1959 Gibson ES-335 Sunburst

The 1959 ES-335 has outperformed (as an investment) every other guitar you can buy...including Les Pauls. Before Covid, a clean 59 ES-335 in sunburst was a $45000 guitar. During Covid it rose to $75000 for a clean one. By the end of Covid, excellent examples hit $85,000. Of course, they all aren't $85000 guitars. Condition, originality, neck profile, pickup bobbin color and a few other features all contribute to that big number. They have also gotten really hard to find. They only made 521 of them. There are more than three times as many 58-60 bursts. Beyond investment status, there is no better electric guitar in the world, except maybe a late 58 ES-335. This example is not an $85,000 guitar. It has some minor issues. It also has the transitional neck which has become very popular among 335 aficionados. It used to be that everybody wanted that huge early 59 profile but today? Not so much. The transitional 59 is nearly perfect for a lot of players. This one is from November of 59. It has been re-fretted. It had Schaller tuners at some point but a set of vintage Klusons are back on and the holes are expertly filled. Everything else is original. It's a monster player-lots of harmonics/double tones, very fat sounding bridge pickup and sweet sounding neck. It ain't cheap but it ain't $85K either. Original brown Lifton case. PAFs measure 8.05K bridge and 8.41K neck. Weight is a very manageable 7 lbs 12 ounces.