1948 Gibson ES-350 Premier Sunburst vintage guitar for sale

Introduced in 1947 the ES-350 Premier was Gibson's first amplified guitar with a cutaway body, and the top of the formative postwar Electric Spanish range. Sharing a similar feature set as the already established ES-300 it has a 17” body with a triple-bound top, a bound Rosewood fingerboard with double parallelogram inlays, and a headstock with Gibson's Crown inlay and modern company logo. A single P-90 in the neck position is the defining feature of the earliest ES-350 Premiers, the model would gain a second P-90 in the bridge position during 1948 and by 1956 was replaced with the short-scale, Thinline ES-350T.

This excellent players Gibson ES-350 Premier is from the late 40s and likely one of the earliest examples of this new model for Gibson featuring a single pickup in the neck position. The keen-eyed among you may have spotted there are some features to this guitar that differ from the standard Gibson spec. Bought from the Dallas guitar show 20+ years ago with all the work already done, it has previously been re-necked with all the work completed to a high standard. The neck construction differs to a period ES-350P neck but has similarities to that used on an L-5. It is a pleasantly figured 3-piece Maple neck with 2 laminate stripes. The fingerboard is Indian rosewood with the correct split-parallelogram inlays. The bound headstock features the correct Crown Inlay and modern type Gibson Logo. The guitar has been oversprayed, likely when the neck work was completed, and it fluoresces evenly under backlight. The guitar features a mixture of original and replacement parts: unsurprisingly the Gold Kluson tuners are replacements and the tailpiece, although the correct style is a modern reproduction part. The original would likely have been the older style, unplated brass type. The Celluloid pickguard is the correct bound celluloid tortoise type used in 47/48. The P-90 features the thin 3-ply bobbin top seen on early P-90s, measuring in at a bold 9.37K it has been rewound. Pots and knobs are modern examples with a single volume and tone control.

An excellent playing guitar and currently strung with 12 gauge flat-wound strings there is adjustment should lighter or heavier strings be required. The neck has a soft V profile and measures 22.35mm at the 1st fret filling out to 24.89mm at the 9th fret. The nut measures 44.03mm. For many, it is felt Gibson has yet to improve on the combination of full-bodied tone, long-scale snap, and single-coil clarity found in the ES-350 Premier. Although a successful model for Gibson at the time it has now become a highly sought-after model with too few examples produced to meet modern demands. This guitar offers the opportunity to get a fantastic sounding and playing example of a rare, early, post-war Gibson at a fraction of an original example.

Comes with a period Lifton case in worn condition.