The Gibson ES-355 is the top of the line semi-hollow body thinline guitar from the

Gibson Guitar Company Gibson Brands, Inc. (formerly Gibson Guitar Corporation) is an American manufacturer of guitars, other musical instruments, and professional audio equipment from Kalamazoo, Michigan, and now based in Nashville, Tennessee. The company was former ...

. The guitar was a stereo guitar with a varitone circuit and it was manufactured from 1958 to 1982. In 2018 Gibson began producing version of the 355 again.

History

The Gibson ES-355 was created to be the fanciest of the Gibson thinline semi-hollow guitars. The first 355 appeared in 1958 as a mono ES-355TD. The majority of the 355s were manufactured as stereo guitars labeled ES-355TD-SV. The manufacture of the stereo versions appeared in 1959. Many guitarists did not appreciate the varitone and they disconnected the option so that the guitar could be played in mono.

Specifications

The guitar shipped in a mono version or a stereo version and it was the fineset of the gibson 300 series (

ES-335 The Gibson ES-335 is the world's first commercial semi-hollowbody electric guitar, sometimes known as semi-acoustic. Released by the Gibson Guitar Corporation as part of its ES (Electric Spanish) series in 1958, it is neither fully hollow nor fu ...

, ES-345). The guitar shipped with an ebony fingerboard and pearl block inlays. There was a split diamond headstock inlay, and all of the hardware was gold plated. Many of the early versions of the guitar came with a

Bigsby vibrato tailpiece The Bigsby vibrato tailpiece (or Bigsby for short) is a type of mechanical vibrato device for electric guitar designed by Paul Bigsby and produced by the Bigsby Electric Guitar Company (currently an independently operated subsidiary of Fender ...

. In 1960 Gibson offered a sideways vibrola option. The rarest version are the versions with the Stoptail bridge. The top and back of the guitar was fitted with maple. The neck was mahogany and the tuners were either Grover Rotomatic or Kluson 'waffleback'. The top of the guitar featured two

F Hole A sound hole is an opening in the body of a stringed musical instrument, usually the upper sound board. Sound holes have different shapes: * round in flat-top guitars and traditional bowl-back mandolins; * F-holes in instruments from the vio ...

s, and a center block to limit feedback that was often experienced with hollow guitars. The 355 shipped with two

humbucker A humbucking pickup, humbucker, or double coil, is a type of guitar pickup that uses two wire coils to cancel out the noisy interference picked up by coil pickups. In addition to electric guitar pickups, humbucking coils are sometimes used in ...

pickups. Another extremely rare version of the 355 is the ES-355TDN; which has a natural or blonde finish.

Reception

The guitar did not achieve the success that Gibson had hoped for. The ES-335 which was the stripped down version in the 300 series thinlines, was more popular. The 335 was lighter and simpler. The veritone circuit which was on the majority of 355s was not desired. Gibson ended production of the 355 in 1982. Gibson does produce a

B.B. King Riley B. King (September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015), known professionally as B.B. King, was an American blues singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. He introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending, shi ...

Lucille model 355 and in 2016 produced an

Alex Lifeson Aleksandar Živojinović, (born 27 August 1953), known professionally as Alex Lifeson (), is a Canadian musician, best known as the guitarist and backing vocalist of the progressive rock band Rush. In 1968, Lifeson co-founded the band that wo ...

ES-355. In 2018 Gibson began producing an ES-355 with a Bigsby, an ES-355 in Walnut finish with a Maestro vibrola and an ES-355 Black Beauty.

Notable players

Keith Richards Keith Richards (born 18 December 1943), often referred to during the 1960s and 1970s as "Keith Richard", is an English musician and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the co-founder, guitarist, secondary vocalist, and co-princi ...

References

{{Gibson Guitar Corporation Semi-acoustic guitars ES-355 1958 musical instruments 1958 in music