OKGuitar
Member
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2011
- Messages
- 938
OK, I'll start this thread. For those who don't know what a "first rack" 345 is, it is a term I credit to Gil Southworth that describes the very first 100 or so ES-345's built by Gibson in 1959. Although there are two or three earlier examples that surfaced last year from February of 59, the ones referred to as first rack have factory order numbers of S8537, S8538 and S8539 and date from April of 1959. It is likely that S8539 is earlier than the other two based on serial numbers from those racks. A rack is a usually 35 guitars, usually the same model built at the same time and wheeled around the facility to the various areas of the factory in an actual rack. The letter "S" denotes a start date for the build of 1959. The four digit numbers went from 100 to 9999 and back to 100 again. The letter "R would be 1960. The letter T is 1958 (alphabet backwards). The FON was discontinued in 1961. I have owned perhaps 12-14 of them. For a list of FONs and serial numbers of known first rack 345's go to my website (ES-335.com). I will be posting what I have later today (May 11). This is the first factory black ES-345. Short leg PAF, big neck, double white PAFs, small VT rout but not wax potted. Nice case with cover.
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