Gibson ES Series Guitars

American Musical Supply is excited to be your stop for Gibson ES-Series electric guitars! We offer True 0% interest payment plans - applying for our popular 12-pay plan is easy – get ready to enjoy a Gibson ES-Series Guitar with simple monthly payments. Use your own debit or credit card, enjoy fast and free shipping, and add a Gibson ES-Series guitar to your creative setup.

We make buying a Gibson ES-Series guitar quick and easy - in-stock items that are ordered before 5PM will ship out the same day! (see our Shipping Information Page for more details) Do you have questions and want to know which model would be best for you? Give us a call at 800-319-9043 - our experts are standing by.

Gibson ES Guitars have a legacy that stretches back over eighty years. What does the ‘ES’ stand for? It is short for ‘Electric Spanish,’ since in many ways they draw their lineage from European-style classical guitars and orchestral instruments. The name also was used to separate it from the lap steel guitar, another early electric model released around the same time that you rest on a stand and play horizontally. Archtop acoustic guitar was the inspiration for the earliest Gibson ES models - the top, back, sides, and internal bracing are all carefully sculpted, fine-finished pieces of solid wood that are secured together to form a completely hollow interior with plenty of resonance. Next came the technology – securing an electromagnetic pickup to the underside of the top, which captured the vibrations of the strings and sent the signal through a wired cable to a separate amplifier and speaker. In 1936, the Gibson ES-150 was released to the public and the Gibson hollowbody electric family was off and running!

Next came the Gibson semi-hollowbody ES Guitars. These instruments address the shortcomings of the fully hollow instruments, namely the problem of uncontrolled feedback at high volumes. Modifications were made, the most important being the addition of a solid wood center block to house the Gibson humbucking pickups and break up the hollow interior into smaller chambers. The result was a guitar that could power up and play at louder volumes much like a standard solidbody guitar, but with a tone that retained the characteristics of a hollowbody.

What type of music is a Gibson ES best suited for? Full hollowbodies are suited wonderfully for jazz, folk, pop, and ambient genres. Semi-hollowbodies are wonderful vehicles for blues, jazz, rockabilly, country, Americana, and alternative rock.

In 1958, the Gibson ES-335 was released. Today, it is still Gibson’s most popular ES model and for many is the first instrument that comes to mind when the term ‘semi-hollowbody guitar’ is mentioned. This is an electric guitar that commands a room with its looks and size, wows crowds with its sound, and can cover multiple roles depending on the genre of music you’re playing.

The ES-335 is a big instrument, so if you want that same sound and style in a smaller form-factor, you absolutely need to check out the Gibson ES-339. It has the same maple/poplar/maple construction and the same tones from its humbuckers, it’s just been scaled down in size to closer resemble popular solidbody instruments like the Gibson Les Paul. For those who want to stay a bit more nimble and maneuverable, the ES-339 would be a wonderful addition to your setup.

There are also many different models that have been released by Gibson over the decades which have expanded upon the design of the ES-335.

The Gibson ES-345 (originally released along with the ES-335 back in 1958) added a six-way ‘Varitone’ switch, designed to function as true-bypass in the first position and then gradually removing certain frequency ranges as you cycle through the remaining five. In essence, this is a guitar-driven type of EQ management in the form of notch filters. Modern ES-345s don’t have the Varitone, but continue to incorporate the split parallelogram fingerboard inlay and visual appointments not found on other Gibson models!

The Gibson ES-355 adds extra levels of fine-finishing – mother-of-pearl block inlay on the fingerboard and diamond-shaped inlay on the headstock (similar to what you see on a Les Paul Custom), as well as multi-layered binding on the body. The original ES-355 also had options with the Varitone and different hardware. Modern Gibson re-issues of the ES-355 are released in limited quantities and often include some of these vintage features.

Over for the past sixty-plus years, Gibson has released numerous ES models, including ones with a thinner body (‘Thinline’), different pickup configurations, various bridge and tremolo combinations (a Bigsby, for example), and fresh one-off style visual appointments. While many ES guitars have come and gone, Gibson does offer limited-edition reissues. When Gibson has something fresh in the works, AMS is always working to bring their newest instruments to you.

Gibson has worked with numerous artists over the decades to create special Artist Signature ES-series guitars. Chuck Berry, B.B. King and his iconic ‘Lucille’, Barney Kessel, Trini Lopez, Joe Bonamassa, Chris Cornell, Alvin Lee, and Dave Grohl are but a few of the many who have lent their names to models in the lineup. Gibson Artist model guitars are the result of extensive research, collaboration, and extraordinary levels of design detail - when one is released, you know you are getting an instrument of exemplary quality that shows off that particular artist’s preferences on a Gibson platform.