One of 267 "Dot-Neck" ES-330Ts Made in 1961

The lightest (5.20 lbs.) 16-inch double cutaway thinline, with laminated maple top, back, and sides and a scale length of 24 3/4 inches. One-piece mahogany neck with a medium thickness nut width of 1 11/16 inches, and a rosewood fretboard with 21 frets and pearl dot inlays. Individual closed-back tuners with white oval plastic buttons. One screaming black P-90 pickup with an output of 8.35k. Five-layer (black/white/black/white/black) plastic pickguard. Two controls (one volume, one tone) with gold plastic bell-shape knobs with metal tops. Tune-O-Matic bridge and trapeze tailpiece with raised diamond on cross-bar. This wonderful guitar is in near mint and unfaded condition, and is housed in a later Gibson brown hardshell case with purple plush lining (9.50). The "dot-neck" ES-330T was introduced in 1959, and a total of 1,763 guitars were made until the model was discontinued in 1963. This fine example is one of 267 made in 1961 and originally cost a cool $210.00.

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 was originally introduced in 1959 as a replacement for the single cutaway ES-225T. The main differences from the more expensive ($282.50) ES-335 (apart from having only one pickup) were the absence of the solid center block and the use of a trapeze tailpiece rather than the 335's stop tailpiece. This example is one of the first variants, characterized by a dot-inlaid fretboard and black plastic-covered pickups. These guitars are very underrated and undervalued...and disappearing fast!

The ES-330T is structurally identical to the ES-330TD twin-pickup version, except for a single pickup placed halfway between the fretboard and the bridge. Incidentally, it can be argued that the declining popularity of the model in the early 1960s probably originated in this awkward appointment, which was definitely phased out on all electrics with the demise of the ES-330T.