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This fantastic post-war beauty, a Gibson ES-350 fully hollow 17-inch archtop in Sunburst finish. Full-depth body with two original P-90s (neck 6.5k ohms bridge 6.2k ohms). All maple laminated body and top. Two piece maple neck with walnut center stripe, bound Brazilian rosewood fret board and double parallelogram inlays. Guitar is in fantastic condition especially since it was built in Kalamazoo, MI in 1949 (dated by serial number – A3202).

A late 40s Gibson ES-350 with P-90s has long been on my wish list. This is a fairly big guitar with a 25.5-inch scale. I play mostly at home seated, I find it comfortable. Maybe why most Jazz guitarists also play seated 🙂 I would likely never take this valuable guitar out of my guitar room anyway. Full hollow body guitars featuring P-90s are pretty rare these days. My Gibson ES-295 and a Guild X-500T both with P-90s fill this only in a shorter 24.75 scale. The Guild X-500T is approximately the same body size as the ES-350. Similar in dimensions to the ornate and more expensive Gibson L-5C or L-7C guitars.

The Gibson ES-350 basically replaced the ES-300 (non-cutaway). After WW II, a cutaway version of the ES-300 was designed called the ES-350 Premier. Gibson’s first cutaway electric guitar, the ES-350 Premier was introduced in 1947 initially equipped with one neck-position P-90 pickup designed by Walter Fuller, covered by a black plastic cover.

By 1948, a bridge pickup was added and the model became known simply as the ES-350. Later around 1956 the ES-350T thin line with shorter scale replaced the ES-350. The ES-350T was first introduced with P-90 pickups but by 1957 these had been replaced with two humbuckers. Personally, I like the bit brighter P-90s. In 1961, the rounded Venetian style cutaway was changed to a pointed Florentine cutaway. The ES-350T was discontinued in 1963, but was later re-issued around 1977-1981 with a longer scale length of 25.5-inches and the rounded cutaway.

The early ones had a master tone and the two volume controls, no pickup switch. You blended the pickups with the two volume controls. You will find some of these vintage guitars have been re-wired so the master tone control is now a master volume (ala Gretsch). Some are even seen with added pots and pickup selector switch. Later ES-350s had two factory volume/two tone controls and pickup selector. The Gibson ES-350T that followed the ES-350 model was a thin line with the shorter 23.5-inches scale.

Gibson produced a ES-350 Special in sunburst finish which were the first three pickup guitars. Only twelve of an experimental batch of ES-350 Specials made by Gibson during June and July of 1949. Considered the prototype for ES-5 (based on the L-5). Gibson introduced the ES-5 (three pickups) and the ES-175 models later in 1949. The ES-5 Switchmaster came out in 1955.

ES-150 (1936-1956) Gibson’s first electric guitar, based on L-50
ES-300 (1940-1952) First with the slant-mounted long pickup
ES-125 (1941-1970) Successor of ES-100.
1956/1960 ES-125T thinline model added.
ES-175 (1949-) Full depth, florentine cutaway, maple top, 24.75″ scale
 (1953-) ES-175D (dual pickup)
 (1976-1979) ES-175T (thinline hollow-body)
ES-5 (1949-1955) Three-pickup, full depth hollowbody.
ES-5 Switchmaster (1955-1962)
Byrdland (1955-) Thinline, short-scale L-5 CES, named after Billy Byrd and Hank Garland.
ES-335 (1958-) World’s first thinline archtop semi-acoustic. (semi-hollow-body with center-block)

In 1955, Gibson introduced a group short scale length 23.5-inches, thin-bodied electric guitars suited to players who wanted a smaller, more comfortable and lighter instrument. This group inlcuded three guitars: Byrdland (the top of the range), the mid-range ES-350T, and the bottom of the range ES-225T.

The guitar has very light play wear. The finish is glossy with very minor checking and light scuffs and surface scratches. The metal hardware is nicely tarnished. There is one blemish to the finish at the front edge of the bridge pickup ring. The guitar shipped in the original brown “Lifton” hardshell case. Guitar appears to have been well taken care of in its long life.

Not too surprising for an older beauty like this, the guitar has been refretted. It has a bit larger than vintage frets and the nut has been replaced. Fret work was well done and guitar plays great up and down the fret board. The pickguard is a replacement and not the original, as well as three control pots, wiring harness plus the strap button on the neck heel. The controls are wired for a separate volume control for each P-90 pickup and a master volume. This allows you to blend the pickups and use the master volume to control overall tone. I like this a lot. The tuners, which were Kluson Deluxes with plastic tulip buttons are original. Original two-piece Brazilian rosewood compensated bridge (intonated for a wound-G string) is still on the guitar.

