Gibson ES-345 Semi-hollowbody Electric Guitar - Sixties Cherry Reviews

It turns out that a 345 is the 335 I've always dreamed of. From the thick neck to the gorgeous aesthetics, this guitar is pure joy.

Kudos to Sweetwater and Matt for packaging it so perfectly, since it ended up being shipped during a storm. I wouldn't buy a guitar online from anyone else.

I'm super happy with everyone that I delt with at sweetwater especially Adam and Ben. They went above and beyond to accommodate me. I look forward to working with them in the future. The guitar came perfect and is that of my dreams. Looking forward to many years of playing.

First off, the one I purchased from Sweetwater is a "Demo"! I saw ALL the photos, the 2 things pointed out,
that caused it to be classified "Demo" and felt they were so minor, in issues, that I decided to "pull the trigger",
so to speak, and take my chances. After a nice "back & forth" with my sales rep Jay Diehl, and more photos of my
purchase, I felt confident I'd made a good decision. Waited the excruciating 3 days, for it's arrival, vie Fed Ex
Ground, took delivery, waited 4 more hours, to make sure the guitar was acclimated, after being shipped in the dead
of Summer, in a Triple Digit Plus heatwave. I finally opened the case, and was astonished how beautiful this "Demo"
actually was. I looked it over, closely, and honestly it looked "perfect" to me! Plugged it in, and have been in
"tone heaven" ever since! This is a model, and color, I have wanted for more years than I can remember. There was
always some "reason/reasons" I just couldn't afford it, over that time period. So, it's been kind of a "Bucket List"
guitar, for some time now. I'm delighted to say it was well worth the wait! Thank You Gibson, Sweetwater, and Jay
Diehl, for making a long-awaited dream come true! I'm one ecstatically happy man!

First let me thank Micheal Duncan for being so helpful in this decision. I have been playing guitar for years and have played some nice instruments but nothing as nice as the 345. I have a few Gibson and fenders and even a gretsch to compare it with. And this guitar is as smooth as it gets. The 335 I have is really good love it, but there's something about this 345 that brings something else to the table. Everything about it seems to say luxury . This guitar came out of the box ready to play no setup necessary, action is so low and comfortable that I wish I could find the guy who set it up. Now when it comes to sound this guitar is pure sweetness and that is with whatever type music you play, it will do it all. Best investment I made as far as guitars. It has found a home.

Alright so full disclosure - idk **** about guitars. I can barely tell a strat from a tele. Idk ***, ok?

That being said, I purchased this for my husband for Christmas, and I'm pretty sure it's his favorite gift ever. Not for the guitar, mind you, but for the Gibson multi-tool that's included in the case.

Yes, you read right. The guitar; we'll get to that, whatever, but LET ME TELL YOU how this man has been gushing for WEEKS about what a useful, quality, fantastic tool this has been. Not only does it work on the Gibson, but the tools are compatible with his other guitars. Apparently. I dunno how many proprietary nuts and bolts a guitar has. Point is, my usually stoic husband is absolutely giddy about how revolutionary this tool has been for his regular maintenance. It has genuinely changed the game for him, it seems. And as far as I recall, this tool wasn't even listed in the product description. Just thrown in with the extremely high quality hard case. It's a thoughtful touch that really hits the mark.

Also yea the guitar is fantastic too. But this tool tho.

I have had this guitar for 2 weeks now and have played it through a few different amps that I have and I must say this guitar is pure joy to play. I can't believe I haven't had one in the 45 years that I have been playing guitar. I have 4 Les Paul's, 2 stratocasters and a telecaster and this ES345 tops them all. It is everything I have been searching for all my life. This guitar is flawless in workmanship and it is beautiful to boot. If you are thinking about getting one I would say do it. You won't regret it.

This guitar was worth the wait. The build quality is absolutely fantastic. It plays and sounds incredible. I don't miss the vari-tone switch at all. I do miss the gold hardware but it's just my opinion. I recommend this guitar to everyone.

I want to thank Sweetwater Sales Engineer Damon Spragia for working with me to secure the purchase of this beautiful Gibson ES-345. With the delays due to covid it was a few months, but it finally arrived, and I am extremely pleased with the look, feel and play of this beaut. The grain in the sixties cherry is spectacular and the split inlays and three ply binding set it off and make it unique from any of the ES-335 models. Thank you again to Sweetwater and Sales Engineer Damon Spragia.

