d like to think I can call it a 335 since it has the 335 circuit and that’s the big factor in pricing 335’s vs 345’s. If 345’s were mono, they would likely be close or equal to a 335 in value just as a mono 355 is relatively close in value to a 335 with a Bigsby. I’m a big fan of one offs and if I was a collector (which you really can’t be if you’re a dealer and want to actually make a living), I’d keep this one as it is a true platypus. Call it what you want, it’s a very cool guitar.

This happens more often than we’d like but properly repaired, a headstock break can make a perfectly good player at a reasonable price. The tricky part is knowing how well it has been repaired. Take it to your luthier and get his opinion before your approval period runs out.

Nothing will send your buyer rushing for the exits faster than a neck issue. It almost doesn’t matter which neck issue it is (and there are lots of them), you can bet it’s going to impact the price. But neck issues come in many flavors. Some might drop a few hundred off the price while a major headstock break, poorly repaired or not repaired at all, will knock 40% to 60% off the value. The problem is figuring out how fixable it is and how much will it affect the playability, the investment value and the ease of selling when it’s time.

HEADSTOCK BREAK

I’m not a luthier so figuring out how fixable a neck issue is going to come from my own experiences with old guitars. Any luthier who is reading this is welcome to disagree and help us all understand the problem better. Let’s start with what most folks think is the biggest dealbreaker…a headstock break. Properly repaired, it can be stable and never be a problem going forward. The problem is how do you know how well repaired it is? Ask how long it has been since the repair. Play the guitar and pay attention to intonation and play issues like string buzz or high action. A well repaired, stable headstock break can take 40% or more off the price and you can end up with a wonderful guitar that plays and sounds as good as a museum piece. But you can bet that it won’t be easy to sell when it’s time to do so. It might appreciate at the same rate as a collector grade guitar but if you can’t sell it, it doesn’t matter how much it appreciates.

The bottom diagram (from the Fender site) shows a backbow. They call it a convex bow and it’s a very common issue.

BACKBOW

This is much harder to quantify and my experience will be the driving force here. Backbows aren’t hard to fix but they don’t always stay fixed. They also don’t always show. I know of a few ways to fix a backbow when there’s no more to be done with the truss rod (when it’s all the way loose). Heat treating, compression re-frets (look it up) and shaving the fingerboard can make a back bow go away. The problem is how long the repair is going to last. Let’s say you are listing your guitar for sale and the neck is perfect (or close to it). Are you going to disclose that it once had a problem? Probably not (especially if you don’t know). The problem is that wood isn’t predictable. Shaving the neck is almost always visible and is an effective way to compensate for a backbow. It’s expensive but it works.

Heat treating can fix it but it doesn’t always stay fixed and that is a big problem. Read this again…wood isn’t predictable. It might be perfect the day you get it back from the luthier but it could come back at any time. You paid for a no neck issue guitar but you’re getting one that is prone to neck issues. Slim necks are more likely to have a backbow but there is no foolproof way to know whether it has been properly addressed. There is no visible evidence that there has been a problem but it’s a potential time bomb.

Compression re-fretting is when you refret using larger fret tangs which force the neck to bow inward, compensating for the backbow. I’ve had this done and it worked. It might be worth trying this before you go for planing the board but it’s an awfully expensive experiment. If it doesn’t work, you are out the cost of a re-fret (I’ve been paying $800-$1000 lately for refrets on bound necks). I think it’s another time bomb.

TRUSS ROD CRACK

See that little vertical line that is lighter than the rest of the neck. The seller is going to call it a scratch or a capo mark and it could be that but it usually isn’t especially if the guitar has a very slim neck profile. It can be two inches long or 14″ long. Look closely (with a magnifier or loup) and you’ll see that the finish has jagged edges where the crack is. It’s fixable but not always disclosed.

