An Original "Dot-Neck" 330
"With Mickey-Mouse Ears"

This unbelievably light (5.60 lbs.) guitar has a nice, fat nut width of 1 11/16 inches and a standard Gibson scale length of 24 3/4 inches. Single-bound laminated maple body, one-piece mahogany neck with a medium profile, and rosewood fretboard with 22 original jumbo frets and inlaid pearl dot position markers. Headstock with inlaid pearl "Gibson" logo. Two-layer (black on white) plastic truss-rod cover. Individual single-line Kluson Deluxe tuners with white plastic oval buttons (stamped on the underside "D-169400 / Patent No". Serial number ("34708") impressed into the back of the headstock. Two hot P-90 pickups with black plastic covers and outputs of 7.73k and 8.35k. Five-layer (black/white/black/white/black) plastic pickguard. Four controls (two volume, two tone) plus three-way pickup selector switch, all on lower treble bout. Black plastic bell-shaped knobs with metal tops. ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic non-retainer bridge with nylon saddles and original trapeze tailpiece with raised diamond on cross-bar. All hardware nickel-plated. This guitar, with its great, solid feeling '61 neck, is in excellent plus (8.75) condition, with minimal belt buckle scarring and one small mark (about the size of a match head) on the back of the guitar, a few small marks on the sides of the body and the headstock, and a few small marks on the back of the neck. When we removed the tailpiece, we noticed four additional tiny holes (which are hidden by the tailpiece) which suggests that at one time another style of tailpiece was fitted to this guitar. Housed in its original Gibson brown hardshell case with purple plush lining (7.50).

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!" (A.R. Duchossoir, Gibson Electrics from the Origins up to 1961, p. 158).

"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. Two main variants are usually distinguished up to the mid-60s...The first variant is characterized by a dot-inlaid fingerboard and black plastic-covered pickups...The ES-330TD was originally offered in sunburst and natural finish but in the course of 1960 the popular cherry red was substituted for natural...In mid-62 the fingerboard was enhanced with small pearloid block inlays and at the end of the year the the pickups were fitted with metal covers. The transitional instruments made during the second half of 1962 therefore feature block markers and black plastic-covered pickups" (A.R. Duchossoir, Gibson Electrics -- The Classic Years, p. 230).