1966 Gibson ES-345 TD Semihollow Electric Guitar

Overview: A buddy of mine sent this in ages ago for resale. It arrived quite dirty and with the wiring completely mucked-up, though the immediate reaction all of us had in the workshop was, "what a cool guitar!" It has the look and now the feel of a longtime friend -- relaxed and ready for whatever wild adventures await. Post-repairs, it now sounds and plays as good as it looks, too.

Interesting features: The worn, weather-checked, and slightly-dulled finish has the look. It's distressed in all of the right ways. Its buckers and the body hardware are all-original, as well, though the wiring harness and tuners are not. The neck is quick and it has a narrower nut but I don't feel crowded when I play it.

Repairs included: Ancel gave it a level/dress of the frets, cleaned-up the finish a ton (it had ghosting and crud all over it), and set it up and then I yanked the original harness, Varitone, and choke out and rewired it with 335 mono specs -- two volume and tone controls, 500k pots, a 3-way switch, and orange drop caps running to a Switchcraft jack. The pickups are still out-of-phase in the middle position (as per normal on most old 345s) and some hood-opening on the buckers and shuffling-around in there would be required to change that. It's playing spot-on and ready to go.

• Weight: 7 lbs 13 oz
• Scale length: 24 1/2"
• Nut width: 1 9/16"
• Neck shape: slim-medium C
• Board radius: 10"
• Depth at first fret: 55/64"
• Depth at seventh fret: 61/64"
• Body width: 16"
• Body depth: 1 5/8"
• Body wood: ply maple
• Bridge: original adjustable
• Fretboard: rosewood
• Neck wood: mahogany
• Pickups: 2x original humbuckers
• Action height at 12th fret: 1/16” overall (fast, spot-on)
• String gauges: 46w-10
• Truss rod: adjustable
• Neck relief: straight
• Fret style: lower/wider (original stock)

Condition notes: As noted, the original wiring harness has been removed and the Varitone switch hole in the top has been filled. The original wiring harness bits -- including the choke -- are all in a bag and will be included with the guitar. All the rest of the hardware appears original except for the tuners which look like older replacements to me (considering the way the rest of the gold plating has worn on the guitar). The finish is all-original but has a lot of weather-check and clearcoat cracking throughout. It's got a duller, semi-gloss look to it, too, as it had to have a lot of massaging to remove a ton of grunge on the surface. Any remaining "nibs" at the fretboard edges that were left after years and years or play succumbed to the last level/dress job done before it arrived here. Last bit -- the treble-side, 5th-fret inlay is a replacement -- actual pearl rather than pearloid. Ancel fit that in there -- it's the guitar's "one gold tooth," so to speak.

It comes with: It has a decent gigbag (sorry, no hard case) and the old parts will be included with it.

Consignor tag: SSCH