Roll Over Beethoven… The Earliest 'Sideway' Vibrola We Have Ever Seen.

One of just 123 ES-355TD/SVs made in the first year 1959. This beautiful example weighs just 9.30 lbs. and has a nut width of just under 1 11/16 inches and a standard Gibson scale length of 24 3/4 inches. Laminated maple body with maple central block, one-piece mahogany neck with a typical 1959 medium-to-thick profile, bound ebony fretboard with 22 original jumbo frets and inlaid pearl block position markers. Multi-bound headstock with inlaid pearl "Gibson" logo and pearl five-piece split-diamond inlay. Two-layer (black on white) plastic truss-rod cover with "Stereo" engraved in white. The body is multi-bound on the top (seven-ply) and the back (three-ply). With an orange oval label inside the bass f-hole with style "ES-355T" written in black ink and the serial number "A 31607" stamped in black. Also "Stereo" stamped in black just beside the label. Inside the treble f-hole, stamped in black is the FON (factory order number) "S 606 10". Individual Grover Roto-Matic tuners with half-moon metal buttons. Two original PAF 'double-black' pickups with black plastic surround and outputs of 9.12k and 8.13k. The neck pickup is a "double black" and the bridge pickup is a "Zebra". "Long" tortoiseshell pickguard with five-layer (white / black / white / black / white) plastic binding. Four controls (two volume, two tone) plus three-way selector switch for pickup selection and six-position Varitone rotary switch for tonal settings, all on lower treble bout. Black plastic bell-shaped "Bell" control knobs. ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic 'non-retainer' bridge with metal saddles and 'Sideways' vibrato tailpiece. All hardware gold-plated. This is a near mint (9.25) example of the "top-of-the-line" thinlines. The cherry red is a really deep, rich color and the gold hardware is nice and bright (the only area showing any tarnish at all is the neck pickup cover). The original 'Jumbo' frets show the absolute bare minimum of wear. There is a tiny sliver of wood missing from the back treble corner of the headstock (just 3/8 of an inch by 1/8th of an inch) and one tiny crack to the lower binding in the bass cutaway. Quite simply one of the very cleanest and most attractive ES-355's that we have ever seen. Complete with the original tri-fold hang-tag with ES-345TD-SV stamped in black and also "Bigsby" stamped in black (which has been crossed through), the "Operational Instructions for Gibson Vari-Tone Guitar", the original "Humbucking Pickup Adjustments" sheet, the original "Instructions Tune-O-Matic Bridge" sheet, and the original "Now, Complete Directions for Achieving Perfect Stereo Sound" sheet. Housed in it's original Gibson five-latch brown hardshell case with pink plush lining (8.75).