ES Guitars with a slim neck (from front to back) are prone to what I refer to as a truss rod crack. It is usually down the middle of the back of the neck between the third fret and some fret down the fingerboard-could be the fifth or any other fret all the way to the 14th. That can be a 2″ crack or a 12″ crack. It is the result of too little wood between the truss rod and the back of the neck and too much pressure on the neck caused by tightening the truss rod. Late 60 to mid 62 ES guitars are most likely to have this issue and it’s very common. Folks will call it a scratch, a check or any number of other things because the word “crack” sends the buyers fleeing. It’s a crack. Period. The good news is that it isn’t structural. Once the problem is addressed by loosening the truss rod, the crack won’t get any worse. I have had my luthier glue it (making sure not to glue the truss rod at the same time) and it seems to stay fixed as long as pressure is kept to a minimum. That means you may not be able to get the backbow to go away without cracking it again. I haven’t had that happen and I’ve had this repair done at least a dozen times. It’s going to affect the value of the guitar and it has to be disclosed. This is something most folks didn’t know about until I started bringing it up on a fairly regular basis. I never used to see it disclosed (it’s a scratch…) but now I see it frequently (thanks for reading my stuff). It will knock a few thousand off the value depending on how long the crack is but I have found it to be something you can live with.

There are other neck issues like twists, warping, humps and dips because-I’ll say it again-wood isn’t predictable. Most are addressed by shaving the fingerboard and will affect the value of the guitar. So, strike a balance between your budget and your tolerance for issues. Any neck issue is going to affect the value and the ease of selling when it’s time to sell. The key is knowing the extent of the problem and the manner of repair. I will make one further point…I avoid guitars with neck issues most of the time. As a dealer, I don’t want to sell a guitar with a problem I can’t see or a guitar that is going to be trouble in a year or two.

It’s been a bit of a rough patch for 345’s since they surged big time during Covid. They have dropped back and the market is at a bit of a stand off. 59’s are strong but the rest seem to sit unless really well priced.

The second part of my year ender generally deals with 345’s and 355’s and this year is no different. Last year it almost looked like 345’s were going to catch up to 335’s in value. They surged ahead and sold like there was no tomorrow. And that may have been the impetus-during Covid, folks might have felt like there was no tomorrow and if there was, it didn’t look all that good. No tomorrow? Better buy stuff that makes you happy today. I think that’s what happened.

It couldn’t last. These guitars were bound to hit resistance and, sure enough, they did. Those sellers on Reverb who think they are going to get $40,000 for a 1960 or 61 ES-345 are going to be disappointed. I don’t think they will get even $25,000 and probably not even that. During Covid, I sold a 59 for $40K. That is the highest I’ve ever gotten for a non blonde or black 345 and that was a pre first rack prototype. The good news is that 345’s are, once again, a relative bargain. Most folks convert to 335 and never look back. It’s such a popular mod that it doesn’t diminish the value at all (especially if the original stereo harness and Varitone are included). There are very few mods to vintage guitars that don’t hurt the value. I think a 60-64 ES-345 in the high teens or low 20’s is a good buy. Keep your eyes open. Later ones have settled a bit as well but, as you all know, I don’t pay a lot of attention to 65-69 and I pay no attention at all to the 70’s.

Stereo 355’s didn’t really run up like the 345’s did during Covid. Probably because they all have a vibrato of some sort and that makes for a less desirable (or at least less popular) model. Big neck 59’s are rare (they went to the slimmer neck mid year in 59) and still can command a premium and stop tails are so rare, it’s hard to quantify the price trend. If yu want a stop tail, prepare to pay what the seller wants or wait a long time for another. I only know of about a dozen to 15 of them from 58-64. Bigsby versions always command a fair bit more than sideways (great for stop tail conversions) or Maestros. 99% of them are red so any color other than red is going to cost you some big dollars (especially black or blonde).

Mono 355’s have become kind of rare. I used to see a few dozen come up for sale every year but lately, they seem to be the Bigfoot of the guitar world. Today, there are just three for sale that I can find. 59’s are, as usual leading the charge. A mono 59 can command $40K if it’s clean. And that makes sense given what a 59 335 is selling for (as much as $90K for a collector grade sunburst). I’m not sure anybody is getting $90K but I know of at least two in the mid 80K range. If you don’t mind playing a guitar with a Bigsby, mono 355’s are a great choice. It’s just a fancy 335-the fancy bits used to double the price back in the day. Now they nearly cut it in half. The bargain 355-mono or stereo-are the 61-64’s. And look closely at 65’s and even some 66’s. There are wide nut versions out there from those years.

The market hasn’t really acknowledged that the “Covid Surge” is over. Folks have a hard time accepting a flattened or declining market. Most of it just leveled off but 345’s have softened and the sooner the seller acknowledge that, the sooner they will start selling again and maybe even start to run back up. They can’t appreciate of they sit on the market for months at inflated asking prices. The over all vintage market has picked up considerably after a very slow Summer, Fall and Holiday season. But January was excellent and February has shaped up pretty well too.

