Platypus
Why call this post “Platypus”? A platypus is an animal that appears to have been constructed from left over or spare parts. Part mammal, part bird and maybe part reptile or amphibian. In any case it’s not like any other animal in the animal world. Shift gears to the guitar world and we’ll look at an ES guitar that is something of a platypus. It is a custom order from the days before Gibson had the Custom Shop when they would build just about anything you wanted to order. It took a while and cost extra but there are a fair number of one offs out there in the often homogenous guitar world.
OK, what makes a 335 a 335? What makes a 345 a 345? What makes a 355 a 355? I’ll take a run at this but the lines tend to blur the farther into this you go. A 335 is mono unless special ordered in stereo. A 345 is always stereo. A 355 is either. A 335 and a 345 have a simple headstock with the crown inlay whereas the 355 has the big headstock with the “split diamond” inlay. A 335 has dot markers or, later, small blocks. A 345 has split parallelograms and a 355 has big MOP block markers. 335’s have nickel hardware and single ply top binding. 345’s have gold hardware and three ply top binding. A 355 has gold hardware and 7 ply top binding. Back of the body bindings vary as well. 335’s and 345’s have rosewood fingerboards while the 355 has ebony. Other than these aspects, they are largely the same guitar. Suppose you got an ES guitar that had a mono circuit, gold hardware and an ebony board with big block markers. What would that be? It would be a mono 355. But what if that same guitar had the “crown” headstock and two ply binding on top? Those are both 345 features but, being mono, can’t be a 345. Or can it?
It was marketed as a 345 and the label says 345. I have never owned or even seen a mono 345 from 59 to 65. There are modern ones. That, to me, says it isn’t a 345 or else it’s perhaps the only mono 345 on the planet. The only feature of this guitar that is unique to a 345 are the body bindings. The gold hardware and the ebony board suggests a 355 but where’s the big split diamond headstock that is unique to 355’s (yes, other Gibsons have it but we aren’t talking about other Gibsons). I could, I suppose call it a mono 345 with a 355 board but mono kind of eliminates the 345 in my mind. More likely, I would call it a 335 with a 355 board and gold hardware (and 345 bindings). Or not. It is a true platypus.
So, how do I market it? I can simply call it a one off 345 as the previous seller did. But, the one thing that makes a 345 less desirable than a 335 is the stereo/Varitone circuit. So, I do the guitar a disservice to simply call it a custom 345. I’ll give you a similar situation…I had a red 59 ES-335 which is one of the rarest of the rare varieties. there are only 8 known. One of them is stereo with a Varitone that was special ordered. It sold for about 70% of what a stop tail red 59 335 would have brought. I know because I had a red 59 stoptail at the same time as I had the one with the Varitone. So, do I take that 30% reduction and turn it into a 30% increase in value? I’m not sure but being mono certainly should add value to a “345”. Because of the headstock, I don’t think I can call it a 355 even though the ebony board and the MOP block markers are clearly ES-355 country. I’d like to think I can call it a 335 since it has the 335 circuit and that’s the big factor in pricing 335’s vs 345’s. If 345’s were mono, they would likely be close or equal to a 335 in value just as a mono 355 is relatively close in value to a 335 with a Bigsby. I’m a big fan of one offs and if I was a collector (which you really can’t be if you’re a dealer and want to actually make a living), I’d keep this one as it is a true platypus. Call it what you want, it’s a very cool guitar.