The Gibson ES-330 (1959-1972) is a thinline hollow-body

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...

model produced by the

Gibson Guitar Corporation 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 forme ...

. It was first introduced in 1959 and the guitar had the same dimensions as the

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 ...

History

Sales of Gibson’s Electric Spanish guitars (ES-100 through ES-350) in the

1930s File:1930s decade montage.png, From left, clockwise: Dorothea Lange's photo of the homeless Florence Thompson shows the effects of the Great Depression; due to extreme drought conditions, farms across the south-central United States become dry a ...

and 1940s encouraged the company to continue to produce more electric guitars. In 1955 Gibson released the

ES-225 The Gibson ES-225 is a thinline hollowbody electric guitar model produced by the Gibson Guitar Corporation between 1955 and 1959. It is notable as the first thinline hollowbody guitar produced by Gibson. History The ES-225 was originally introdu ...

T and the

Gibson ES-350T The Gibson ES-350T is an electric guitar model from Gibson Guitar Corporation, released in 1955. The ES-350T is a further development of the Gibson ES-350 model from 1948 and as such has a completely hollow body. The unique feature of the Gibson ...

("T" is for thinline). In 1957 Gibson designed a new design which was the ES-335 double-cutaway and released it in 1958. The ES-330 was released by 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 ...

in 1959. In 1959 when the 330 was released the retail price was $275. The 330s came in two different designs, a one

P-90 The P-90 (sometimes written P90) is a single coil electric guitar pickup produced by Gibson since 1946. Gibson is still producing P-90s, and there are outside companies that manufacture replacement versions. Compared to other single coil desig ...

guitar pickup model called the ES-330T and a two pickup model called the ES-330TD.

Specifications

The

was released in 1958 and it had the same dimensions as the ES-330. The 330s had a maple top, back and sides with 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 in the top. The body was long, wide and deep. Initially the neck met the body of the 330 at the 16th fret, but the ES-335 neck met the body at the 19th-fret. In 1968 Gibson changed the design to have the 330 neck meet the body at the 19th fret. The 330 also differed from the 335 because it was hollow, while the 335s had a center block to prevent feedback. 330's also had P-90 pickups while the 335s had

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 d ...

s. The 330 had a mahogany neck with dot inlays and a 22-fret

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fretboard. The guitars also had a nickel-plated trapeze-style tailpiece. The guitar was released in three different finishes: cherry, sunburst and natural. In 1970 it was later released in a walnut finish.

Reception

The guitar was prone to feedback because of its hollow design. By the time the guitar was released in 1959 the trend in music was for loud music. The 330 was not favored because of the trend toward loud guitar driven music. The ES-330 was discontinued in 1972.

References

{{Gibson ES Series ES-330 Semi-acoustic guitars 1959 in music Discontinued products