| Gibson ES-345 | |
| Manufacturer: | Gibson Brands |
| Period: | 1959-1981 |
| Bodytype: | Semi-hollow body thinline |
| Scale: | 24.75" |
| Woodbody: | Maple |
| Woodneck: | Mahogany |
| Woodfingerboard: | Rosewood |
| Bridge: | Tune-o-matic |
| Pickups: | Humbuckers |
| Colors: | Sunburst, Cherry and Natural |
The Gibson ES-345 is a guitar manufactured by the Gibson Guitar Company. The guitar was produced from 1959 to 1981. It was designed as a jazz guitar and an upscale version of the ES-335.
The 345 was developed in 1958 as an upscale version of the Gibson ES-335. Gibson released the ES-345T in the spring of 1959. The Gibson ES-345T had a price of $345 in the standard sunburst finish. From the guitar's 1959 introduction through 1979, 10,560 ES-345s were shipped.[1] Gibson designed the guitar to create a guitar which could be used to produce jazz but with a maple block running through the guitar to allow the versatility of a solid body electric guitar.[2]
Gibson released the guitar in three finishes, Cherry and Natural, and Sunburst. The sunburst finish was called the ES-345TD, the cherry finish was called the ES-345TDC and the natural finish was called the ES-345TDN.[3]
1958 saw the introduction of Gibson's new thinline series of guitars. The ES-335, 345 and 355, all came with a semi-hollow body: the wood of the top and back was maple and there was a maple center block inside the guitars which ran the length of the body all the way to the mahogany neck, with a rosewood fingerboard.[1]
The neck of the guitar has double-parallelogram fretboard inlays. The guitar also featured a stereo pickup configuration and Varitone circuit.[3] The varitone's positions were not properly defined by Gibson which left players to try describing the sounds of the varitone dial positions as: squishy, underwater, and guitar-in-a-box. What the variotone did is allow users to switch to predefined frequency scoops which kept highs and lows.[4]
Gibson also manufactured a Gibson ES-355TD-SV which was a fancier version of the ES-345TD. Both the ES-345TD/SV and the ES-355TD-SV did not become as popular as the simple ES-335. One reason was that the ES-345 and the ES-355 each required a 'Y' cable and a TRS jack to separate the pickup signals. The much simpler mono ES-335 did not require any special equipment. The original ES-345 came with nickel parts covered in gold and PAF (pickup)s.[3] In 1959 and 1960 the pickguard was long, extending all the way to the bridge but it was shortened in 1961.[2]
From 1959-1963 Gibson had a Stoptail bridge but beginning in 1964 they began installing a gold trapeze tailpiece on the ES-345s. It was not until 1982 that Gibson went back to the Stoptail bridge on the ES-345.[5] Some of the first Gibson ES-345s also shipped with a Bigsby vibrato tailpiece.[6]