TYPE
Electric Semi-Hollow Archtop guitar
FEATURES
Maple body, mahogany and maple neck
Rosewood fretboard with parallelograms inlays
Two humbucker pickups from Gibson
INFORMATION
The Gibson ES-345 and ES 355 were both marketed in 1958 as deluxe versions of the top-selling ES-335 model. The ES-345 was the first Gibson instrument to feature a Stereo Varitone-switch mounted just above the tone and volume buttons. This six-position switch was designed by Walter Fuller, who worked for Gibson.
Other differences between the ES-345 and ES-335 were that a small crown was inlaid on the headstock of the ES-345 instead of the ES-335s diamond and that this instrument’s fingerboard had double parallelograms instead of square-shaped position inlays. The ES-345 remained in production until 1981 when the model was succeeded by the Lucille. By 1965, the tailpiece had acquired a trapezoidal shape and a tremolo-arm, Bigsby or Gibson Deluxe Vibrola was standard for the ES-355.
