Gibson Custom ES-330L Electric Guitar  

The Gibson Custom ES-330L is a hollowbody electric guitar with stunning acoustic character that provides performers and songwriters with a very inspiring musical tool. The artisans at the Gibson Custom Shop have created an ES-330 guitar that is not a reissue, yet it has all the highly-desirable attributes of the original 1959 ES-330, such as period-correct 17° angled headstock, and black plastic pickup covers. Added to those are superior enhancements including premium tulip button tuners and a vintage period-correct 1-11/16" nut made from Corian that provides superior strength, durability, and musical sustain.

Introduced in 1959, the Gibson ES-330 was a revolution in the field of hollowbody electric guitars with its unique laminate top and back, top bracing, neck block, and tenon. The ES-330L has the same great pairing of features—dog-ear P90 pickups and hollowbody construction—as the Epiphone Casino guitars used by The Beatles to provide punch on recordings such as "Taxman" and "Paperback Writer," and most of the electric guitar tracks on Sgt. Pepper.

Full hollowbody
The Gibson ES-330L incorporates the finest features including single-ply binding on the neck, small pearloid block inlays, long tenon neck joint, and nickel hardware. The ES-330L body is truly hollow and has no center block, making it a lightweight, comfortable, and uniquely resonant guitar. Without a maple center block the ES-330L is free to vibrate acoustically and the weight reduction is substantial. The Gibson ES-330L guitar features the preferred one-piece mahogany neck for supreme resonance that has inspired both players and songwriters.

P-90 tone
ES hollowbody signature tone is maintained, regardless of volume control setting, through the special control wiring scheme known today as the Memphis Tone Circuit. It allows a wide array of tonal variations from what many consider to be the best pickup ever designed—the P-90. The ES-330L guitar features P-90 pickups in both the bridge and neck positions with independent volume and tone controls for each pickup. A 3-way pickup selector switch allows you to choose either pickup independently or both pickups combined.

Musical feedback
More acoustic in nature than most electric guitars, the ES-330L provides a balanced voice with more power than other hollowbody guitars. The sum and difference of the top and back (not to mention rims) create a vibratory explosion of acoustical energy with an awesome midrange that exhibits a sweet spot at every fret. This results in its ability to produce musical feedback. The ES-330L starts feeding back at a lower volume threshold and delivers a wider dynamic range of musical feedback. Controlled feedback is musical and adds to the player's creative arsenal. With the ES-330L guitar, players need only pivot their stance a bit to get in the zone. Infinite sustain is yours at just the turn of your torso with overtones, undertones, howls, and shrieks at your beck-and-call. Because the ES-330L guitar starts feeding back at a lower volume threshold further from the source, you actually have a lot more control over the feedback.

Neck design
The 1-piece Honduran mahogany neck has a long, narrow tenon for extra strength and resonance and the 30/60 neck is slimmer than a '59 rounded profile and ever-so-slightly larger than a '60 slim-tapered, making it comfortable for any guitarist. The large 1-11/16" nut width means you'll have plenty of fingerboard real estate to peel off your favorite riffs. The new ES-330L guitar combines the best of vintage ES-330 models with a 17° pitched peghead from the '50s model and a neck join at the 19th fret from the '60s model for easier access to the upper frets. The pitched peghead supplies increased downward string pressure after the nut, insuring brilliant tone, increased sustain and tuning stability.

Other features such as the pickup riser for the bridge pickup (normally offered only on more expensive models such as '50s L5 CES, ES-5, Byrdland etc.) which moves the pickup closer to the strings for a more robust performance, increase tone and output.


The Gibson ES-330L is the electric guitar for the truly musical guitarist, songwriter, and musical explorer. When pursuing a musical road less traveled, the ES-330L travels it well!






Check the drop-down menu to the right to select colors and/or other options.