Since late 1958, when Gibson launched it as the more upmarket version of yer bog standard ES-335, the superb ES-345 has attracted big name players past, present and future: the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir, George Harrison, Keith Richards, Joe Bonamassa, Ella Feingold, Steve Howe of Yes, BB King, Marcus King… and the time travelling Marty McFly.
18 separate sounds
Gibson’s 1959 trade paper release announced, “The Varitone selector switch produces 18 separate sounds, and creates hundreds of voices when coupled with tone controls.” And there was more than just the Varitone: a solid Maple centre block; twin PAF humbuckers, (more on which, momentarily); stylish split parallelogram fingerboard inlays; and down there near the Varitone control, Gibson’s “sideways Vibrola”. (Or Bigsby by custom order)
PAF
By the early seventies, Gibson’s patent application, (the PA in the humbuckers’ Patent Applied For stickers), had been approved, so, while the pickups themselves remained essentially the same, the PAF stickers had now become patent number stickers, (Pat. No.), although the company played a deceptive hand with their competitors, by printing the patent number* for a trapeze tailpiece, thereby totally confounding anyone thinking they’d just rock on down to the patent office and discover how to copy the famous pickups!
Beatles
Amusingly – though bear in mind that the Beatles had not yet impacted the guitar buying public at the time of publication – a 1964 Gibson ad makes several mentions of these being jazz guitars. (Similarly, Fender were still trying to sell the Jazzmaster to that same market)
345 TD
Also from the Gibson chuckles department, it seems they’ve never entirely settled on what the full model designation actually is/was. We’ve had people chasing 345s, insisting that they’re only interested in a 345 TD model, or a TDS, etc. All ES-345 are technically TD models. Here’s the breakdown: ES-345 TD – Thinline, Double, (or Dual) pickup; some also marked as TDC, for Cherry; some as TDS, for Stereo, (or briefly for Sunburst); and some with the lot: TDCS! (And the occasional V, for the sideways Vibrola. Somebody could probably write a research paper titled Consistency in the Gibson Records Department – and that’s before we even mention the period where they recycled serial numbers!
Condition
So, Maple & Poplar body, here finished at Gibson’s old Kalamazoo factory in a gorgeous transparent Cherry nitro; Mahogany neck; Rosewood fingerboard, with the previously mentioned split parallelogram inlays; gold-plated nickel hardware; witch hat knobs; plus stereo output, (requires a Y-splitter cable), and a long ago added roller bridge, plus a phase switch, across the f-hole from the 3-way. The whole thing is in Excellent+ condition, with no fingerboard divots, extremely minimal fret wear, and playwear consistent with a guitar maybe only ten or fifteen years old – certainly not somewhere over fifty! (We haven’t been able to get a more exact production date from the pot codes, but the serial number and interior Norlin label places this firmly between 1970 and 1973, and comparing serial numbers in the same 182XXX number range heavily points to it being a 1973 model)
Free courier delivery
Complete with its original hard shell case, this magnificent piece of Gibson music making history comes with our FREE COURIER DELIVERY to any address in Australia – generally 1 - 2 days on the east coast, more distant areas slightly longer. $100 airfreight to New Zealand, (usually 2 days), and $175 to the US, Canada, UK and mainstream European countries, (3 - 5 days)
*Pat. No. 2,735,842
Just Guitars
