1964 original stop tail, cherry red ES-345...

A real workhorse, this guitar has been the main squeeze of its current owner since 1980. When it was purchased it had a neck break at the headstock which hadn’t been well repaired. It was given to the renowned luthier Dick Knight who ended up replacing the neck and gave it a new lease of life.  

This is a very nice example. The front and back have some dings though the finish is still in great condition considering the years of faithful service. There isn’t any sign of excessive wear.

The neck still has the original fretboard, inlay and binding. The repair is very well done. The headstock is the correct shape and shows signs of having had Grover tuners fitted until recently. These have been replaced with correct Kluson tuners. The frets too are correct and have plenty of life left in them. Body finish is original, obviously neck is a newer finish.

Plastics and hardware are in good condition with the inevitable wear to the gold plating. There is some corrosion on the pole pieces of the bridge pickup. The tailpiece is a later example. 

Electrically the guitar has undergone some changes. The original harness is included with the sale and is mostly in one piece with solder undisturbed, pots read week 38 of 1963. The current setup is wired in mono and includes push-pull pots and utilises the original Patent Number pickups.These have been modified to access the coils separately and as such the covers have been removed. The magnets have been moved to correct the phase. Tailpiece has been changed as have the strap buttons and the switch tip but most other hardware is correct.

The guitar comes with a correct Gibson black tolex hardshell case.

All the touchstone tones are present here, the Patent Number pickups delivering as you’d expect. The neck is very comfortable and the guitar feels incredibly comfortable to play. The sound is authoritative without being too heavy in the lower midrange. The bridge pickup barks when encouraged whilst the neck pickup is all kinds of smooth without losing definition. 

Sometimes only an ES-345 will do. Grab this one before it gets away…