One of Only Forty-Nine Original PAF ES-295s!

Yes, it really is an original PAF ES-295! This incredibly rare guitar weighs just 6.50 lbs. and has a very comfortable nut width of 1 11/16 inches and a standard Gibson scale length of 24 3/4 inches. Reminiscent of the ES-175, with the same sharp-edged single Florentine cutaway and pearl split-parallelogram inlays, this wonderful guitar has a 16-inch-wide laminated maple body, one-piece mahogany neck, and 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 Kluson Deluxe tuners with single-ring Keystone plastic buttons. Two original PAF humbucker pickups with thumping outputs of 7.58k and 7.99k. Clear plastic pickguard back-painted in cream and embossed with a gold floral design. Four controls (two volume, two tone) on lower treble bout plus three-way selector switch on upper bass bout. Gold plastic bell-shaped "Bell" knobs. Les Paul combination trapeze bridge/tailpiece with strings looping over the bridge. All hardware gold-plated. With the original Gibson orange oval label inside the bass f-hole, with the style ("ES-295") written in black ink and the serial number ("A 27966") stamped in black. This guitar is in excellent (8.50) condition. There is some light body checking, a small area on the side of the treble horn where the gold finish is peeling away, and a little tarnishing to the gold-plated parts, but otherwise, the body is exceptionally clean. The back of the neck shows considerable finish wear, as usual, due to the reaction of moisture from the player's hand. There is only one negative issue with this phenomenally rare guitar -- the two cream-colored plastic pickup rings have been changed for ones that are ten years later (i.e.,1968). Two of the tuner buttons (the D and the G) have shrunken slightly, which is quite natural. Otherwise all else is totally original and untouched and this is an exceptional example of an extremely rare guitar -- one of only forty-nine PAF ES-295s ever made. A wonderful opportunity to own this incredibly rare guitar! This actual guitar is featured on p. 153 of Norman's Rare Guitars: 30 Years of Buying, Selling and Collecting. Housed in the original brown hardshell case with purple plush lining (8.00).

"The ES-295 was introduced in 1952 as the hollow body counterpart of the original Les Paul model. This is true in terms of finish, electronics and hardware, but otherwise the 295 is essentially a fancier twin pickup ES-175…At the end of 1957, i.e. slightly later than the 175 models, the ES-295 was in turn fitted with a pair of humbuckers. To comply with the all-gold finish of the instrument, cream-coloured plastic rings were used to mount the gold-plated humbuckers. The change of pickups did not revive the flagging fortunes of the ES-295 (still equipped with the Les Paul tailpiece) and the model was discontinued in Summer 1958. According to factory records, the last production guitars (#A27993 through A28009) were registered in August. However, the 295 nearly came back in 1959. As indicated in Part One, the gold colour was blamed for the declining popularity of the Les Paul model and ES-295 in the late 50s. In 1959 four 295s were specially built for the Summer convention and registered on 27th May. Two were finished in cherry red (#A30224 and A30225) and two in Argentine Grey (#A30226 and A30227). But apparently CMI did not think a new finish was sufficient to justify a return and the 295 was definitely abandoned" (A.R. Duchossoir, Gibson Electrics -- The Classic Years, pp. 173-174).