NVGD: Vintage 1959 ES-345 TDSV

Beautiful guitars! Thanks for sharing.

Michael Minnis said:

Beautiful guitars! Thanks for sharing.

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Fabulous, congrats and enjoy your two amazing ‘59 345s! I sure love my First Rack 345. Zebra in the neck, reverse zebra in the bridge. Shipped 4/30/59. Sunburst and some birdseye grain...I foolishly traded away my first, First Rack years ago and will not make that mistake with the second. If the owner of A29663 is out there give me a shout! Would love to hear how’s she’s doing! :hank

treyrab said:

I will try to answer all :hank

- The Red has 2x Double Black and the Sunburst has 2x Double White. All 4 are 8.0K ohm or more.
- The Red has a HUGE neck. The Sunbust is more Medium "C".
- I use a Y cable converted to mono (middle position is out of phase) into either a '55 Deluxe or '64 Deluxe Reverb.
- I owned a First Rack at one point. It was fabulous, but the '59 Cherry tops it, and the new Sunburst matches the 'ol gal. The First Rack had a HUGE neck (similar to my current '59 Cherry).
- Rock on!

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What does "first rack " mean ?

Wow— spectacular instrument

do the 345s with the stereo into the mono cables sound like a 335 ? Or are there differences?

El Gringo said:

What does "first rack " mean ?

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See http://www.es-335.com/2013/06/15/first-rack-es-345/

And http://www.es-335.com/2018/05/12/first-rack-es-345s-database/

To be brief, it's the sound. They (and some of the other 1959 ES345s) are also known as "'Burst Killers."

Pellman73 said:

Wow— spectacular instrument

do the 345s with the stereo into the mono cables sound like a 335 ? Or are there differences?

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In short....Yes. Bridge sounds the same. Neck sounds the same. But middle position is out-of-phase (Peter Green sound).

El Gringo said:

What does "first rack " mean ?

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There were 3 racks of ES-345s made in April of 1959 (a little more than 100 guitars). Basically they are known for having a few different features, but the main thing folks like is their gigantic necks.

I used to own one, but sold it a few months back when I acquired my '59 Cherry 345 (which has the same huge neck....even a bit bigger perhaps).

"First Rack" is the term thrown around, but having owned 6-7 ES-345s now from '59 (some first rack, and some not) I am convinced that all '59 345s are some of the best guitars Gibson has ever made.

Pellman73 said:

...do the 345s with the stereo into the mono cables sound like a 335 ? Or are there differences?

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The stereo to mono cable thing must be done with care. A standard "mixdown" stereo to mono cable causes mayhem with ES345s by causing the tone and volume controls to behave somewhat like master tone and volume and further completely sucking the good tone right out of the guitar. A stereo Y cable - stereo at one end and two monos at the other is an easy way to get the guitar to behave as expected. Plugging both monos onto one channel of an amp (think BF or SF Fender) gets you the funky "out-of-phase" sound when in the middle position. Plugging into two separate channels of the same amp or two separate amps eliminates the out-of-phase sound and the guitar behave as you would expect in the middle position.

Does it sound like a 335? More or less. The 345/355s have ceramic caps and hence a slightly different sound. I can't say what that difference is...but folk around here say it sounds different. Also, the cut-out under the bridge pickup for the Varitone choke/guts in a 345/355 makes for a different sound as the 335s did not have this cut-out until 1963/4/5(?) Some say this cut-out makes the guitar more lively, but again, I don't know.

To my ears, an early 345 sounds ... awesome.