1969 Gibson ES-335TD, 100% Original, Beautiful unfaded Iced Tea Burst finish, has newer Bigsby on it now, includes original trapeze tailpiece.
This is a true pre-Norlin Gibson, with no volute and no Made in U.S.A. stamp! Serial # is 818xxx, right in the middle of several serial # categories for the model year 1969: 817000-819999. Even has the earlier Golden Era no “Union Made” Orange Label!
Finish and color are very nice on this guitar, with even a little birdseye on the front that makes it really stand out! Has moderate checking, no belt buckle wear, only a few nicks throughout. The back of the neck is in great shape with not much wear at all. Frets have wear but plenty of life left with no fretting out up and down the neck.
Neck is the typical late 60s Gibson 1 9/16 at the nut, but the neck has a nice depth with .86/1st fret and 1.02/12th fret. Pat # pickups are unmolested with perfect solder joints. Pickups sound great with 7.79K/neck and 7.54K/bridge.
I like the Bigsby addition on this guitar-there are not many fans of the trapeze tailpiece, and the Bigsby gives it the Golden Era pre-1965 look, where many ES-335s came stock with the Bigsby(like my 1958 and 1964 ES-335s). The chrome trapeze tailpiece is included should you want to re-install(I would leave it as is-the look is really great with the Bigsby!).
Includes original Gibson hard shell case, which is kind of beat but still functional.
This is a really great playing and sounding original pre-Norlin Left Handed Gibson ES-335 and doesn’t come with the HUGE price tag of a Golden Era pre-1965 guitar!
