Here’s a fine example of your favorite and ours, the 1962 Gibson ES-330 TD in beautiful, largely unfaded, sunburst.

This version must be one of the first few Gibson made in 1962 to have block inlays and retain the black plastic pickup covers before they were changed to nickel and in our opinion, looks the best combination of the lot.

It is in good condition with only a few dings. There is some minor wear and plenty of checking though the body still retains that nice finish. The guitar was originally a Bigsby equipped ES-330 but It had evidently had other vibrato units/tailpieces fitted over the years as was evident by the tanlines left behind. The correct nickel Bigsby B7 is back on there now but there are a couple of holes visible as a result of these experimentations.

The medium neck profile is not super skinny like they were earlier in the 61, the trend at Gibson seeming to move more towards the fuller carve as the decade progressed. The lacquer here has worn as you’d expect. It has had a refret with larger frets and a new nut. The tuners are later double line Klusons but it has had others with washer rings visible however no other tuner related holes are visible.

Both original P-90’s have original windings and sound classic, strong and pretty evenly balanced. The pots have been changed as have the capacitors.

The hardware is in very nice, largely corrosion free condition and still has gleam to them. 

The guitar comes an original hardshell case from around 1963 so could well have been the case the guitar was sold in. It looks like it has been in this case for most of its life.

Acoustically this guitar has a pleasantly warm tone that certainly tips the hat to Gibson’s archtop heritage. Plugged in the guitar runs the gamut from warm neck pickup to a more honky, biting bridge pickup tone.

This is a fine example and surely a must have for any guitar collection….