ES-355 Questions

[J-1854Me]

Howdy all.

 

A friend has a guitar that he's letting me borrow and study for a bit.

 

Although it looks like a lightly refinned '60s ES-355TDC, there's several things about it that suggest it's a fake. Although I know my way around Gibson acoustics more comfortably, I'm not as familiar with the electric side, especially older ones.

 

The serial number comes up as 1964 or 67, and it's got a skinny neck -- skinnier than my 88 ES-347S -- and it's definitely lighter than my 347 too.

 

The body and neck has been totally oversprayed, and perhaps even refinished?? I can't tell whether the finish has been removed and redone or just oversprayed.

 

The headstock has been repaired (poorly) with a broken piece on the G tuner.

 

A few pics:

 

 

Back:

 

The lyre tailpiece:

 

The trussrod cover, to me, looks weird, and has the three screws, rather than two:

 

 

The end of the TRC extends almost onto the split diamond inlay, which seems odd. Also, I've seen a lengthwise "Stereo" TRC on 355s, but this one with "Custom" is unfamiliar to me.

 

The label has a stamped "ES-355" and handwritten in "TDC". SN is 103xxx.

 

Any folks who can provide some insight, especially on that trussrod cover, and other aspects, I'd appreciate it!

 

Fred

[JimR56]

Looks to me like a damaged, oversprayed, 1967 Gibson ES-355 with a non-original truss rod cover. Just because it's damaged/oversprayed doesn't make it a "fake", right? That said, the shape of the horns/cutaways looks slightly odd in the 2nd frontal photo, but more normal in the other photos... to my eye at least. I suppose there's a slim chance that the body is non-Gibson, but I doubt it based on what I'm seeing in your pics.

 

The bridge is non-original.

 

That pickguard (probably original) is beginning to decompose (note the light spots adjacent to the pickups). You need to remove that and replace it. When they decompose, they release a gas that corrodes the plating on metal parts.

[J-1854Me]

Looks to me like a damaged, oversprayed, 1967 Gibson ES-355 with a non-original truss rod cover. Just because it's damaged/oversprayed doesn't make it a "fake", right? That said, the shape of the horns/cutaways looks slightly odd in the 2nd frontal photo, but more normal in the other photos... to my eye at least. I suppose there's a slim chance that the body is non-Gibson, but I doubt it based on what I'm seeing in your pics.

 

The bridge is non-original.

 

That pickguard (probably original) is beginning to decompose (note the light spots adjacent to the pickups). You need to remove that and replace it. When they decompose, they release a gas that corrodes the plating on metal parts.

 

Thanks Jim. I tried getting that TRC off and two of the screws wouldn't budge, so I couldn't take a peek at the truss rod cavity, or determine what was going on there.

 

The label looks real enough, but I'm not sure about the guitar. Plays and sounds nice though!

 

Fred