I have inherited a Gibson ES 335? with an early 60’s build date. It has the Bigsby bar. It possibly needs some restoration work but I need to get it to the proper place for an assessment and advice on maintaining its history but maximizing its value.

It is completed by a Fender Bassman Amp with the large cabinet with head unit. Dual 12” speakers. It’s fully functional. A quick search indicates a 1966 build date which is after Columbia? had bought out Fender?

I know that there are some music guys on here so I thought I’d throw this out for discussion. If anyone knows the place in Nashville to take a Gibson for appraisal (or is it Memphis for the electrics) I’d appreciate the help. Also, what do you guys think these things are worth; what dollar range would be realistic for each?

Traveling today so it would be late afternoon before I could put up pics.

Dibs!

Send me pics!

What kind of repairs does it need?

Original case? Pickups? Altered in anyway? Headstock repaired?

You’ll need to figure out what year in order to nail down value but could be quite valuable.

Silver face Bassman not worth anything crazy.

The immediate names for an appraisal which pop into my head are Gruhn's and Carter's.

A written appraisal from Gruhn's holds some weight in the vintage guitar world.

Personally, I wouldn't try to put a number on it.

By the way, if you think vintage guns are an addicting and expensive hobby, guitar guys say, "here, hold my beer."

I’ll try to pull some more details together tonight.

^^^This!^^^

[url=http://http://customfret.com][/url]
Here is a great place to go for repairs.

Lol. Yea. These early electrics are like crack. I play a little bit but not enough to make this guitar and amp shine. Instruments like this need to be in the hands of people that will keep them alive rather than sitting in a dark closet of a neophyte relative who remains clueless.

Reverb has become THE place for selling vintage gear. It’s fairly easy to determine value if you know what you have. 1960 dot necks in superb condition are valued rather high.

https://reverb.com/p/gibson-es-335td-1960

1966 es335’s are considerably less valuable.

https://reverb.com/marketplace?query=1966%20gibson%20es335

Call Joe Bonamassa, he'll buy anything and pay top dollar too.

That's for guys that watch Norman's Rare Guitars.

Call Charley’s Guitars in Dallas. FaceTime or Zoom and let them look it over. They are as good as anyone in the business. SRV, Clapton, John Mayer, and lots of top players deal w them exclusively. Another option from a different region.

JYa but even that pigs ass is still some pretty good pork!!$

^^^This^^^

Gruhns for appraisal if your close to Nashville.

And much like collecting guns, Condition is EVERYTHING.

I grew up in the heart of south central Kentucky born in 1966. The area was very rural and Mayberry-like in the buckle of the Bible Belt.

Back in the day it was commonplace for
Churches to have “singings”. Most of these were as much a social event as anything else. Several groups would be invited and basically do a few sets in rotation.

My mom and dad grew up in musical families so music was a large part of my life for many years. My dad wasn’t much of a singer but played the guitar. My mom was a soprano and together they were part of a quartet, The Sunshine Quartet. One of my maternal great uncles sang tenor with them so I spent more time with him until I was 8 than I did with both my grandpas combined.

We were ALWAYS gone somewhere over a 7-8 county area. Special church singings, revival services, a weekly live program on the local radio station. I absolutely hated it. From several years before I was born until I was 8 this was my life. Even Friday nights were busy taken up with practice sessions. My childhood was definitely unique because of this lifestyle but looking back, even with the fond memories, it’s not a lifestyle that I would choose.

When we moved back to the area my wife wanted to go to a “benefit singing” where an offering is taken up to help someone in need. We went to support a friend of hers. About fifteen minutes in I couldn’t sit still so I went out with my oldest daughter and watched moths and bugs flitter around the security light until the shindig was over.

It was more than a thirty six year old man could take so you can imagine the horror of growing up hostage to atrocious singing by well intended souls with limited talent. Those were the other groups. For amateurs the Sunshine Quartet was decent.

This old Gibson was the guitar that my dad used for many of those years. I remember him trading for it when I was four or five years old. It was a rainy Saturday afternoon and he traded an Airline electric and some cash to L J Tucker and took possession of the guitar, it’s been in the family ever since. That was around 1970.

