Gibson’s ES-335, introduced in spring 1958, had several immediately striking features, including a double cutaway (a first for the company), a thinline body (whose 1 3/4-inch depth matched that of the 1955 ES-225), and a pair of “patent applied for” humbucking pickups, developed by staff engineer Seth Lover.

But the most revolutionary aspect of the ES-335’s design was invisible from outside: beneath it’s laminated maple top lay a wooden block that ran lengthways through the guitar, transforming what would otherwise have been a hollow-body into a “semi-solid”. This drastically reduced the feedback from which many electric archtops suffered at. The inset mother-of-pearl crown on the headstock is mounted at a 17-degree angle to optimize the guitar’s tone quality.