A Very Early 1969 Gibson ES-340 TDN - No Volute! - No Made in USA
Wiring has been converted to standard ES-335

1969 Gibson ES-340 TDN

A very early ES-340-TDN. This forty-nine year-old 'blond' beauty weighs just 8.00 lbs. and has a 16 inch wide and just under 1 3/4 deep body. Laminated maple top and back, laminated maple sides with single binding on the top and back and semi-solid construction with maple central block. The two sound holes are white painted on their edges. Three-piece maple neck with two mahogany center-strips with a nut width of 1 9/16 inches, a standard Gibson scale length of 24 3/4 inches, and an extremely comfortable medium neck profile. Bound rosewood fretboard with 22 original jumbo frets and inlaid pearl block  position markers. Headstock with inlaid pearl "Gibson" logo and pearl crown inlay. Individual 'double-line' Kluson Deluxe tuners with double-ring Keystone plastic buttons and "D-169400 PATENT NO." stamped on the inside. Two "Patent Number" humbucker pickups with black plastic surrounds and strong outputs of 6.60k and 7.56k. Each pickup with a small black rectangular label on the underside with "Patent No. / 2,737,842" in gold". The pickup "rings" are the original black plastic stamped underneath "MR 491" and "M-69 7" (neck pickup) and "MR 490" and "M-69 8" (bridge pickup). Five-layer black over white plastic pickguard. Four controls (one master volume, one mixer volume and two tone) plus three-way 'in-phase', 'out-of-phase', and 'standby' selector switch, all on lower treble bout. NOW CONVERTED TO: "Four controls (Two volume and two tone) plus three-way selector switch." The potentiometers are stamped "137 6850" (CTS, December 1968). Black plastic bell-shape control knobs with metal tops. Gibson Tune-O-Matic retainer bridge with metal saddles and trapeze tailpiece. With the original Gibson orange oval label inside the bass 'f'-hole, the style "ES-340 TDN" and the serial number "541182" written in black ink. This is a very early ES-340 and has the pre-1969 nut width of 1 9/16 inches (1965-1968), no 'dreaded volute', no 'Made in USA' stamp, pearl inlaid headstock logo with open 'B' and 'O' (1948-1969), no "Union Made" on the oval orange label (1964-1969), and Kluson Deluxe 'double-line' tuners (1964-1969. An extremely beautiful instrument in exceptionally fine (9.00) condition. There is some fine lacquer checking and just a couple of very small and insignificant surface marks on the top and a couple on the back of neck behind the nut. This guitar has been lovingly played - there is some playing wear to the original jumbo frets  and there are some small 'divots' on the fretboard - the original frets have plenty of life left in them. Housed in the original Gibson five-latch black hardshell case with orange plush lining (8.75).

The original circuitry as described below is somewhat of a guitarist's nightmare… when we purchased this guitar the
three-way switch (unique to this guitar) was not working properly and try as we did we could not find a replacement. Our luthier has replaced the switch with a standard three-way and has altered to wiring to a standard ES-335 specification. the guitar plays and sounds great and you do not need a masters in circuitry to play it!

Gibson ES-340 TD Archtop (1969-1973 )
In late 1968 the gibson guitar company in kalamazoo michigan introduced the ES-340 TD , these guitars were more expensive and very similar to their more popular ES-335 models but instead had a laminated maple neck, a master volume and mixer controls (the toggle switch had settings of pickups in-phase, pickups out-of-phase, and standby)... These Gibson guitars were made in various colors however most of them were made in walnut or natural finishes, (seen a rare one with a wine red finish ). The ES 340 was and still is an outstanding guitar and inspired many guitar players at the time because of its versatility in its electronics. The guitar used two pots mounted on one shaft to provide pick up selection, this system provides a gradually changing amount of pick up mixing which standard toggle switches can't do. In 1973 the ES-335 over shadowed the ES-340, it was fitted with a coil tap that could recreate the same out of phase wiring as as the ES-340... Due to the price difference and similarity of both guitars , the ES 340 was short lived and discontinued in 1973. For guitar technicians out there you can get the ES-340 schematics here from Gibson. Specs: The ES-340 had an arched maple top, maple back /sides and neck, raised black pickguard, tune-o-matic bridge, stop or trapeze tailpiece, crown logo inlays on the peghead, two covered humbuckers, nickel hardware, pearl dot or rectangular inlays, 3 position selector switch, and bound body .