When Gibson introduced the semi-solid ES-335 in 1958, the intention was to build an instrument that would appeal to tradition-minded players for whom a Les Paul Model was simply too radical of a design. However, as is so common in the world of musical instruments, these semi’s have taken on a life of their own and are a favored guitar for electric blues, fusion and practically every style in between.

Like the great marketing company they have always been, Gibson unveiled fancier semi-solids in 1959 in the ES-345 and ES-355, models which have unique features but retain the same shape and base construction.

Both 345’s and 355’s featured gold hardware and a radical stereo wiring system and a six-position “Varitone” switch. Anyone who has seen B.B. King in concert knows how he wrings some seriously tuneful variations out of scrolling through the settings on his Varitone-equipped Lucille (itself based upon an ES-355). The Varitone uses different capacitors to radically change the tone of the guitar, and in my opinion is a very underrated, under-appreciated and useful feature of these guitars.

The ES-345 features the same maple laminate body construction, mahogany neck and rosewood fingerboard of the 335, but adds the handsome double parallelogram inlays to (perhaps most famously associated with Gibson’s Southerner Jumbo acoustic) to the fretboard. While the 345 typically has factory gold hardware, this cherry red beauty was ordered from the factory with less showy nickel parts and looks fabulous as a result.

The price is $13,950 from Southside Guitars; significantly less than a comparable ES-335 from the same year.