Clean, mono 355’s have gotten kind of scarce and the prices are quite strong for them, especially early 59’s. This one is a 60 and sold for a very high price because it was virtually brand freaking new.

A group of Rockers surround (and probably harass) a lone Mod. It could get pretty ugly and the adults in the UK at the time were very worried.

If you are over the age of, say, 65, you might recall two British entities called Mods and Rockers. Apparently the youth of the UK split into two easily definable groups…Mods and Rockers. Both groups could be considered hipsters but neither thought the other was and thus they clashed. Sometimes with violent results. Mods wore the latest Carnaby Street fashions and rode around on little motor scooters. They were usually middle class. Rockers were leather jacketed greaser types who were mostly working class. The Rockers rode big Triumphs and BSAs. They thought Mods were effete snobs. The Mods thought the Rockers were low class and dirty thugs with no taste in anything. It was a moral dilemma in mid 60’s Britain but hardly touched us here in the USA. All this history just so I can have a clever title for this post which has nothing to do with Mods and Rockers. Ringo (yes, that Ringo) was asked (in Hard Day’s Night)…”are you a Mod or a Rocker?” His answer? “I’m a Mocker.” Clever, these Beatles.

I’m actually writing about modifications done to ES guitars. Mods for rockers…get it? Thought so. Most mods are ill advised, especially on vintage guitars as they almost always lower the value. Adding a mini switch for a coil tap or phase is a bad idea. In fact, just about anything that leaves visible holes in the guitar is going to diminish the value. Want to use an aftermarket bridge? Great. Use one that fits without modifying the bridge posts. If you want to add a Bigsby to your 64 stop tail 335, you are asking for a sizable decline in its value-as much as 25%. A better idea would be to sell the stop tail and buy a 335 with a Bigsby already installed. Adding a Bigsby is not a bad mod (if you use a Bigsby) but it’s bad economics. That leads me to my larger point. There are certain mods that are good for the guitar and/or the player. All of them will diminish the value but they are worth looking for.

The most popular is adding a stop tail to a trapeze tailpiece ES. It requires two big holes in the top of your guitar and leaves four holes at the end pin. That hurts the value. But if somebody else has already done the mod (and did it right), it’s worth seeking out. It will make the guitar better and it will lower the price. Everybody’s happy, right? Yes and no. If the tailpiece is installed in the wrong location, it is glaring. So make sure you get it right. Another useful (and common) mod is moving the bridge back slightly (toward the tailpiece). 50’s and 60’s ES guitars shipped with a wound G string (plain G strings didn’t even exist) and intonated just fine. Once plain G strings became the norm, ES guitars (and most other Gibsons) ran into an intonation problem. To get the G string to intonate properly, you had to reverse the saddle and move it all the way back in its slot. If you used 10’s or 11’s, that was fine but if you wanted to use lighter guage strings, you simply ran out of room and your G string was always sharp at the upper frets. The easy fix was to move the bridge posts back about 1/8″. Fortunately, the holes from the original posts were hidden under the thumbwheels. Intonation was no longer a problem but you just dropped the value of your guitar by perhaps $1000 to even $2000.

Modding a vintage 335 doesn’t happen much these days. Most of the mods you see were done years and years ago before 335’s were worth much. If you’re going to put a stoptail on your Bigsby 335, for the love of god, put it in the right location. Unless you’re Larry Carlton, this just looks wrong. This one is off by more than an inch. Even if it’s off by 1/8″, it will look odd.

So, if you want to use 9’s on your 335, flip the G saddle around and see where you are intonation wise. If you can’t get it right, you might consider finding a 335 (345 or 355) that has already had it done. That way, it’s priced in and you haven’t diminished the value of a collectible vintage guitar.

This 59 335, once owned by Mike Landau had its bridge moved back to improve intonation. Most times, folks just drill new holes. For some reason Mike’s luthier filled the original holes before drilling the new ones. Not usually necessary.

They don’t get any rarer than “one of a kind”. This is the only known sunburst stop tail mono ES-355. It’s a 1959. There are a few other sunburst 355’s from the early 60’s but this is the only stop tail and the only 59 as far as I know.

