1963 Gibson ES-335 Sunburst

All 1963 ES-335's are the same, right? Not right. There are a number of different configurations and the differences can be significant or they can be nothing. PAFs or patents? PAFs are a great selling point but early patent numbers are identical except for the sticker. If you want to spend an extra $3000 for the sticker, that's your choice. This one has early patents. Mickey Mouse ears or pointy ears? 63's came both ways-the early ones had the classic mouse ears, the later ones had the pointy ones (like all 64's). Again, simply cosmetic. Your choice. This one has mouse ears which I prefer. Then there is the neck profile. A 63 can have the wonderful 64 neck profile that starts out fairly slim and gets really big by the 12th fret or it can have the very slim blade neck that starts off very slim and stays that way. The problem is that if you want the mouse ears, you almost always get the slim neck. Those two changes didn't occur at the same time but it was pretty close so that all of the pointy eared 63's have the big neck and nearly all of the mouse ear 63's have the slim neck. Bummer. But there are a few that managed to get the desirable mouse ears and the big neck. Like this one. The neck measures .82" at the first fret and reaches .98" by the 12th fret-the classic 64 profile. It's all original (as a Bigsby) including the frets. It shows no wear and while not quite a near mint example, it's pretty close. There are some marks on the back only from a coil cord but they are very, very light-they don't show up in the photo. This is a no issue, no excuses guitar. Great player too. I have it set up now as a stop tail using a Gibson Historic bridge and Faber tailpiece. The original Bigsby and original no wire "rocker" ABR-1 are included as well. Case is a Lifton (with the leather covered metal handle-not the plastic one that always breaks).