A very nice example of the first year Gibson 330. The Gibson ES-330 is a highly regarded archtop electric, fully hollow and built with laminate maple. Although looking nearly identical to the flagship "Electric Spanish" 335 model, the ES-330 has a shorter neck, joining at the body at the 15th fret. The most important difference comes down to the 330's unique full hollow design, which became favorable to some players even over the 335. The intentions of this, were that the 330 was likely designed to be a "quieter" guitar, possibly inadvertently helping sales for the louder less feedback prone 335.

This example comes to us in great shape, cosmetically and playing-wise. The top shows a great burst, with virtually no wear. The Sheraton stain on the back shows a bit more checking, but nothing too dramatic. Original plastic cover dog ear P-90 pickup sounds great, and is quite usable at reasonable volume. The 330 "dual pickup" model, like this example, offer a great tone for rock & roll, blues, and very jazzy when partially rolling back the tone control. Correct, original Centralab pots (dating to the 36th week of '59) and bumble bee cap present. A replaced but very nice ABR-1 Tune-o-matic with a retainer is present. Original plastics less one tone control knob, the pickguard and mounting bracket are very clean.

The neck is nice and straight, yielding really easy playability, measuring 5/64" in height at the twelfth fret, with plenty of room at the thumb screws on the saddle. The profile of the neck has some nicks and dings throughout, but checks out as a very clean example overall. The neck measures a very comfortable .81" thick at the first position and .91" at the twelfth. It has an expected 1 11/16" nut width. The fingerboard is made with a nice Brazilian rosewood, and has early dot inlay - two replaced a the 15th and 12th fret. The neck is nice and straight with a clean fingerboard, albeit looking as though it has a level crown & polish, that has worn down its binding and nibs. Original single line Kluson Deluxe tuners present with plastic cream buttons.

Includes era correct hardshell case (very Gibson-esque), likely the original "upgraded case" from the store it was purchased from at the time, as these would typically still have chipboards.