The guitar has been a thing of legend for years. No one one knew exactly what it was but everyone knew that it was an old instrument and had some value. Thanks to Higgenez for helping me start to figure out what it is. We’ve already determined that it’s a 1961 ES 330 with the anomaly of having a Bigsby bar and bridge on it.

Somewhere along the way my dad ended up with a Fender Bassman amplifier. It’s a big beast with a cabinet with two twelve inch speakers and a head unit, a setup for two guitars. If memory serves he bought that from the son of Azro and Christine who made up the rest of the Sunshine quarter.

That’s pretty much the story behind the pair. Hope you guys enjoyed the little write up.

renegade says:












pics or it didn't happen.

Thanks for the update, I always enjoy the personal history behind things that I find interesting.

I love vintage guitars and their stories. Really enjoyed yours. That's a great guitar, obviously.

There is a difference between assumed, restoration work and a repair.
If it looks scratched and maybe a few chips in the finish and surface rust on the metal parts, these need to be left alone as they make the guitar authentic and "player grade" which is a price category and more valuable than something "restored" in the eyes or most users or collectors.

If the guitar has something broken that makes it unplayable, I'd recommend sending it to Gibson which is also in TN. I had them do some work on a 1966 model of mine a few years back and it is not only done properly, you have the paper work from Gibson which offers far greater value that Joe Bloe from Box Spring Ln. If it isn't Gibson, it is not Gibson's work.

Good stuff worthy of a few pics!

It's a great guitar from when Gibson was firing on all cylinders.

Lol.


The Sunshine Quartet



Left to right my dad, Uncle Earl, Christine, mom, Azro.

Thanks for all the suggestions. Sounds like I have some online options for appraisal.

Applause ^^^^^ for the pic up there.

GASP!

An electric guitar IN CHURCH!!!!!!???????

Here’s the old Bassman beast.

Cool story and pictures. With all that history you should hang onto it and play around the campfire 🔥

This Gibson was not a closet queen. It was a players guitar. I misunderstood a point about the Bigsby bar that Higgenez can better explain. Here is the original case and a few pics of the 330. It’s missing the pic guard and an original control knob. This is how it came to my dad.


ETA

Imgur is presently over capacity. I’ll get the Gibson pics up later if the internet gods cooperate.

I was just looking into the head unit on the amp. I’m not sure where the smell comes from or what the odor is but the smell of the innards of a tube amp are almost like the smell of gun steel and oil! Man! does that smell bring back memories!

From Wkipedia:

The Gibson ES-330 is a thinline hollow-body electric guitar model produced by the Gibson Guitar Corporation. It was first introduced in 1959.[1]

Though similar in appearance to the popular Gibson ES-335 guitar, the ES-330 is quite different: the 330 is a fully hollow thinline guitar, not a semi-hollow guitar with a center block. Also, the 330 has two single-coil P-90 pickups, in contrast with the two humbuckers on the 335.

The 330 neck originally joined the body at the 16th fret, not the 19th, like the 335.[2] In 1967/1968, Gibson changed it to join at the 19th fret. Current Gibson reissues are known at ES-330L to denote this longer ('L') feeling neck, and reissues of pre-68 330s have the 16th fret join as they would have originally. Note that the scale length of both models (16-fret and 19-fret) is the same, the body is just different (the 16-fret model has markedly taller upper bouts and thus more hollow body area).

The guitar has been produced both as a single-pickup instrument (ES-330T) and as a dual-pickup instrument (ES-330TD). Somewhat unusually, the ES-330T had its pickup mounted halfway between the bridge and the end of the neck, not in one of the usual neck or bridge positions. It has been available in sunburst, cherry, natural, walnut, and sparkling burgundy finishes. Tailpieces used are usually trapeze or Bigsby vibrato tailpieces. Due to its lack of popularity compared to the other Gibson thinline guitars (such as the ES-335, ES-345, and ES-355), the ES-330 was discontinued by Gibson in 1972. Since then, it has been reissued a few times by the Gibson Custom Shop division.

Famous ES-330 players include Eric Church, Emily Remler, B.B. King, Slim Harpo, Grant Green, William Reid, Roky Erickson, Chris Bell, Zoot Horn Rollo, Brian Jones, Brad Simpson of The Vamps, and Elliott Smith.

