Wonderful original 1964 Gibson ES-345TD in a beautiful faded sunburst in excellent condition for its age. This guitar plays and sounds amazing due to the original early patent number pickups (which were the same as the short magnet PAF’s apart from the sticker!) and incredibly desirable 64 profile neck which has the wider nut and fuller profile than the 60-63 necks, more like a 59 neck and the profile of Eric Clapton’s famous red 64 ES-335. The nut width is 42mm and depth at the 1st fret is 21mm quickly filling out to 24.5mm by the 12th fret making it a great players neck. The weight on my kitchen scales comes out at 8.3lbs which is pretty light for a 345. Comes with its original Ess & Ess case in good condition. Being pre 65 the guitar is the much preferred stop tail version and has never had a Bigsby fitted. The guitar sounds really punchy and with the varitone is an incredibly versatile guitar capable of playing pretty much a style of music. The pickups, which have not had the covers removed and still have the original solder intact, measure at 7.70 for the bridge and 7.63 for the neck providing a perfect balance.

This guitar does have a couple of issues that stop it being a £18-20,000 guitar (see the almost identical guitar being sold by ATB) and make it a collectors player grade guitar as it had a professionally repaired headstock fracture over 20years ago. The headstock was never fully broken as evidenced by the fact that the front veneer only had a stress crease and therefore no filler, paint or refinish was required and just needed glueing back together. The previous owner had owned the guitar for over 20 years and the neck has been completely stable and in fact re-glued/repaired headstock tend to be more stable and resilient than the necks before the break/fracture. The repair does not in any way affect the playability or feel of the guitar.

Other changes to be aware of are that the varitone, and consequently the guitar, has been converted to mono, which is a massive advantage in my books. The broken tuners were replaced with period correct gold Klusons. I replaced the bridge with a fantastic KMS aged Vintage One V Zamak bridge (great replacements by a company in Germany), I have the Gibson wire retainer ABR-1 bridge that the came with the guitar (the KMS sounds better) but I think it’s a slightly later one as it has a patent number on the bottom.

Aside from these couple of issues, that have nothing to do with the sound and playability, this is a really great guitar that you can actually go out and play and not worry about as much, which will provide exactly the same experience as the £20,000 untouched 345 for half the price!

Would prefer pickup or could meet half way if not too far.

Anyway, if you’re interested or have any queries then send me a message or contact me on 07714675949.