Cherry red. One of the greatest Blues Machines. Born in 1959 as a stereo version of the 335, the 345 has a special circuitry featuring the Varitone rotary switch for five capacitor-filtered sounds and bypass (signal first goes through a choke visible through the bridge pickup cavity, and then reaches the Varitone), and can be used with two separate amps via an Y cable, or with a single amp with a stereo-to-mono cable.
Other special features include gold-plated hardware, triple layer top binding and double parallelogram fretboard inlays.
The guitar you see here was built in 1968. It is completely original and in exceptionally fine conditions. It has a very beautiful see-through cherry finish with gorgeous wood-grain showing through, with normal amount of checking but with no heavy dings and no belt buckle wear. Beautiful one-piece mahogany neck and easy-playing rosewood fretboard, wide enough for easy bending. Only the gold-plating wear (especially on pickup covers) reveals that this guitar didn't leave the factory one or two years ago.
Original pat. # tune-o-matic bridge with nylon saddles and retaining wire, original and untouched humbucker pickups with Patent Number label, original Kluson Deluxe double-line tuners.
This instrument has all the mid- '60s features: trapeze tailpiece, pre-pantograph pearl Gibson logo, 'top-hat' knobs. Beautiful deep red color, a little darker than early '60s bright cherry. All the electronics work great. The sound is the beloved voice of the Electric Blues, with long, singing, sustaining notes, with a fair amount of badness provided by the bridge pickup.
This ES 345 comes with an original Gibson hardshell case with logo, which in my opinion is from 1970 or '71: of course I cannot guarantee it was originally sold with the guitar, but is correct for the model and perfectly fitting. The original marijuana-made decorations on the top of the case have been removed by its last owner. The original Gibson care and maintenance booklet is included.