1959 Gibson ES-345 Red

About twelve years ago, I went to buy a red 1960 ES-345 from a private seller. At that time there were no known, authenticated red 59 345's. That "60" turned out to be the first red 59 ever made. Since then, a few more have surfaced and I've been lucky enough to own a few. This is the fourth one I've had. There are 9 known at the present time. All red ones in 59 used the old photo reactive dye-the same one used on Les Paul bursts-and they fade. Sometimes to a watermelon red, sometimes to a Gretsch orange and, like this one, somewhere in between. The flame top makes it even more special. It is still wired stereo with its Varitone intact and working. PAFs are original and unopened. neck profile is medium chunky (around .84" at the first and .95" at the 12th fret). It is one of only 2 red 59's with the black Varitone ring and the only factory Bigsby. I don't know if the "burst" knobs are original or not as it was likely a special order and they may have been specified. I would note that early red 355's from 58 had the same knobs. I could switch them to correct black ones but I'll leave that to the next owner. One note-the tuners should be gold single line Klusons. They are gold no lines which is odd because it doesn't appear that these tuners have ever been removed. I think they were left over from some earlier guitar and Gibson wanted to use them up. I've seen that more than once. Brown Stone case in very nice condition.