1959 Gibson ES-335 Blonde

Read this listing carefully. Then read it again to make sure you understand what this is and isn't. About 5 years ago, I bought a broken 1959 EB-2 bass. It was in five pieces but all the pieces were intact so I had some choices. I could have it put back together and have a nice blonde EB-2. Or I could get creative. The body of an EB-2 is identical to a 335. The holes for the controls are in the wrong places but I could figure out a way around that. Rather than make a 335 with the controls in the wrong places, I decided to do something a bit more radical. With the help of Ken McKay (who builds the most accurate 335 style guitar anywhere) we set about making a 335. I believe in the old wood theory, so I felt comfortable that it would be a good sounding guitar. We took the back and made it the front. Drilled new holes and routed it in the proper locations for a 335. Ken made a new back. We needed a neck, so Ken made a 59 profile neck using a nice piece of old growth mahogany and Brazilian rosewood. The finish was flaking off, so Ken did a light overspray just to stabilize it. Here is what is from 59: Body: Top, and sides. New: Back, center block and neck. Parts '59: Bridge (lightly shaved no wire), knobs, neck pickup (PAF), truss rod cover (2 extra holes "Custom"), neck pickup ring. Parts Repro: Tuners, tailpiece, Bridge pickup (Throbak SL-101), bridge pickup ring (M8 vintage but wrong era), pick guard and bracket, harness (vintage Black Beauty caps), saddles, switch tip. This guitar has been my personal player for 5 years. I've swapped out the pickups often-it became my test guitar for all pickups. If you want different pickups, let me know. I have lots. I had a pair of double white PAFs in it for a few years and it sounded as good as any 335 I've had. It's still pretty close. The case is correct brown Lifton with pink lining in fair to good shape. Pricing something like this is tricky so I based it on what I paid for the broken EB-2, Ken's labor and the parts. I can set it up with all repro parts for less or all correct parts for a lot more. It gets you a great looking and great sounding road warrior stage guitar that you won't have to worry so much about about. With 59 blondes closing in on the $150,000 mark, this one makes a lot of sense.