1959 Gibson ES-355 Cherry

This is an extremely cool Gibson ES-355, made in the USA in 1959, which is the first year these were made. It has the original cherry finish which has a "watermelon" hue only available from the first year. The guitar shows normal play wear, but there are no breaks or repairs. Although original a stereo guitar it was converted to mono by removing the varitone and choke and so the electronics are just like an es-335, which is far more useful than the original stereo setup. There is a metal plug filling the hole for the original varitone, which could easily be removed if you wanted to restore it to original specs. There are no extra holes. When we got this, it had one original PAF and one changed pickup. We restored a second original PAF into the guitar. The pots, tuners, plastic, and basically everything else are original. The guitar has been refretted. It has been pro-setup in our store and plays great. It comes with the original case.