TomGuitar
Active member
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2005
- Messages
- 3,700
This is the second installment of the Other Gibson of the Month. This one for December.
Fellow forum member and good friend Michael Minnis recently started a thread on "first rack" 1959 ES-345s, which got me to thinking about my own 1959 blonde 345. Michael's thread was about a couple of guitars that he owns, serial numbers 29845 & 29846, one of which I was fortunate enough to spend some quality time with and can attest is a superb instrument.
Anyway, I hadn't thought much about mine, even though I play it quite regularly. I just pick it up and play, it's always been one of my "go to" guitars, without thinking about it's rarity, or time period, or any of that. It's just a great guitar and I love playing it.
So I started thinking about this "first rack" stuff, and after fond reveries about my first rack, I pulled out the stuff I know about it. Here's a pic of the ledger showing it's shipping date.
Turns out it's the lowest serial number 345 I've run across, A-29656, shipped April 20, 1959. All alone in the ledger and sort of written funny. Like somebody originally wrote the wrong model and wrote over it. Don't know what that means, if anything.
So where did it come from? Ebay. I first saw it about 2 or 3 days after it was posted. I wanted it. Emailed the seller and got a reply. It was being sold for the guy who owned it by his ex-wife because he didn't have an eBay account or an email address or anything and she didn't know much of anything other than he'd owned it since he was a kid. Couple days later the guy calls me. Seems legit, we talk about the guitar, we bond a little, but it is all a little weird because, legally, he's not really the seller. The auction has about a week to run and we speak several times over that week. He bought the guitar in 1961 from his guitar teacher who bought it in 59. I'm feeling better and better about this guy. Auction ends and I have the high bid. My phone rings almost immediately. It's the guy. He is so happy that I won the auction because all the other people he spoke with just tried to make a deal, lied about supposed issues, and tried to get him to end the auction early. I was telling him to let it run. That it was the best way for him to get the true value. He's in Peoria, IL and I'm in Ann Arbor, MI so we decide I will drive there to get it the following weekend. He's fine with a personal check. Wow. He calls back the day before I leave and says, "Oh, by the way, bring a vehicle big enough for the amp." Huh? What amp? It wasn't in the auction. Turns out he's got a Gibson GA-79 stereo amp to go with it, which he bought new after getting the guitar, and he always considered it a package. News to me, but OK.
So I get to Peoria and the thing is gorgeous. One of the Kluson buttons crumbles in my hand when I try to tune it up. Damn. Big old flatwound strings, scratchy electronics, crud all over everything. But it's clear that it's all there.
And here it is...
It plays and sounds even better than it looks. Really.
Fellow forum member and good friend Michael Minnis recently started a thread on "first rack" 1959 ES-345s, which got me to thinking about my own 1959 blonde 345. Michael's thread was about a couple of guitars that he owns, serial numbers 29845 & 29846, one of which I was fortunate enough to spend some quality time with and can attest is a superb instrument.
Anyway, I hadn't thought much about mine, even though I play it quite regularly. I just pick it up and play, it's always been one of my "go to" guitars, without thinking about it's rarity, or time period, or any of that. It's just a great guitar and I love playing it.
So I started thinking about this "first rack" stuff, and after fond reveries about my first rack, I pulled out the stuff I know about it. Here's a pic of the ledger showing it's shipping date.
Turns out it's the lowest serial number 345 I've run across, A-29656, shipped April 20, 1959. All alone in the ledger and sort of written funny. Like somebody originally wrote the wrong model and wrote over it. Don't know what that means, if anything.
So where did it come from? Ebay. I first saw it about 2 or 3 days after it was posted. I wanted it. Emailed the seller and got a reply. It was being sold for the guy who owned it by his ex-wife because he didn't have an eBay account or an email address or anything and she didn't know much of anything other than he'd owned it since he was a kid. Couple days later the guy calls me. Seems legit, we talk about the guitar, we bond a little, but it is all a little weird because, legally, he's not really the seller. The auction has about a week to run and we speak several times over that week. He bought the guitar in 1961 from his guitar teacher who bought it in 59. I'm feeling better and better about this guy. Auction ends and I have the high bid. My phone rings almost immediately. It's the guy. He is so happy that I won the auction because all the other people he spoke with just tried to make a deal, lied about supposed issues, and tried to get him to end the auction early. I was telling him to let it run. That it was the best way for him to get the true value. He's in Peoria, IL and I'm in Ann Arbor, MI so we decide I will drive there to get it the following weekend. He's fine with a personal check. Wow. He calls back the day before I leave and says, "Oh, by the way, bring a vehicle big enough for the amp." Huh? What amp? It wasn't in the auction. Turns out he's got a Gibson GA-79 stereo amp to go with it, which he bought new after getting the guitar, and he always considered it a package. News to me, but OK.
So I get to Peoria and the thing is gorgeous. One of the Kluson buttons crumbles in my hand when I try to tune it up. Damn. Big old flatwound strings, scratchy electronics, crud all over everything. But it's clear that it's all there.
And here it is...
It plays and sounds even better than it looks. Really.
eace2 Interestingly I owned a first rack 345 almost as early as yours, probably shipped a couple days later! Mine was sunburst, A29663. Huge neck profile, birdseye grain, double white in the neck position, near mint condition, played like butter and absolutely screamed. Like a total idiot I traded it for a '61 335 to rid myself of the "tone sucking" Varitone. The 335 was inferior in every respect...:dang :##
