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ES-330 Guitars

1968 Gibson ES-330

Color: Tobacco Sunburst, Rating: 9.50, Sold (ID# 01063)
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A Unique Special Factory Order

This factory special-order guitar weighs just 5.80 lbs. and has a standard Gibson scale length of 24 3/4 inches. Unique single-bound laminated maple body with no sound-holes. One-piece mahogany neck with a medium-to-fat profile and a nut width of 1 9/16 inches. Rosewood fretboard with 22 medium-jumbo frets and inlaid pearl block position markers. Headstock with inlaid pearl "Gibson" logo. Two-layer (black on white) plastic truss-rod cover with "Custom" engraved in white. Serial number "518852" impressed into the back of the headstock. Individual "double-line" Kluson Deluxe tuners with white plastic oval buttons. Two P-90 pickups with chrome-plated covers and nicely balanced outputs of 8.21k and 8.24k. 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 ribbed-side conical-shape "Witch Hat" knobs with metal tops. Patent Number ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic retainer bridge with nylon saddles and original trapeze tailpiece with raised diamond on cross-bar. All hardware chrome-plated. This fabulous guitar is in absolutely mint (9.50) condition - in fact it has hardly ever been played. Housed in its original Gibson five-latch black hardshell case with orange plush lining (9.25).

This is the only Sealed-top ES-330TD that we have ever heard of… This is also one of the very few ES-330’s with an ES-335 style neck with the neck joining the body at the 19th fret (as opposed to the usual 16th fret body joint).
This option was only available for 1968-71 and only a very few of these guitars were produced.

"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).

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.

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