You can judge a great electric or acoustic guitar by how much it inspires you when you play it. If you're a songwriter - how many song ideas just seem to jump off the fretboard? This is "The One" for me. You can keep your '59 Les Paul - I like this better :)

Ever since I saw this ES-345 in Back to the Future and in George Harrison's hands, I've thought this beauty to be one of the coolest looking, vibey tone machines in all of guitardom. The neck & fretboard play like a dream - fast, smooth and comfortable. Likely do in large part to Gibson passing this through the Plek machine. It also simply looks better than the 335, but some of that comes down to personal taste.

You can also judge a company by how many times you walk away from a phone call or interaction and say to yourself - "Man, those guys were helpful - nobody does Customer Service like these guys anymore." That has been my constant and consistent experience with Sweetwater over the past 15 years, and my current Sales Engineer - Mike Johnson has been a stellar person to work with - very helpful, responsive and strong evidence of the "culture" that Sweetwater has created not only for their employees, but for the ecosystem they've intentionally put in place for their customers. To go in the way-back machine and quote Carly Simon "Nobody does it better..." :)

The earlier review criticizing the lack of Varitone and stereo wiring seems to not understand what classifies an Es-345 as an Es-345. The Varitone and stereo wiring are not what makes it an Es-345 as there are tons of vintage examples without either of them. What makes an Es-345 is the split parallelogram inlays and the 3-ply binding which this has, so of course Gibson is not going to call it an Es-335 because it isn't.

Now that that's cleared up, I actually own one (sunburst) and can say Gibson has made some steps in the right direction. The build is flawless from every angle I can find and I don't have complaints with a muddy neck pickup or dull sounding electronics. I can actually use the volume and tone knobs without sounding like I threw a towel over the amp speaker, which seemed to plague most of the 335s I had tried prior. I can't seem to find much information on the T-Type humbuckers that came in it but I'm going to assume they're the same T-Types as the ones first seen in the limited SG run CME did in 2019.

The rounded "C" neck is slightly slimmer than I anticipated which was a pleasant surprise for me. It obviously has more beef on it than the slim 60s neck but not too much. It feels just right.

The answer to why no selector switch as like on previous models. Gibson this year drop the selector switch due to a lot of customers requested that they wished it came with no selector switch. So Gibson answered to the public. As soon as this closure stuff is over I plan to get this model.

Big fan of the changes made on this model. The Varitone was a useless invention. I had stereo on my RIC-12. Another dumb idea. Good riddens! There are some sweet little details on this semi-hollow including a slightly beefier neck carve, multi-binding and the traditional 345 inlays that are ohh so sweet! Much cooler than the tiny blocks or dots. Totally worth an up charge from the 335. My only want would be a trapeze instead of the ABR. Hoping that won't be a stupid crazy up charge for a Custom build. I had a '63 335 50 year anni. VOS with Burstbuckers I wish I still had, but personally didn't care for the VOS finish and chincy looking sticky and dull aged hardware. Different strokes. I'm waiting for the news on one of these built for me.

My first review was overly harsh and so I thought I should write an updated, more accurate review that reflects how I now think about the guitar. I had just got it and was grieved by some minor cosmetic flaws and the taper of the volume and tone pots. Now that I have had the guitar for over a month and have gotten used to it, I am glad I bought it. One of my favorite things about it is the spot-on intonation up and down the neck. Being able to play in tune is important to me. Although I will probably replace the pickups with some more to my liking (Klein 58 PAF's, Bare Knuckle Stormy Mondays, or Lollar Low Winds) I have gotten used to the Calibrated T-Types. They do remind me of Gibson's mid 60's/early 70's humbuckers except maybe better in that they are clearer (zero muddiness) but less warm, or sweet.
I flipped the neck pickup ring around to get the pickup to sit a little more evenly under the strings: resulting in a little more warmth and (I think) better tone. Don't know why Gibson sends these out this way. (see my before/after pics)

Gibson has come out with a New Es345 My Question
Is this Where is the Stereo Wiring Plus the 6 Position varitone? What I see is a Es335 with a Es345 Neck
Having two Es-345 One a1969 All Original and a Epiphone Es345 W/Bigsby Replica I find this very misleading especially for the Price they are asking Gibson should say what it really is A Es335 with a Es345 Neck and rewrite the Guitar Discription correctly