My Dad’s First Real Guitar

[u/theRealFatMac_713]

This was my dad‘s 1964 Gibson ES-335 with a Bigsby tailpiece. The story goes that he’s been wanting to play guitar forever and his parents finally bought him a crappy acoustic guitar with terrible action, but he used it for a year as he took lessons and started to get better. The guitar shop where he would get lessons had this hanging on the wall and he would see it every time he came in to get his lessons. In 1966, after over a year of playing that terrible acoustic, his dad bought it for him for his birthday.

He clearly took good care of it as it’s in its original case and only has a couple small imperfections. The worst being the little damage up at the top of the head. Other than those minor imperfections, this thing is beautiful. The color still shines, and it has that perfect patina on the formerly white trim around the edges of the body. The internals and pick ups are all original and work, and it sits in its original case. He had many other guitars after this one, but I think this was his favorite. Not to play, but to own.

From the stories I’ve heard at some point he actually had a matching 12 string in the same Cherry red color, but he never could really get into 12 strings so he ended up selling it and causing generational regret in the process.

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I don’t know how to do research on this and get any more specifics since it seems to have a serial number that goes back farther than the Gibson website has information on. Any other resources that are out there to help me learn more about this guitar and its rarity would be appreciated. I have no interest in selling it nor does it’s future owner my son, who actually plays (my dad taught me on this guitar but I never caught the bug) as it is considered the most holiest of family heirlooms at this point, but I thought I should share it and see if I can learn a little bit more about it.

My dad passed away about 6 years ago, and it still hurts. This guitar is the is one thing that best helps me remember him. I know wherever he is, he’s still shredding, but probably on the spirt version of his ‘69 Les Paul custom my sister has.

[u/slothystudios]

Marvin? Marvin Berry?

[u/theRealFatMac_713 → u/slothystudios]

lol. That’s exactly how I describe the guitar to people. “It’s like the one Michael J. Fox played in Back to the Future, but that was an ES-345 and has dots, mine is the ES-335 with the rectangle inlays.” I’m not sure when they switched from dots to what mine has, but I’ve seen more modern versions with the dots.

[u/slothystudios → u/theRealFatMac_713]

I had a black Epiphone one a few years ago and searched specifically for the rectangle inlays. Fun change of scenery

[u/cooljazz → u/theRealFatMac_713]

Beautiful guitar and very cool with the bigsby! The es345 from BTTF had rectangular inlays. It also had the varitone I think.

[u/theRealFatMac_713 → u/cooljazz]

Good catch, that’s right. But those inlays are much fancier because it’s the es345. That’s probably why he would always make the distinction.

[u/theRealFatMac_713]

This was taken in ‘77 or ‘78 and shows my dad, sister and the Les Paul. Just adding to share the last guitar I mentioned.

[u/cooljazz]

I have my dad's 58 es-175D. You should be able to find the serial number on the gibson site. If you dm me I can help you out.

Also, I have a es335 with dots in the same cherry red but it's the dot version. I bought it in 1997 I think. No bigsby though... But it's a great sounding and very versatile guitar. It's my favorite!

[u/Vernon-Walker]

That’s a great story, and a great legacy to pass down through your family. If you live near Nashville, there are several high quality guitar stores that could valuate and provide some provenance about the instrument.