SOLD! - 1964 Gibson ES-345 TDC Cherry Stop Tail
So, what's so great about a '64?
There is nothing like a '64. (Except perhaps a late '63 or a very early '65 ;-) The neck on the ES-335's and ES-345's from '58 and '59 were big fat, full necks. Then, from '60 to early '63 they got skinnier every year. The width of the fingerboard stayed the same but the front to back measurement got very small. In late '63, for reasons unclear to me or probably anyone else who wasn’t working at Gibson at the time, they fattened it back up to nearly the '59 size. Just nearly..
Somehow, they got it exactly right. A sweet handful of neck that starts out comfortable with 42mm at the nut and gets slowly but evenly fatter as you go towards the body. You can play a '64 for hours with no fatigue. It’s too bad Gibson didn’t copy a real '64 profile when they issued the Historic ES-335 '63 guitar, which is a very nice guitar with a nice neck but just a little too slim.
The Eric Clapton reissue which was a limited edition that cost over $10,000 when issued and now even fetches more, had that magical '64 neck carve and that’s pretty much the only other way to get it. There are late '63's with it and some very early '65's as well, but in '65 they switched the tailpiece to a trapeze which some say decreases the sustain.
And what about the pickups and the sound of the '64? The '64 uses the first or second patent sticker variety of humbucker and these can sound every bit as good as the revered original PAF's. It is no wonder Eric Clapton played a '64 for such a long time.
I just love these guitars and this is your chance of getting an original 1964 Gibson semi hollow body ES with PAT# sticker humbuckers and save 10k while doing so. Why? Because something is wrong with it? No. Because it's a 345 and not a 335... :-)