You would think that after decades of buying and selling guitars that I would be jaded. Ho-hum, another blonde 59 335 (yawn)…Nope. I’ve written many times about the thrill of finding and ultimately buying a one of a kind vintage guitar. You know, the guitars that simply aren’t supposed to exist but, somehow, they do. Gibson and Fender both would custom make a guitar for you during the fifties and sixties. These custom orders usually took a very long time to get (a year or more) and were fairly expensive although I’ve never seen paperwork showing exactly what you might pay for a custom color or an unusual electronic configuration. The records kept by Gibson are notoriously poor so if you are lucky enough to find the ledger page that goes with the custom order you just paid stupid money for, it might show no sign that it was anything but a stock example. Early on in, say, 59, it was more likely that the ledger page would list the unusual characteristic of a special order and even show the name of the buyer or dealer it went to. By 61, that was pretty much gone and you only see the serial number, model, color and maybe if it had a Bigsby. Using the ledger page to prove your guitar is a special order is, more often than not, a fool’s errand.

I know of five black 59 ES-345’s. I’ve owned four of them. This one belonged to Geddy Lee for a while and now lives in the UK.

I love the one of a kind Gibsons and I almost always buy them when they come up. The average player/collector probably scratches his or her head and wonders why a sunburst, stop tail, mono ES-355 would be worth $125,000. Find another. (it’s the only one known). Why would a 1959 ES-345 in black be worth close to $200K? Find another (there are five of them and black is a hot color right now). There are 211 blonde 335’s from 58-60. There is one from 63 and one (a lefty) from 64 as far as we know. These rarities are all special orders. There are some other unique custom orders that I’ve found or heard of over the years. There’s a green burst 335. There are a few blonde 355’s-I’ve had a 60, a 62 and a 63. There are a couple of tenor (4 string) 345’s. There’s a lovely white ES-345 and a black 355 – both owned by Keith Richards. It goes on. If you have unlimited resources, you could probably put together a wonderful collection consisting only of special orders. There are lots of them and at the same time, they are rare as hen’s teeth.

I wish I could have afforded to keep many of them. I still have the blonde 63 ES-335 and the blonde 63 ES-355. The white ’65 ES-355 is gone as are the four black 59 ES-355’s I’ve owned. The sunburst mono stop tail 355 is gone. The blonde ebony block 62 ES-355 is also gone. There are lots more but if I think about these gems for too long, I will try to buy them back. I know where all of them are. Part of the appeal of collecting is the hunt and finding these often one of a kind special orders is great fun and very satisfying. Early in the internet era, I joined a few of the guitar forums (fora?) and used the screen name “red59dot”. I didn’t have one at the time and, in fact, I had never seen one but I was aware that a few existed. I knew about the one 58 but not a 59. I scoured the internet, magazines, newspapers and every other source I could find looking for that elusive example. I bought what was supposed to be a red 59 335 in 2001 but it turned out to be a fake. It was a 335 body but the neck was from an Epiphone with a cut down long headstock and a dot fingerboard added. The give away was a cut out in the center block under the bridge pickup which didn’t exist in 59. I eventually found 5 red 59 dot necks. It took decades but the hunt was great fun. In keeping with my “don’t fall in love” rule, I didn’t keep one for myself.

Near mint and simply stunning watermelon red 1959 dot neck 335. There are five or six of them. If there is one guitar I wish I had kept, it is this one. This ended up in California.

I recall another guitar that took me nearly five years to acquire. One of my readers wrote to me to tell me about his elderly guitar teacher’s beloved 1963 black ES-345. I made an offer immediately and was, of course, turned down. Every year for the next four or five years I made another offer (always higher). The teacher eventually passed away and the guitar was gifted to my reader. He didn’t want to sell it either as it had special sentimental value (and it was a great guitar). Eventually, the purchase price became compelling enough to make the sale happen and the hunt was over. I didn’t keep that one either. I’m a dealer, not a collector. If I was a collector, I would have an incredible collection (and I would be dead broke).

One of a kind 1963 ES-345 in factory black. Near mint and a wonderful player. Yes, it has f-holes they are just hard to see.

If you have an unusual (or unique) ES guitar from the 50’s or 60’s, let me know. If you want to sell it, I’ll probably buy it. If you don’t, I’d still like to see it and maybe write a post about it (with your permission). One more super rare one that I just acquired that is currently for sale. It is a 1963 ES-355 in factory blonde. I’ve owned a blonde 59/60, a blonde 62 and a blonde 63. Of course, Gibson didn’t make any blonde 355’s until they did.

