An Immaculate Blond 1955 ES-350N

One of only 14 ES-350Ns shipped in 1955 (an additional 44 ES-350s were shipped that year), out of a total of 223 ES-350Ns shipped between 1951 and 1956. This 17-inch-wide guitar weighs just 6.30 lbs. and has a nice, fat nut width of just over 1 11/16 inches and a scale length of 25 1/2 inches. Laminated maple body with triple binding on the top and bottom edges, three-piece maple/mahogany/maple neck, and bound rosewood fretboard with 20 frets and inlaid pearl split-parallelogram position markers. Headstock with inlaid pearl "Gibson" logo and pearl crown inlay. Individual single-line "no-name" Kluson Deluxe tuners with single-ring Keystone plastic buttons. Two very strong P-90 pickups with outputs of 7.73k and 7.82k. Five-layer (black/white/black/white/black) plastic pickguard. Four controls (two volume, two tone) plus three-way selector switch on upper treble bout. Gold plastic barrel-shaped "Speed" knobs. ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic non retainer bridge on Rosewood base with trapeze tailpiece with pointed ends and three small raised parallelograms. There is a small area of surface wear on the back of the neck behind the ninth fret caused by the guitar sitting in its case for the last fifty years and some wonderful finish checking. Otherwise this guitar is as mint as the day it left the factory and is complete with its original matching hang tag. Housed in its original Gibson brown hardshell case with purple plush lining. (9.25). Complete with an original lead (?) and various old flatwound strings which may even be the original strings supplied in 1955...what a find!

"Following the introduction of the L-5CES and Super 400CES, the circuitry of the 350 was modified in late 1952 to incorporate individual volume and tone controls for each pickup and a 3-position toggle switch. All the other specifications remained unchanged. The final variant is sometimes referred to as the 'Farlow model' as it was the guitar used by jazz virtuoso Tal Farlow during the 50s.

In 1955 the ES-350 was fitted with a fully adjustable Tune-O-Matic bridge shortly before being discontinued as a full body electric. The same year, the thin-bodied ES-350T with shorter neck was unveiled and the regular 350 was definitively phased out in 1956" (A.R. Duchossoir, Gibson Electrics -- The Classic Years, p. 178).

According to Duchossoir, a total of 117 ES-350s with Tune-O-Matics were shipped from the factory between 1955 - 1956, but out of these only 18 had the very rare Natural finish.