bparkman Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Just was in one of those 'back in the day modes and happened to think about all the guitars I owned and never should have sold. Three I'm just curious about now. The first I bought when i was 16 back in '72 which was a Gibson ES335 custom made with Bigsby tail piece. It had the custom made panel on it. I bought it used, so it was older than a '72 model. I bought it because I was into Ten Years After and that is what guitar Alvin Lee was using at the time (I saw them live around the same time at the Municipal Auditorium in Atlanta). It looked exactly like the pick below. Same color. Also I had a Les Paul bought new around the same time, maybe a year or two later, but it was a special edition model I believe, it was white or blond, I think blond, and everything was gold plated. Not sure if it was real gold or not, but had gold pickups, gold keys, etc. Everything that could be gold was. I also had an Ovation 12 string bought new around the same time. So the 335 was bought used around '72 and the other two bought new within a couple of years of that. Now that I recall also bought a new Fender Jazz bass around the same time. I was just curious what those guitars would be worth today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveg Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Those Bigsby equipped instruments were "Custom Made" inasmuch as the Standard models had stop tailpieces. The Custom Made labels were put there to hide the holes left after the removal (or non-use) of the stop tailpiece and addition of the Bigsby. I think? DG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bparkman Posted January 10, 2014 Author Share Posted January 10, 2014 I'm not sure about all that, but there is one on ebay listed for about $14k and I've seen them as high as $30k. I was wondering what might be a consensus of the worth at this time just out of curiosity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spitball Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 The value depends a lot on the year of manufacture. Pre-1965 is worth a lot more than any other period. 1965-1969 is on a lower tier of value, and the 1970s models are lower still. This is because there were major spec changes in '65 and again in 69/70. The pre-65 guitars are the benchmarks all the rest are measured against. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jayyj Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 The Custom Made plaque would suggest an early 60s example - the earliest Bigsby guitars generally had pearl dots (or occasionally plastic inserts) filling the post holes, and in '65 the stop tailpiece was switched to a trapeze, so there was no longer any need for the plaque. I've heard of guitars from the trapeze era with apparently original Custom Made plaques but never seen one - but it's easy to imagine Gibson had a box of them kicking around for a few years and would happily attach one to your custom order if asked. If your guitar had small rectangular block inlays and the Custom Made plaque them you're probably looking at '62 - '64 as the year of manufacture. $14K seems about right for this era - my barometer for these things is Charlie Gelber (http://www.es-335.org) who currently has a nice '64 currently for sale for $14.5K. For $30K I'd be looking at no issue dot necks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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