The Gibson Memphis ES330 VOS model is now discontinued, along with the Memphis plant, but is a great re-creation of a late 1950’s ES-330. Introduced in 1959, the ES-330 took visual cues from the new and very successful ES-335, but is uses a fully hollow body without a solid center block. A pair of under-wound P-90s provide great tone. Until about 1963, the ES330 and its cousin the Epiphone Casino set the neck joint at the 16th fret but subsequently the joint was shifted to the 19th fret, allowing easier access to higher frets.
Casino
The design for the Gibson ES330TD – the TD stands for Two Pickup, Double Cutaway – was an outgrowth of Gibson president Ted McCarty’s desire to offer a new, modern guitar to jazz players. The first item on the list was double cutaways, which at the time were not available on really any archtop guitars. The first model to use this format, and with a solid center block to reduce feedback, was the 1958 ES-335. The ES-355 and ES-345 soon followed, and to round out the line, the fully hollow Gibson ES300TD was added.
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MORE →Built from 1959 to 1972, the Gibson ES330 is essentially the same as the 1961 ES-230 Epiphone Casino, a double cutaway, fully hollow model with a pair of P-90 pickups. From a short distance, the Gibson ES330 looks very much like the ES-335 models, but there is a key construction difference in the lack of the center block. The body is otherwise similar, with Laminate Maple for the top, back and sides, with Mahogany for the neck and a bound Indian Rosewood fingerboard.
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MORE →This Epiphone John Lennon model was favoured by a number of prominent British guitarists during the early-mid 1960s, notably Keith Richards and three members of the Beatles. While both Paul McCartney and George Harrison had personal Casinos, John Lennon’s 1965 model is better known, especially in its stripped-down form.
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MORE →The Gibson ES-330 is a fully hollow but thin bodied archtop model, available with one or two pickups, in sunburst, natural, cherry or walnut finishes. The example here is an ES-330 TDC – Thinline, Dual Pickup, Cherry finish. Typical of Gibson thinline electrics, the body is a Maple laminate. The neck is Mahogany with a Rosewood fingerboard.
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