Gibson 50th Anniversary ES335 Semi-Hollowbody Electric Guitar

The Gibson 50th Anniversary ES335 Electric Guitar pays tribute to the guitar that gained instant success when it was introduced in 1958. With its arched top and f-holes, the ES335 bore recognizable links to its lineage, but a quick check inside its double-cutaway thinline body with solid center block revealed it as a brave new design. More subtle in its advancement of the template, it was in many ways no less revolutionary, and also more acceptable to players who were hesitant to strut too far ahead of the pack. The new ES335 had the advantage of possessing some of the familiar ES features, and in particular was only a few steps away from thinline hollowbody models like the Byrdland and ES350T of 1955, but that chunk of maple that ran down its middle to render it a semi-acoustic made a world of difference to its performance.

The solid wood meant the ES335 could carry a tune-o-matic bridge and stopbar tailpiece, all of which worked together to produce a quick response, great note definition, and the kind of sustain that couldn’t be had from any fully hollow archtop on the market, thinline or full bodied. To top it all off, plugging up the center of that body achieved impressive resistance to feedback, a major pest to archtop players of the day. Taken up quickly by adventurous jazz and country players who recognized its advantages, the ES335 rapidly proved itself equally at home in the hands of blues, pop, and rock players too. One of the most versatile electric guitars ever… read more produced, it has been a Gibson mainstay ever since. read less