Rare ES-350TD Natural with a Pointed Cutaway and Two PAF's

This very rare Natural ES-350TD has a single Florentine (pointed) cutaway and two original PAF pickups. It weighs just 6.70 lbs. and has a nut width of slightly under 1 11/16 inches and a short scale length of 23 1/2 inches. Curly maple body, two-piece maple neck with mahogany strip, and rosewood fretboard with 22 jumbo frets and inlaid pearl split-parallelogram position markers. Headstock with inlaid pearl "Gibson" logo and pearl crown inlay. Individual Kluson 'double-line' Deluxe tuners with single-ring Keystone plastic buttons (stamped on the underside "D-169400 / Patent No". Two original PAF 'double-black' pickups with black plastic surround balanced and nicely balanced outputs of 7.72k and 7.82k. Five-layer (black/white/black/white/black) plastic pickguard. Four controls (two volume, two tone) plus three-way selector switch. Gold plastic bell-shaped "Bell" knobs (with the metal discs removed). Slightly later Gibson Tune-O-Matic retainer bridge with nylon saddles, Bigsby tailpiece. All hardware gold-plated. A minimal amount of tiny scratch marks on the back, some nice finish checking. Two tiny additional strap button holes on the dowel at the end of the neck (one has been filled in). There is a tiny amount of clear lacquer overspray on part of the back of the neck (which was done more than twenty-five years ago!). The Bigsby tailpiece was most likely fitted to this guitar at a slightly later date (as is evidenced by four tiny screw holes which are hidden by the bracket on the Bigsby). At some time the tuners had been removed and replaced with single-screw Grovers as is evidenced only by the slightly larger shaft-holes (only visible when the tuners are removed). The tuners now on the guitar are gold plated double-line Kluson Deluxe (ca. 1964-69). With all that said this exceptional guitar plays and sounds like a dream and is in overall (9.00) condition. Complete with the original hang-tag. Housed in the original Gibson brown five-latch hardshell case with pink plush lining (8.75).

"The ES-350T (at first no final D) was introduced in 1955 as an alternative to the posher Byrdland. The model shared the same thin-body and neck dimensions as the Byrdland but featured the all-maple construction and less fancier ornamentation of its predecessor, the full-body ES-350. The sales of the ES-350TD began to decline in 1960 and the model was eventually discontinued in 1963. Between 1955 and 1963 three variants were successively marketed...The first variant of the 350T is primarily characterized by its single coil P-90 pickups, otherwise featuring a shorter pole spacing to accommodate the narrow neck of the model...In early 1957 the 350T was one of the first Spanish electrics to be equipped with humbuckers as a substitute for the original single coil pickups. All the other basic specifications remained unchanged except for the installation of a slightly modified tailpiece with enlarged upper loops and ES-350T engraved on the crossbar. From 1959 the model was built with a regular nut width (1-11/16 inch) while keeping the same short scale neck. The designation was also officially changed to ES-350TD. In late 1960 the body was restyled with a deep Florentine cutaway to facilitate access to the fingerboard. The newer body shape entailed the use of a slightly shorter pickguard, but all the other specifications remained unchanged... (A.R. Duchossoir, Gibson Electrics -- The Classic Years, pp. 235-236). The Florentine ES-350 is one of the rarest of all the Gibson archtops with only a total production run of 217 guitars being made made between late 1960 and 1963. Of the 217 examples shipped by the factory only 62 were in the rarer 'Natural' finish. In 1962, only eighteen ES-350TDs were shipped in Natural, as opposed to fifty-nine in Sunburst.