I've never seen this Vintage Gibson

[Unicorn Warrior]

https://reverb.com/item/7255591-gibson-es-320td-c-1972


It's a Gibson ES-320td. All of my years of looking at guitars on the internet and I've never seen one. Kinda cool.

[UlricvonCatalyst]

Looks like a heavily modified guitar to me. I wonder if in its original guise it was a cousin to the Les Paul Recording - I'm getting that kind of vibe from it for some reason.

[FightingPlankton]

AFAIK the 320 was still archtop... but yeh, even if that model was flat top all of the hardware is different. Most notably the bridge.

[shoule79]

With the exception of the bridge and bridge pickup, it looks mostly original. These pickups were nothing to write home about. I had them in a same period SG, just sounded baaaad.

[Larry Mal]

I can usually find something to like about most Gibson guitars, but even I can't excuse this one.

[windmill]

Looks like it is from the same era as the SG100/200 models, around 1970.
The bridge is new though.

[F15hface]

I rather like the 320. The tele plate, pickup surrounds, and bridge make it look like a strange fender-gibson joint project and really pleasingly 'retro' in my opinion.
The only other time I've seen one is played by one of the guitartists in Black Honey, a small band from Brighton.

It sounds really good, quite twangy, with a bit of extra thickness due to the hollow body.

[Unicorn Warrior]

Interesting. Yeah, I'd like to hear its sound

[Embenny]

I can usually find something to like about most Gibson guitars, but even I can't excuse this one.

Really? I see that shape plus those pickups and I see potential. I've heard both terrible and amazing Melody Maker pickups, but the best of them had this sort of Telecaster quality to them. Would love to hear those in a 330-shaped Gibson.

Besides, it evokes the Les Paul Recording model, which is one of Gibson's quirkiest and awesomest chapters in their long history of cool designs.

[Larry Mal]

I'd love a Les Paul Recording, it's kind of on the list.

I can't speak to vintage Melody Makers, but I owned a 2000's era Melody Maker, and I thought it would sound like a Telecaster.

It didn't sound anything like a Telecaster. It sounded pretty shrill and bad.

[Despot]

I've never seen one of these in the wild, but I believe these were an attempt at a cheap/entry-level ES model guitar in the early 70s. Charlie Gelber on ES-335.org has covered them before iirc (if you've even a passing interest in ES guitars check out his site ... it's a treasure trove of useful and well researched information - he also has a physical store in upstate NY).

The ES model numbers are sort of an order of hierarchy - the old entry point for a double cut ES was the ES330 (hollow with P90s - the 'Special' of the ES3xx line if you will). Then you had the 'standard' (the ES335), the ES345 (which stands on it's own) and the ES355 as the top of the line 'custom' model with the split diamond inlay larger headstock and solid block fingerboard etc.

The ES320, just by it's model number, marks itself out as the student model. It's sub-ES330 .. which was the original student/entry model. I think the next point up from here in the '70s was the ES325 (the model yer man from Kings of Leon uses) - that has low impedence pickups that look like minihums but aren't (iirc), and a front mounted oval control plate (as opposed to the tele-type place on the ES320). These are fairly cheap guitars to buy (ES325) - there's one for sale here in Dublin at the moment for 1600 euro in good nick ... and it has been languishing on the for sale board for a very long time even at that price. They can be decent too as long as you don't expect them to be an ES335 or even an ES330 ... they're their own thing. Like all things in relation to '70s Gibsons ... your mileage (and quality) may vary.

If you think the ES320 is interesting you should take a look at Gibson's effort to create an even higher scale version of the ES3xx guitar - the Gibson Crest. Walnut everything with free floating pickups! They're actually sort of cool looking things in their own way (can't link a photo from where i'm typing this unfortunately, but a good image search is well worth a look).

Larry - if you were tempted to go for one of these '70s oddities I'd highly recommend waiting for a cheap ES325 rather than going for an ES320. Though I've never found one in the wild I've never heard anything good said about them ... whereas ES325s can be much better guitars and they're still relatively cheap in the scheme of things.

[Mr.K]

These are fairly cheap guitars to buy (ES325) - there's one for sale here in Dublin at the moment for 1600 euro in good nick ... and it has been languishing on the for sale board for a very long time even at that price.

Ooh, just had a look at this one. Very nice looking guitar. If I wasn't in the market for a new bass I'd be sending a slightly reduced offer his way.

[Larry Mal]

I could go along with that naming convention corresponding to the price point in the lineup except for the ES-175, which debuted in 1949 and was not a student instrument priced lower than the ES-330.

Otherwise for the ES-3** series you have it pretty accurate, maybe that's what you were referring to.

If I was made out of money, there is some kind of Norlin era ES guitar whose designation I forget but it comes with two mini-humbuckers and a trapeze tailpiece (I think). I played one of those at the Chicago Music Exchange a while back and it was a nice guitar but with a very narrow neck at the nut. If there was one of those with a more traditional wider ES neck I'd probably enjoy that guitar.

Maybe that's the ES-325 you are referring to? So they aren't actually mini-humbuckers?

[Despot]

Yep ... that's what I was referring to - the ES3xx line rather than the ES2xx or ES1xx line.

I don't think the model variation works the same way on ES2xx or ES1xx models. The ES150 isn't the mid-point between the ES125 and ES175 - it's a much earlier archtop fitted with a Charlie Christian pickup (or a Norlin era deep body double cut away that looks like a fattened ES335!).

In terms of what one to buy if money wasn't an option, I wouldn't go for an ES335 - I'd go for a mono ES355 - that will still be cheaper than an equivalent year ES335 and is basically just a fancier version of the same thing (compared to the ES345, which is a little bit different with the quacky out-of-phase middle position). I've only ever played a '68 Les Paul (never any from the original run), but I've always thought that a good ES355 would be a solid investment over time - I know there's a view that says that guitars will go down a lot in value when the baby boomers are no longer part of the equation (and with the discussion about the Death of Guitar Music), but they didn't make all that many of them in the first place and over time there will be fewer and fewer surviving ... I reckon they'll keep their value better than guitars that were more mass production. I forget the numbers, but I remember checking the production numbers for ES3xx line models up to 1965 ... and in those early years ES355s and ES345s weren't all that common ... even up to 1962 (which is when my own was built). Like we're not talking thousands - we're talking hundreds, and in some years a lot less than 100. When you factor in the attrition over time that makes them increasingly rare.

On the other side of the equation, they didn't make all that many ES345s or ES355s in the Norlin years - I don't recall ever seeing numbers, but I wouldn't be surprised if they made even fewer of those back in the 1970s than were made in McCarthy years!

[Despot]

Maybe that's the ES-325 you are referring to? So they aren't actually mini-humbuckers?

Did it have a black oval plastic/bakelite looking material panel on the front onto which the controls were mounted? If so then that's the ES325 - they're all Norlin so they would have that skinny nut (which isn't actually so bad to handle when the neck is a little bit thicker).

I'm not 100% sure on the pickups Larry - I'm pretty sure that they're not the same mini-hums that you'd have gotten in a Les Paul Deluxe around the same time period (and old Firebird pickups were different too - I recall someone on the forum going into a lot of detail about the design differences between the two and why they sound very different). For some reason I have it stuck in my head that these were low impedence pickups of some sort.