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1973 Gibson ES-355 with original Hard Case - $6,500 (Echo Park)
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Here is a 1973 Gibson ES-355 in Walnut finish with more or less all original parts. Serial Number 134612. Let's break everything down below -
Original:
- Patent Sticker T-Top Pickups
- Pots and knobs. I had to replace one pot as the taper wasn't working past 8. I replaced that original pot with the same kind of CTS 500k pot from 1972. Sounds the same. Original 1973 pot comes in the case as well. The OG pot reads 137-7309XX (day is covered by solder)
- Capacitors
- Tuners
- Finish
- Varitone and all it's components
- Original stereo input jack comes in the case in a plastic pouch. Currently has a Mono input jack installed for easier use.
- Bridge (the nylon saddle for the high E string has a chip in. It will come in the case in a small plastic pouch. I currently have a brass saddle on there instead, which I can include in the sale if you want it. Let me know). I did try putting on an old Gibson Pat no Bridge from late 60s/early 70s with the brass saddles, which I thought made the guitar come alive a bit more acoustically. I would recommend buying one and putting on.
Non Original:
- Frets (I had it professionally refretted by Eric's Guitar Shop in Van Nuys). Factory frets come in the case.
- Nut (new nut installed by Eric as well. The original comes in the hard case)
- Bigsby B7 with Vibramate (the Vibrate allows for no new holes being drilled)
- The guitar has a mono-input jack installed at the moment so you don’t need a stereo cable.
- The guitar is unfortunately missing the original pickguard, but there is some really cool wear in it’s place that you wouldn’t want to hide away anyways.
Regarding the Bigsby B7 - The guitar came to me without the Lyre Vibrola installed. It had a normal tailpiece installed (along with the studs etc. I will be happy to reinstall the tailpiece and studs if you don’t want the Bigsby. I’ll take $100 off the price if you decide to only go with the tailpiece).
My guess is that a past owner didn't like the Vibrola arm and just wanted to have something more stable.
When I got the guitar I decided I wanted to have a Bigsby B7 on there, so I installed one with the Vibramate, to avoid adding screw holes to the top.
This guitar has likely seen 1000s of shows considering the wear on the back of the neck, the yellowing of the binding, and the condition of the hard case. Most of the finish on the back of the neck has been worn off through the years.
There are no cracks in the binding as of yet. All the wear was a big part of what made me fall in love with this particular guitar.
When I got this guitar, it had an insane amount of dirt build up all over the body, and especially the sides and finish. I decided to clean off the many years of gunk and build up. As I did my best to be as meticulous as possible, it took about 5 months to clean the guitar properly. I decided to let the heel, where the neck meets the body, be as it was when I got the guitar. I think it adds to the vibe.
If there’s anything else, please reach out to ask me whatever you want. I got plenty of pictures I can send.
The Varitone makes this guitar incredibly versatile, you can get this to sound like a Gibson, a Strat, get into Gretsch territory, and other sonic territories. The middle position is out of phase, which gets you that BB King “Live at the Regal”, and Peter Green’s “Greeny” tone.
This is honestly a fantastic guitar, and even with the Varitone and Bigsby B7 only weights in at 8lbs and 14oz.
Comes in its original purple lining hard case.