I know of five blonde ES-335’s made before 1965. There are a few made in the late 60’s as well (I had a 68 a few years ago). I know of one 59, two 60’s, a 62 and this 63. Surprisingly, the sideways trem on this guitar works perfectly.

This is 1959 ES-335 SN A30248. It is the best sounding ES-335 I’ve ever played. It has a 58 FON, thin top, double white PAFs. Neck depth is around .88″ at the first fret and 1″ at the 12th.

I have a post ready to talk about what to do now that I’ve pretty much exhausted the ES guitars but a reader suggested that I write about the best of the ES guitars that I’ve had. I’ve covered the topic in dribs and drabs but never really drew a solid conclusion about what makes the best ones any better than the not quite the best ones (or the worst for that matter).

Let’s look at the top ten. It’s a fluid list…if you follow it through the years (if you can find the posts where mention it) you’ll see that it changes every time I talk about it. That’s simply because I get “new” guitars all the time and one of those new ones might step up and take the place of one of the others. It’s a pretty loose compilation because it’s hard to remember how good a guitar sounded that I owned twelve years ago compared to one I just got yesterday. I suppose I could have recorded them all but I don’t have good recording equipment and everything sounds like crap on an iphone. That said, there is a very clear common denominator among the top ten (and most of the top twenty). Let’s look at number one, two and three. All are 59 335’s. All have thin tops. Two of the three have double white PAFs (I’ll get into that later) and two of three have 58 FON’s. All have big necks (at least .87″ at the first fret and .98″ at the 12th. Two of the three come from the same rack T5792 and all three have serial numbers in the A30xxx range. They are A30248, A30173 and A30957…so they aren’t particularly close together by serial number.

Now, all of those things could be factors or none of those things could be factors. If we look at the rest of the top ten, all but one are thin tops so I think I can safely say that the thin 58 three ply top is a big factor. The top ten as I currently have it is as follows:

1.59 ES-335 58 FON. 2. 59 ES-335 59 FON. 3. 59 ES-335 58 FON. 4. 59 ES-355 mono 59 FON 5. 59 ES-345 59 FON. 6. 58 ES-335 58 FON. 7. 59 ES-345 59 FON. 8. 60 ES-335 58 FON. 9. 58 ES-335 58 FON. 10. 62 ES-335 (dot neck) no FON.

Five have double whites or zebras which means five have double blacks. We all know that the color of the bobbin doesn’t affect tone but the windings certainly do. Because there was no automatic stop on the old winders, the folks who did the winding (mostly women, by the way) stopped when the bobbin looked to be full. Because the color of the wire and the black bobbin are both quite dark, the winders probably were al little more cautious about overwinding. If the windings came off the bobbin, it would slow down the assembly and cost the bean counters time and money. With a white bobbin it was easier to see how close to the edge of the bobbin the windings were and because of that, double whites and zebras got a lot more turns and higher DCRs. Do higher DCR’s sound better? Some say yes. Some say no. It’s pretty subjective. Everyone has an opinion. I like a neck pickup to be in the mid 8’s and the bridge in the low 8’s. Most like a “hotter” bridge. I might add that DCR doesn’t equal output. It’s a common myth and everybody has to stop thinking that a higher DCR is better.

All are stop tails (including the 355). If we go to the top twenty, there is only one Bigsby in the group. So, I THINK I can safely say that a stop tail is a factor. All but one has a big neck (as do most of the top twenty) so that’s a likely factor as well. Neck angles are all over the place among the top ten. At least three have very shallow angles. Maybe a factor, maybe not. There are probably characteristics that are unmeasurable or impossible to know. I don’t know the composition of the plywood for any of these (and it varied). Body thickness also varied a good bit but I don’t usually measure that. For all I know, The amount of glue used to attach the neck could be a factor-I don’t look at that either.

One thing worth noting…the difference between an “average” 58 to 64 ES guitar and a top twenty ES guitar isn’t much. I don’t know that I can say that there is a measurable percentage difference. I could guess 5% maybe? Out of around 600 ES guitars that have passed through my hands, only one was a total irredeemable dog and perhaps a dozen were playable but not terribly good. So 2% of them aren’t worth playing (or paying big bucks for). Those are pretty good odds. Consider that by the 70’s, the odds of getting a bad guitar were more like 75% or 1 good one out of four (my opinion only. YMMV). Keep in mind, the best 335/345/355 for you is the one that sounds best to your ears, not mine.

