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Gibson Custom Shop’s new Marcus King 1962 ES-345 signature model recreates a King family heirloom
It’s based on the vintage semi-hollow King’s grandfather passed on to his father and to him.
Image: Gibson
The Gibson Custom Shop has prepared a special signature model for blues ace Marcus King. It recreates a King family heirloom: a ‘62 ES-345 that has passed from his grandfather to his father and now to him.
The Marcus King 1962 ES-345 has a maple-poplar-maple body construction, along with a solid maple centre block. Meanwhile, its mahogany neck pairs an Indian rosewood fingerboard with 22 medium jumbo frets, a bone nut and split parallelogram inlays. The neck profile is a rounded “early 60s” shape, also personalised for King.
Moving on to electronics, the guitar has a pair of Custombucker pickups, hand-wired to two sets of volume and tone controls. Adding tonal variety is a six-way Varitone Switch, which is a notch filter that takes out slices of the mid-range for a distinct sound. On top of that, the guitar has CTS pots and a three-way selector by Switchcraft.
One of the guitar’s more interesting features is a Sideways Vibrola tailpiece, offering side-pull vibrato action. The vintage design was originally intended for flat-top SG models, so it’s rare to see one on a semi-hollow.
Other hardware features include Grover Milk Bottle Rotomatic tuners, a 50s-style no-tube truss rod and black top hat control covers. The guitar gets wrapped up with some personal touches – including a “Custom Made” cover plate and “Stereo” engraved truss rod cover – to reflect the original.
The Marcus King 1962 Gibson ES-345 is available now at $6,999. Each unit ships with a Custom Shop case, certificate of authenticity and a handmade belt buckle by Maker And Smith.
Learn more at gibson.com