Rare Guitars: 1957 Gibson ES-350T
Gibson’s records indicate that just 74 ES-350T instruments were shipped with a natural finish in 1957, and this gorgeous electric hollowbody is one such example.
Introduced two years earlier, the thinline ES-350T superseded the full-depth ES-350 in response to player requests for something between a full hollowbody and a compact solidbody. Chuck Berry was an early adopter, using a P-90 loaded model for his legendary early Chess recordings, then switching to the PAF humbucker version on its arrival in 1957.
Notable features include a 23.5-inch scale length and a narrow fingerboard spacing (along with narrow-spaced PAFs) designed to help jazz players with those hard-to-reach chord shapes.
This guitar features in the next Gardiner Houlgate guitar auction on 14 September 2017 and, aside from a hairline crack repair to the treble side and the expected playwear, checking and dings, it’s in nice condition for a 60-year-old guitar.
Hear it in action at youtube.com/theguitarmagazine and visit guitar-auctions.co.uk for more.