This is number four. Look closely. It’s not a 335. It’s a sunburst mono ES-355. This sat in the number two position for a year or so and still resides in the top five. It is certainly the best 355 ever and is so close to the number one 335 that on a given day, I might like it better than number one. At that point it depends on the amp and my ears.

This is a 1959 ES-345 SN A29133. By serial number it is the third ES-345 ever made-nearly three months before the “first rack” 345’s were released. The FON is T7303-3 which is the last rack of 1958. The last three in the FON is it’s rank within the rack so it is probably also the third one made by that measure as well. It has some interesting features that set it apart from the other early 345’s.

A couple of years ago, I wrote about the four ES-345’s that were built on 58 bodies and given serial numbers dating to February 1959. The vaunted “first rack” 345’s were shipped in April and all have 59 FON’s. I’ve been chasing one the four that are shown in the shipping ledger for a couple of years now. The owner (it was his father’s guitar) has finally let it go and I have it. His father played in local bands around Wisconsin along with his wife, the bass player (I bought her Lake Placid Blue P Bass as well).

I got in touch with my inside guy at Gibson who checked the records to try to find the earliest 345 in the book and, sure enough, four ES-345’s were shipped on February 11th. They are, serial numbers A29131-A29134. The FON is very late 58-T7303-xx. Strangely, there is also a rack designated as S7303 and that’s not supposed to happen. Did they forget to change the letter on the stamp (like the Fender amp charts from ’66) and then noticed it part way through the rack? Consider this (this is really geeky): serial number A 29132 and 29133-both 345’s both have the FON T7303. Serial number A 29548 (6 weeks later, more or less) is S7303. The FONs are supposed to be sequential and chronological with the letter changing at the first of the year and the numbers simply continuing. So, 7304 could have been an “S” but 7303 could not since it was already a “T”. Clear as mud. Right?

So, there are four 345’s that I’ll have to call “pre first rack”. They have nearly all of the same features as the typical first rack 345’s-small rout for the Varitone choke, thin top and huge neck. But where is the short leg PAF? It isn’t there. The bridge PAF has the treble side leg carefully folded up so it doesn’t hit the choke. Apparently Gibson hadn’t quite figured that part out yet. A29133, like most (if not all) early 345’s is a killer player. It has been heavily played and shows some battle scars and the residue of more than a few smoky dance halls. It still has its original SVT harness but I am considering converting it to 335 spec. It seems that around 95% of buyers really don’t want to deal with the stereo aspect and most aren’t that wild about the Varitone either. It’s fun for a week but it’s usefulness for most folks is pretty limited. My personal 59 345 (my main player) is converted.

There are also two others that shipped in the period between Feb 11 and April 20th. One is A29623 which would be the 5th one shipped. There is one other and then the blonde A29656 mentioned in the first paragraph that has been the earliest known for some time. I’ve been compiling a FON database for nearly four years now and the more entries I make, the more confusing it gets. The overlaps at year end is just the beginning but that’s another post. So, were the first four ES-345 prototypes? Probably not since they shipped to dealers and they had no unusual notes on the ledger page. Were there prototypes before these first four shipped? Hard to know. It’s possible there were but none have surfaced.

Just in case you aren’t confused enough, the first 345 was supposed to have gone to Hank Garland in 1958 but his is serial number A29915 which is a lot later — mid May 59. But, to add fuel to the controversy, I have A29914 in my database (the one right before Hank’s supposed prototype) and it was from the earliest numerical “first rack” (S8537) if you don’t include the recently discovered ones I’m writing about. So, how is that possible? The Garland family’s recollection and “paperwork” is a little slippery, so I wouldn’t put too much stock in their “certificate of authenticity”, signed, not by anyone at Gibson, but by Hank Garland and a Robert B. Garland.  No way to know anything for sure about this, so, let’s put that aside.

In any case, conventional wisdom is once again blown to bits. We have an earlier and probably the earliest run of 345’s there is. Two have surfaced-A29132 is a Bigsby with pearl dots and A29133 is a stop tail. Keep your eyes open for A29131-that’s supposed to be the first. Thanks to the nice folks at Gibson for their help.