It is notable that the ES-330 has a nearly identical cousin, the Epiphone Casino (Epiphone was and is a subsidiary of Gibson), which was played in particular by the Beatles’ John Lennon, George Harrison, and Paul McCartney, and The Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards.

[img]https://imgur.com/a/53n1u41[/img]
https://imgur.com/a/53n1u41

Let’s see if I can get these to show up.

[img]https://imgur.com/a/y3S4BR1[/img]

Nice ! Looks to be in pretty good shape.
Any cracks in the neck where it joins the headstock ?
It happens to a lot of old Gibson’s.

Nice guitar, too bad about the Bigsby, I'm not a fan.

Make mine a Bigsby!

Here are pics of IHZ27's sweet 61 es-330td

Love the small headstocks!

This pic would get framed and hung on the wall.

Both guitars are art.

Thanks for posting those not sure why I’m suddenly unable to get Imgur to link up.

What model is the Gibson that you posted?

In the black and white photo my dad is playing the Airline that he traded for the 330.

No cracks. Mainly wear on the edges of the head. Typical laquer cracking and neck trim peal.

That’s the original shape save a little wear and tear. The pick guard was missing and the one control not original when he traded.

That is a '71 Les Paul Custom.

That’s sweet.

I'm quite fond of her. Paid $225 for it my sophomore year. Already had a '74 and everybody was giving me schidt for buying a second one. "Fretless Wonder" as they were called it didn't play great, but that all changed with a fret job. Plays and sounds a whole lot better than any of the Norlin era Les Pauls I've played.


Had a friend whose uncle was Raul Rekow. He had a gig down at Cal Expo so I schlepped this thing down there and had his boss sign it. Carlos told me, "that's a nice box man!" LOL





Near as I can tell it says, "To Jeff, Joy."

What vintage amps?

'59 Bassman Reissue that I hand wired.

1990's Matchless DC-30

18 watt Marshall clone I hand wired in a Matchless DC-30 cab I cloned.

Cool. A pick guard shouldn’t be that hard to find.
Love that tobacco sunburst color.

I had a pristine ES-335 in that color I let a very good friend talk me out of several years ago. I still get to play it when I visit. Mostly play a TeleCaster or Strat nowadays. Arthritis is starting to take a toll on my old hands now. Don’t play near as much as I want to.

You guys suggested Gruhn’s. I checked and they offer an online appraisal for 75$. Send in specific pics an email and mailing address. As soon as the appraisal is completed they send an email and hard copy of the appraisal. I plan on getting that done over the weekend.

Chlin

The tobacco sunburst is my favorite for obvious reasons. If I keep it as a player I’ll plan to find a vintage guard and volume knob. I’d like to get some quotes on repair and increased if restored. It’ll be interesting to see what Gruhn’s says.


I have a few more pics that are related to the general topic but not specifically to the guitar if you guys would like me to post them up.

I like what you did with the intervals with those cases.

Post em Steve!

They are beyond cool and these guys will surely appreciate them!

That’s cool. Well worth the $75 for Gruhn’s appraisal!
They are well respected in the Vintage Guitar market.

I sold a 60s Hofner 457/12 president a couples years back, which I had kept it.

Let me know when you find out more about

My oldest Gibbie now is '32 archtop.

This is another 60's era of the quartet. The old Airline guitar that was traded for the 330.

This is the quartet singing at a special event at my home church as a kid. This would have been some time during the early 90's since my Great Uncle, on the left, died in the mid nineties.

This pic would have been at a Labor Day family gathering. My paternal grandpa's birthday was celebrated on Labor Day. This is my dad with his three sisters. I'm not sure who the second lady from the left is but its likely a family friend?. Old school country harmony. I'm not certain whose guitar was being played. Probably my aunt Vonda's.

Love this one.

Your pops looks like he plays a mean C chord.

It’s really strangs seeing that picture. I may not have been born when that one was taken. I know it’s my dad but in some ways I don’t recognize him. A little weird.

Gruhn likely had your knob and pick guard. If not, I bet they can locate them for you.
eBay has repros.