This is it! This is where the thinline, semi-hollow electric guitar began!  This guitar comes to us from the original owner who at 13 years old woke up to find this guitar under the Christmas tree in 1958.  What a Christmas that was!  After 67 years of caring for this beauty, he decided that it was time to let someone else enjoy it.
 
This guitar brings that early single coil without the hum PAF tone that Seth Lover designed the pickup to deliver.  The guitar came to us with the neck humbucker spun around from the way they are usually seen, so that's the way we have left it.  Both pickups and pots are all original to the guitar, although the neck pickup did have one coil "slot coil" that had gone bad and was taken by the original owner to Gruhn Guitar who took care of having this coil rewound to the original spec.  The original wire from the pickup is included with the guitar.  The neck pickup capacitor and output jack have also been replaced. The original ABR-1 bridge has been shaved down, as is typical for the 1958 models, due to the shallower neck angle this were given when made.  The control knobs are original, except for one that was replaced.  The tuners are original, but the buttons have been replaced, due to degradation of the originals.  Five of the original shrunken tuner buttons are included with the guitar. The frets from number 11 through 22 are orignal.  Frets 1 through 10 were replaced long ago.  The pickguard and bracket are original, as is the stopbar tailpiece.
 
The guitar plays remarkably well, despite considerable wear to the frets.  With a refret it would surely be an absolutely amazing player.  The pickups deliver highly desired PAF tone in loads.  When we compared it to the 1959 ES-335 of a professional player friend he said the 1958 wins in a head to head.  The neck position of both sounded remarkably similar, but the neck pickup tone of this 1958 really set it apart, also giving it the lead in the middle position.  That middle position in this one was a real killer when he played it.  The neck is somewhat slimmer than what one would expect in a 1958 Gibson, making it very comfortable.  
 
Weight - 7.6 pounds
Nut width - 1.69 inches
1st fret depth - 0.85 inches
12th fret depth - 0.96 inches
Scale length - 24.75 inches
 
The guitar comes with an era correct Lifton case which shows expected wear for its age.  All latches and hinges work appropriately.  Also included are the original case key and the original ABR-1 instruction sheet.
 
Ships free in the United States. Hand delivery possible.