Production numbers for 1947 were not available, but Gibson shipped only 87 ES-350s in sunburst which had the two P-90 pickups in 1948, 76 in 1949 and 54 in 1950 for a total of only 217 for those three years. It is presumed that an rather small number were made in 1947 with just one P-90 pickup. Since production ceased entirely after 1956, production in all years in sunburst, then, 1948-’56, totals only 643 guitars but virtually all of these had two pickups. Making this one of Gibson’s rarest and beautiful production guitars. Some claim it is one of Gibsons best fully hollow electric archtop guitars. Not sure how many ES-350N in natural were made, but sure far less than the sunburst finish. The natural finish guitars are generally more expensive and are quite gorgeous. In 1949, if you wanted a natural finish instead of a sunburst finish, you paid a $15 premium.

Summary:

  • Finish: Gibson Golden Sunburst
  • Overall length is 41.75-inches
  • 17-inch at lower bout and 3.5-inches in depth
  • Two original Dog-Ear P-90 Pickups Alnico No. 5 magnetic poles individually adjustable
  • Top Material: Maple Top
  • Body Material: Maple Body
  • Body Details: Laminated maple body, full-depth 17-inch/21″ long – L-5C or L-7C type body dimensions
  • Neck Material: Two piece maple neck with walnut center strip
  • Fingerboard Material: Brazilian Rosewood with double parallelogram inlays
  • Neck Profile: comfortable medium/large “C” (not a large baseball bat)
  • Neck Thickness: 1st- .91 10th- .99 inches
  • Single-bound headstock with inlaid pearl “Gibson” logo and pearl crown inlay
  • Single-layer black plastic bell-shaped truss rod cover with two screws
  • Fingerboard Radius: 12.00 with 20 Frets
  • Nut Width: 1-11/16-inches
  • Scale Length of 25.5-inches
  • Gold-plated metal parts
  • 5/8″ high barrel knobs, amber plastic as used by Gibson from 1949 through early 1953
  • Weight: 6 lbs 10 oz

The ES-350 is known as a full size Jazz box, but with the P-90s is way more versatile. These guitars are awesome for Jazz, Blues and Rockabilly. Barney Kessel loved his ES-350. Players like B.B. King, Chuck Berry (ES-350T), Tal Farlow and Paul Pigat are known to play this model.

Jazz legend Barney Kessel was one of the most celebrated guitarists of his day. Being a good businessman, he signed a deal with Kay guitars for an artist model bearing his name in the 50’s. Later Kessel finally did a deal with Gibson for a signature guitar in 1961. Only thing was, Barney never played either one of them!

Kessel’s favorite guitar was his customized late 40’s Gibson ES-350. Emulating the sound of fellow Oklahoman Charlie Christian, Kessel had his guitar retrofitted with a prewar Gibson ‘bar’ pickup with a notch under the ‘B’ string and single bound bobbin, a variant originally produced only in 1938.

So the Kessel Kays and the Kessel Gibsons are nice guitars. But Mr Kessel preferred the ES-350 with its dimensions identical to the L-7C.

iPhones are quite thin and will fit in most F-holes. Nice for taking some shots of the inside. Can see the FON (Factory Order Number). 1947-1952: Factory Order Numbers of 3 or 4 digits, followed by by 1 or 2 more digits, ink stamped on the inside back.

The thick laminated maple body construction does make the ES-350 a bit nice for avoiding feedback. As stage volume increased and performance got a bit wilder, feedback and guitar size became a concern for many players. So the semi-solid and thin line guitars became popular in the later 1950s. B.B. King and Chuck Berry switched from the ES-350 to semi-hollow thin line guitars when Gibson introduced the ES-335 in 1958.

I personally like the bit brighter tone of the P-90s as compared to the humbucker based Jazz boxes. Mostly because my Jazz chops are virtually non-existent. D’Addario EHR370 Half Rounds, Medium, 11-49 strings are on her now. I have these same strings on a few of my other archtop guitars. I may put a Bigsby tail piece and replace the bridge eventually. Both easily reversible changes.

1966 Guild X-175 and 1949 Gibson ES-350

Guild X-500T and Gibson-ES-350