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The Lefty Archives: The Five Lefty ES-345's

Steve Craw

Formerly Lefty Elmo
Joined
Sep 9, 2004
Messages
5,294
When I first joined this Forum in 2004, I ran a series I called "The Lefty Archives". It was my collection of photos of 1952-1960 left handed Les Pauls. I thought I would revive the idea, but this time pics of the five (edit: now seven)(known) examples of left handed pre-1965 ES-345's.
1960 cherry:

83134989_1454879761360443_4339022656750747648_o.jpg
lefty  60 es  345 f.jpeg
 
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Steve Craw

Formerly Lefty Elmo
Joined
Sep 9, 2004
Messages
5,294
1962 sunburst, with Bigsby. This was the guitar which I named "Voice Of God", and the one that made me want an ES-345 in the first place.
82976179_1454881168026969_7184467648883720192_n.jpg
FB_IMG_1695838312562.jpg
 
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Steve Craw

Formerly Lefty Elmo
Joined
Sep 9, 2004
Messages
5,294
1961 with stop tail. Some (not all) 1961 ES-345s have inlays on the first fret. This one does, and though it's not visible in the photo, the '61 with Bigsby has inlays at the first fret also.
lefty61345.jpeg
 
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Steve Craw

Formerly Lefty Elmo
Joined
Sep 9, 2004
Messages
5,294
I love the fact that all five of these are different from each other. They are truly each one-of-a-kind.
 

brandtkronholm

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 3, 2006
Messages
2,737
Old 345s are mystical guitars, even the lefties!

Those sunbursts, especially that 1962, look perfect. They have just the right amount of bling without being over the top. The reflector knobs and bigsby are a perfect match.
 

Steve Craw

Formerly Lefty Elmo
Joined
Sep 9, 2004
Messages
5,294
Another thread where some of my pics have vanished. Why is this happening? Is it because I use Facebook to host images, now that Photobucket isn't user-friendly anymore?
 
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jb_abides

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Joined
Apr 6, 2005
Messages
5,276
Another thread where some of my pics have vanished. Why is this happening? Is it because I use Facebook to host images, now that Photobucket isn't user-friendly anymore?

Steve -

I believe so. I keep images active in some tabs, and for Facebook and Instagram, images crap-out after time. I haven't looked into it, but I suspect they tokenize and recycle URLs over time.

Hope you are doing well.... :salude
 

Steve Craw

Formerly Lefty Elmo
Joined
Sep 9, 2004
Messages
5,294
I have pics somewhere of another from 1960. I need to re-title this thread, "The Seven Known Lefty ES-345s.
 
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hommetronc

New member
Joined
Jun 21, 2023
Messages
3
You are missing this one : a 1960 345 I saw on ebay years ago. It was located in New York iirc.
 

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Steve Craw

Formerly Lefty Elmo
Joined
Sep 9, 2004
Messages
5,294
You are missing this one : a 1960 345 I saw on ebay years ago. It was located in New York iirc.
Thank you. I have those pics in my old computer and couldn't seem to get them out. I even tried emailing them to myself and nothing worked. Truly grateful .:)
 
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hommetronc

New member
Joined
Jun 21, 2023
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3
Thank you. I have those pics in my old computer and couldn't seem to get them out. I even tried emailing them to myself and nothing worked. Truly grateful šŸ„²
You are most welcome!

Sadly I don't have them in better quality. But from the info on the files, these were taken in 2012. Going in to my archives, I also stumbled upon this one. Don't have much info on it. I grabbed this pictures of Southpaw guitars' facebook page (houston), you might find the post by digging :).

1078599_628460050511985_143916408_o.jpg


I also have pictures of one 1965 es 345 with large nut width and trapeze tailpiece. Don't know if it qualifies!
 
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hommetronc

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Jun 21, 2023
Messages
3
here is the 1965
 

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