GIBSON ES-355-TD-SV 1966 CHERRY BIGSBY 1 OWNER ORIGINAL LEFT HANDED AMAZING!

RE-LISTED. After some serial number mix up on the year I am back my original thoughts to calling this guitar a 1966 as the pots are enclosed the protective metal cans. Gibson 'stopped' shipping guitars with the protective cans in 1966.

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*Here at Gordy's Music in Ferndale, Michigan, we are so proud and grateful to receive the REVERB TOP 300 SELLERS Certificate for the second year in a row! A real honor.

We want to start by thanking all of you, our customers, my partner wife Marcia, top notch crew, and Reverb.com. We have quite a team and will strive to get this certificate year after year.*

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Here we have a very fine and quite rare 1966 Gibson Cherry ES-355-TD-SV made at the Kalamazoo Gibson Factory up here in Michigan. The guitar is fully original 100% except for the professional fret job. The 1 and only owner the late Don Baker had to special order this left handed guitar as Gibson did not normally make them available otherwise. It has been said there are only about 5 left handed ES-355's from that year as Gibson did not make the count on lefties available.

So Don was a local Detroit professional left handed guitarist who was respected by all who met him. He played and recorded all around town for decades and towards the end was gigging and recording with a good friend and customer of mine. He was really into Hendrix and all kinds of rock and blues.

I was told by a guitarist band member that he played with a light touch which explains the condition of this ES-355 which was 1 of many of his guitars.

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Back to this ES-355. It has light honest wear with the gold hardware fading away, no repairs or cracks. The binding is solid everywhere, the frets having been replaced, look new with no signs of wear. There are some dings and wear on the back of the neck and some of the finish worn off in a few spots on the back of the body.

The matched Pat # black decaled humbuckers have untouched solder joints and all the electronics are original have been cleaned and are working fine. The gold waffle back tuners are tight.

I gave the guitar a cleaning after sitting in the case for a spell. I cleaned and seasoned ebony board and installed a fresh set of Ernie Ball .10-.46 strings. the guitar has a nice adjustable playing action, tons of power, and TONE. Yes.

Comes with it's original Gibson hard case as pictured that ifs fully functional a bit worn w/ no issues. There is included a 15 ft. Stereo cord.

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The neck thickness at 1st fret is .778 on digital caliper

thickness at 1st. fret 'including' the fret is .840

The neck thickness at the 12th fret is .942

thickness at 12th fret 'including' the fret is .1006

The nut width is driving me nuts sometimes it looks in between 1 5/8 & 1 11/16

_____________________________________________________________________________________The serial number 406815 combined with these specific hardware features indicates a highly coveted, exceptionally rare 1966 vintage Gibson ES-355 custom-ordered for a left-handed player. Because Gibson famously reused serial number sequences during the 1960s, checking specific factory appointments—such as the Kluson "waffleback" tuners—confirms its mid-1966 assembly window.

General Specifications:

Model: Gibson ES-355TD (Thinbody, Double Cutaway) or ES-355TD-SV (if equipped with Stereo/Varitone electronics).

Year: 1966 (verified via 6-digit serial number format without "Made in USA" stamp).

Orientation: Factory Left-Handed (Extremely low custom-order numbers for this era).

Finish: Translucent Cherry nitrocellulose lacquer.

Body & Neck Construction:

Body Type: Semi-hollow body with a solid maple center block running through the middle to eliminate high-volume feedback.

Body Wood: 3-ply maple/poplar/maple laminated top, back, and sides.

Neck Wood: 1-piece mahogany neck with a comfortable mid-60s slim-to-medium C profile.

Fretboard: High-grade solid Ebony.

Scale Length: 24.75 inches.

Fretboard Radius: 12 inches.

Nut Width: Typically a narrow 1.56" to 1.63" (1 9/16 to 1 5/8 inches), standard for 1966 Gibsons.

Hardware & Electronics

Hardware Plating: Real 24k Gold plating throughout.

Tuning Machines: Kluson Super "Waffleback" tuners with plastic or metal pearloid buttons.

Tailpiece: Factory-installed gold Bigsby B7 vibrato tailpiece.

Bridge: Gold Tune-O-Matic (ABR-1) bridge, likely featuring nylon saddles typical of 1966.

Pickups: Two original Gibson "Patent Number" sticker humbuckers (often featuring T-top bobbins depending on the exact month of '66 assembly).

Controls: 2 Volume controls, 2 Tone controls, 3-way toggle switch. Note: If it is an SV version, it will also feature a 6-position Varitone rotary switch and dual stereo jack outputs.

Cosmetics & Appointments

Inlays: Mother-of-pearl block fingerboard markers and a 5-piece split-diamond peghead inlay.

Binding: Multi-ply binding on the top (7-ply) and headstock; 3-ply binding on the back.

Pickguard: Multi-ply bound tortoise-shell pickguard (short configuration, cut off near the bridge pickup

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Guitar weighs 9 lbs. 6 oz.

Ships fast and insured.

Shipping box Dimensions 50"X20"X8"

Shipping weight 25 lbs.

Shop at our Reverb Store for a bunch of vintage and other products at:

https://reverb.com/shop/gordys-music

IN BUSINESS for 40 YEARS!! 50 YEARS of VINTAGE EXPERIENCE!

MICHIGAN GUITAR SHOW PROMOTORS Since 1989!

Brick and mortar to the end!

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Visit our new secured still under construction website to see the long list of celebrity musicians and groups we have met and serviced in the past 40 years.

NOTE: Too cool. Late last summer we shipped a 1967 MapleGlo Rickenbacker 6-12 Converter 'comb' guitar to Billy Corigan of Smashing Pumpkins! We also then shipped a vintage 50 watt Marshall head to L.A. studio-touring guitarist extraodinaire, Michael Landau, and 2 vintage guitars to Jack White's organization down in Nashville just a few days before his 50th. birthday! mmm? Add 'The Kentucky Head Hunters' to the list, just sold Greg a cool little 50's Valco tube combo amp!

Gordy's Music has become a Detroit institution! Our shop was used as a filming location for a few films like "Miracle in Motor City" a Christmas movie on Lifetime (featuring Smoky Robinson). We've supplied gear for movies including "Bill & Ted Face The Music" with Keanu Reeves. We've got decades of celebrity customers, including recent visits from Beck, Eric Johnson, and we recently sold Billy Joel's bassist a cool Gibson SG he is in love with. One day a while back Andre 3000 and his group stopped in to browse as they were playing Masonic Temple that night and right after that we sold an old oil can Morley Wah Vibrato pedal to Credence Clearwater Revival's thee John Fogerty!

We are having and have had a lot of fun here at Gordy's Music! I was just remembering about 35 years ago a tour bus pulled up to our little shop, and who rolls right in and hangs out for an hour? Lenny Kravitz and his entire group, right about the same time I was selling many guitars to and chauffeuring around Dee Dee Ramone who had an apartment a block down from my house.