1959 Gibson ES-355 Mono Red

Just calling a guitar a '59 355 doesn't mean much because there are so many different varieties. For example:
Thin top or "normal" top. Fat neck or slim neck. Cut center block or solid center block. Mono or stereo. Black, zebra or white pickups. That's a lot of variables and some are more desirable than others. This has the thin top. That's a good thing. More resonant but they can be fragile. This has the big neck (.88" and .99"). That's a good thing (and rare on a 355) for me and a lot of other players. Solid center block. Toss up. Most 355's were cut to accommodate the Varitone choke but the early ones were not. This has a mid year serial but a very earl 59 FON (factory order number). Pickups? One is a zebra and the other is black. Both are over 8K 8.1K and 8.5K). Why is the hardware look like nickel-it's supposed to be gold. It looks to me like a previous owner didn't like the way the gold was wearing off, so he removed nearly all of it. There is nickel under the gold. Like it or not, it looks pretty good to my eye. there is gold inside the pickup covers, on the underside of the Bigsby and the bridge and you can see where he took the gold off the tuners. It's a great player and with the price of 59 335's getting way out of reach of many buyers, a mono 355 is a great alternative for half the price. Same circuit, same pickups, same construction. Only differences are the tuners, the ebony fingerboard and the fancy inlays and bindings. Condition is 8.5+/10. Has a very nicely done refret (recent). Pickup covers have been off and reinstalled. Nice original brown Gibson badged case. This is the first big neck watermelon '59 355 mono I've seen in a very long time.