Super Rare "Blonde" ES-330TDN

This super rare "blonde" guitar weighs just 5.9 lbs. Laminated maple top, back, and sides, one-piece mahogany neck, and rosewood fretboard with 22 wide jumbo frets and inlaid pearl dot position markers. Serial number "R 4998 25" stamped inside treble f-hole. With a nice fat nut width of just over 1 11/16 inches and a standard Gibson scale length of 24 3/4 inches. Individual closed-back Kluson Deluxe tuners with white plastic oval buttons. Two hot black P-90 pickups with outputs of 8.27k and 7.96k. Five-layer (black/white/black/white/black) plastic pickguard with bevelled edge. Four controls (two volume, two tone) plus three-way selector switch. Gold plastic bell-shaped "Bell" knobs with metal tops. ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic retainer bridge and trapeze tailpiece with raised diamond on cross-bar. Apart from the usual body checking and a few small and insignificant marks, this incredibly rare guitar is in exceptionally fine condition. Housed in its original Gibson brown hardshell case with purple plush lining (8.50). Also included is the original "Gibson Handy Polish Kit" with polish and polishing cloth in the original box.

Built with the same body shape as the ES-335T, but not the same semi-solid construction, the ES-330T/TD were originally introduced in 1959 as a replacement for the single cutaway ES-225T/TD. The single pickup version was phased out in 1963, but the ES-330TD remained in production until 1972. The main differences from the more expensive ($282.50) ES-335 were the absence of the solid center block and the use of a trapeze tailpiece rather than a stop tailpiece. All examples have the usual dot inlays on the neck. The ES-330TDN was only made between 1959 and 1960 with just 79 guitars shipped in 1959 and 215 in 1960. The original price in 1959 was $265.00.