❌SOLD❌ Gibson ES350T Short Scale Archtop Electric Sunburst, 1956

The thin-bodied, short scale Gibson ES350T appeared in 1955, replacing the full size ES-350 and was much like a plainer version of the Venetian-cutaway Byrdland, which also debuted that year. When launched, the fully hollow ES-350T featured laminate Maple construction largely for feedback resistance and lower production cost, but a number of versions shared the Byrdland’s Spruce top and carved Maple back and sides. Here, the top is solid Spruce – some used a Spruce Laminate. Bracing is a pair of longitudinal tone bars, bracketing the pickup cutouts.

The Gibson ES350T was quickly adopted by a number of artists, notably Chuck Berry, who used a natural-finish 1955 model on his early big hits. Gibson has re-issued the 1955 version closely patterned after Chuck Berry’s, and this can be seen on this Gibson page.

Here we’re looking at a 1956 production Gibson ES350T, with a fairly unusual solid, carved Spruce top with bound F-holes and solid, carved Maple back – very much like a Byrdland – with a Maple neck and Rosewood fingerboard sporting split-parallelogram position markers. At the time, the Rosewood was sourced from Brazil.

The metal hardware is gold plated. The head carries a set of Kluson Deluxe tuners, which in this case have been replaced with a 1964 set; the tailpiece is a Bigsby B3 model (a trapeze tailpiece was also offered) and the bridge is an ABR-1 on a Rosewood base; again the original has been replaced with a 1962 model. Electronics include a pair of ‘Dog Ear’ P-90s run through individual volume and tone controls and a Switchcraft 3-position selector switch. The pickguard is original.

Two nitrocellulose lacquer finishes were available, Natural and Sunburst. This example carries the Sunburst, which is in overall good shape with lots of natural lacquer checking.

The frets are original and in good condition. This guitar is presently strung with flatwounds and plays well, P-90’s are great sounding pickups. The solid Spruce top has a warmer, richer tone than the Maple laminate versions.

A period brown Gibson hard shell case is included.