This guitar has certainly had a life. The neck has been replaced and the entire guitar refinished twice, but who’s counting? 

The front and back have some dings though the finish is still in great condition. There isn’t any sign of excessive wear. Under the pickups you can see that the guitar had previously been finished in a black, probably around the time of the new neck being fitted. 

The new neck is very well done. The headstock is the correct shape and has been fitted with Grover tuners. The fretboard and frets have plenty of life left in them.  

Plastics and hardware are in good condition with the inevitable wear to the gold plating. The ABR-1 is of the type fitted to Gibsons with vibrato systems. Plastics are correct.  

Electrically the guitar has undergone some changes. The guitar is currently fitted with Gibson Humbuckers from 1980 and the harness has been replaced too. The guitar is still wired in stereo and the varitone is still functional. 

The guitar comes with a period correct Gibson EB2/12 string hardshell case.

All the touchstone tones are present here, the Gibson pickups delivering as you’d expect. The neck is very comfortable and the guitar is easy 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. The varitone, so often viewed as a handicap, yields quite a range of pleasing tones. 

Sometimes only an ES-345 will do. Grab this one before it gets away as it's a lot of guitar for £7k and on stage, looks like it should cost 3x as much…