An Exceptionally Fine 1960 Gibson ES-330T

1960 Gibson ES-330T

This sixty-two year old lightweight guitar weighs just 5.50 lbs. Laminated maple top, back, and sides. One-piece mahogany neck with a standard Gibson scale length of 24 3/4 inches, a nice fat nut width of 1 11/16 inches and a not-too-thin to medium profile rising gently from 0.82 inch behind the 1st fret to 0.84 at the 5th to 0.87 at the 9th and 0.92 inch at the 12th fret. Brazilian rosewood fretboard with 22 original jumbo frets and inlaid pearl dot position markers. Inlaid pearl "Gibson" headstock logo. Individual Kluson Deluxe 'single-line' tuners with white plastic oval buttons and "D-169400 / PATENT NO." stamped inside. One black P-90 pickup with a strong output of 8.32k. Five-layer blck over white plastic pickguard secured by two screws. Two controls (one volume, one tone) with gold plastic bell-shaped knobs. ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic non-retainer bridge with metal saddles and trapeze tailpiece with raised diamond on cross-bar. All of the hardware is nickel-plated and the FON (Factory Order Number) "R 4566 14" is stamped in black inside the treble f-hole. The original frets show some minor playing wear (first five frets only) and the fretboard shows virtually no wear. There is a tiny 'filled' screw hole on the treble horn where a strap button had been fitted, otherwise this guitar is in exceptionally fine (9.00) condition and is housed in it's original worn but sound Gibson three-latch, shaped soft-shell 'aligator' case with brown felt lining (8.75).

Known affectionately as the "poor man's dot neck guitar," the ES-330 was numerically speaking, the biggest seller of the double cutaway series in the late fifties and early sixties, even if it was not a real semi-solid guitar! Built with the same body shape as the ES-335, but not the same solid construction, the ES-330T/TD were originally introduced in 1959 as a replacement for the single cutaway ES-225T/TD. 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 as opposed to the 335's stop tailpiece.

The "dot-neck" ES-330T was introduced in 1959, and a total of approximately 1,500 guitars were made until the model was discontinued in mid-1962. This example is one of 772 made in 1960.