Among the new features of Gibson’s 1958 thinline, semi-hollowbody ES-335 was it’s double-cutaway body, a first for Gibson f-hole archtop models.

It was so well-received that, a year later, Gibson tried the double-cutaway on a fully hollow thinline model. The model number of the hollow version, ES-330, showed that, from the very start, Gibson considered it to be a little below the semi-hollow 335.

And the 330’s single-coil pickups secured it’s place as “poor relation” to the humbucker-equipped 335. The hollowbody precipitated another fundamental difference; without the support of the 335’s center block, the neck had to extend farther into the body, leaving ES-330 players with less access to the upper register than the ES-335 provided. The ES-330 did initially have one feature that the 335 lacked – a single-pickup version – but that only lasted through 1962.

The ES-330 was reasonably successful, and the Gibson-made Epiphone version, the Casino, gained considerable fame in the hands of The Beatles.