Bubble Puppy. 1969.

Nice outfits.

I can’t believe nobody gets the reference. I’ve had emails asking me what I mean by the title and the first line of the last post. Here’s the explanation, although I’m a little annoyed that I have to explain it…The guitar market is close to being in a bubble. That’s the bubble part. Most of you who read this blog are younger than I am, so I can certainly refer to most of you as “puppies”. OK, that was easy. But wait. There’s more. There was a band out of Texas-a one hit wonder, really, called Bubble Puppy in the late 60’s. Their one hit (and hence the opening line of my last post) was called “Hot Smoke and Sasafrass” (sp) a line they lifted from the 60’s sitcom, The Beverly Hillbillies where Granny said, “Hot smoke and sassafras, Jethro, can’t you do anything right?” You could have simply googled it, ya know. OK, more stuff to talk about.

Nothing like a red ES-345. The 59’s are crazy rare (9 known) but a 60 is pretty common. Find an early 60 and it will have the guaranteed to fade “watermelon” red finish. But look out, 345’s are up. Way up. Make offers and don’t overpay.

ES-345’s have been, for as long as I’ve been a vintage dealer, the best deal in vintage Gibsons. You could get a 345 for half the price of a similar year 335 and it is every bit as good. Don’t like the stereo and the Varitone? Easy fix for around $400. The ceiling on a stop tail 59 ES-345 had been hovering around $20,000 for years. When folks became more aware of the early “first rack” 345’s, the $20K barrier broke and only the hundred or so first racks broke into the low $20K range. Red 59’s are crazy rare and don’t count here. A stop tail 60 345 was in the mid to high teens and a 61-64 hovered around $14K. Bigsby’s were 15-20% less. As block necks started creeping up, the 345’s followed. I’m seeing Bigsby 345’s over $20K. I’m seeing 60’s and 61’s pushing $30K. That’s nearly double what they were just a couple of years ago. I’m looking at asking prices since I don’t know what everybody else is actually selling them for. I’ve considered 345’s underpriced for many years and I’m happy they are getting some respect but I think they’ve overshot the mark. If I have to pay inflated prices, then you will have to as well. It is my hope that there won’t be the standoff between stubborn sellers and savvy buyers that can really hurt the market. I believe that if you’re spending $20K on a 345, it had better not have a Bigsby (or the “snakebite). Seriously, if a 62 335 is trying to be a $25,000 guitar, then a 62 345 isn’t likely to be a $20,000 guitar. There is a Bigsby 62 listed for $20K. There is a red 60 (with a snakebite) listed for $27500. Makes that 59 stop tail listed at $26K look like a deal. Blonde 345’s are so rare, it’s impossible to track them. They only made 50 of them and you can expect them to be in the $50K-$90K range if you can find one.

Finally, let’s take a look at ES-355’s. Monos have entered the bubble for sure. Last year, I sold a few mono 59’s and 60’s in the mid to upper $20K range. Until recently, mono 355’s have been undervalued but not any more. Now, if you can find any, expect to pay $30K or more. I haven’t seen many collector grade monos for a while. A lot of 355’s have a sideways trem and that keeps the prices a bit lower than a same year Bigsby. Stereo 355’s can still be found at fairly reasonable prices. I sold a stereo 62 for under $15K in 2020 and I see them holding in the mid to upper teens. I don’t like a Maestro on an ES guitar very much but you can still find a 64 Maestro equipped 355 for under $15K. That’s starting to look like a deal. And don’t overlook 65’s. A lot of them have the big neck like a 64. I even had a 66 last year with a wide nut. Unusual but not unheard of. Find yourself a big neck 65 for under $10K (they’re out there) and you’ve bought a great guitar for half what a similarly configured 335 might cost you. If you can manage the slim neck, a later 60’s 355 can be a great deal-you aren’t likely to get t-tops until 69. The 66 I had last year had one purple winding patent and one orange wound patent. Forget about blonde 355’s. I know of less than 10.

Mono 355’s are still one of my favorite guitars but they have gotten rather pricey and it’s no surprise. They didn’t make all that many (no more than a few hundred a year). Stereo 355’s can still be a relative bargain, especially those with a sideways trem (good candidate to convert to stop tail-no holes in the top).