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Model: Gibson ES-345
Color: Cherry Red
Year: 1960

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Used in...

- 2005-2018

- one of the main guitars during the Don't Believe the Truth tour (2005-2006)

- used during the recording sessions for the album Dig Out Your Soul

- played live in Waiting for the Rapture (2008-2009)

- one of the main guitars during NGHFB's first tour (2011-2012)

- played live in Riverman (2015-2018)

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Details

This ES-345 is a valuable example and I believe it's from 1960: it has a long pickguard, that was used on Gibson semi-hollows only between 1958 and 1960.
The ES-345 went into production in 1959, but the first cherry ones were made in 1960. It must follow that this guitar is one of the 252 cherry ES-345s built in 1960.

The stopbar tailpiece is not an original feature of the guitar: it came out of the factory with a Bigsby vibrato, which was later removed - but the marks it left on the finish are still visibile if you look closely.

It can be speculated that Noel bought this ES-345 sometime in Summer 2005 - maybe in the US or in Japan.
Then, between 17 and 24 September 2005 - during the US leg of the Don't Believe the Truth tour - the Kluson Deluxe tuners with plastic keystone buttons were replaced with vintage gold Grover tuners. ES-345s originally came with Kluson tuners - but switching to more reliable Grover Rotomatics was a common modification.

From late 2005 and beyond it was used for the following tracks: Lyla, Turn Up the Sun, Rock 'n' Roll Star, Acquiesce and Mucky Fingers.

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At the very popular Brit Awards performance on 14 February 2007, the stoptail 345 was played in The Meaning of Soul and Rock 'n' Roll Star.

Later in 2007 it was used by Noel at Abbey Road to record guitar parts for the album Dig Out Your Soul. It was also used to record the cover of Within You Without You by The Beatles.

During the following Dig Out Your Soul tour, in 2008 and 2009, the stoptail ES-345 was played in Waiting for the Rapture.

After the Oasis split - between 2011 and 2012 - Noel played it during the first High Flying Birds tour in Dream On and AKA... Broken Arrow. On setlists, it was simply labeled as "345". Noel's other ES-345 was labeled as "345 (2)" instead.

Since the beginning of the Chasing Yesterday tour in 2015 it has been played in Riverman - with very few exceptions - until the last live performance of the song (so far!) in 2018.

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For informational and non-commercial use only. Please do NOT publish this content elsewhere.
If you share or use this information, please provide proper credit and link to the website.
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1. “From 58-60 the pickguard on all 335s, 345s and 355s extended below the bridge-hence the term “long guard”. Gibson, with the idea of using less plastic and thus saving a few pennies per instrument, shortened the guard in late 60 so that it extended only to the bottom of the bridge pickup ring.” – extract from the ES-335 blog. ↩︎
2. The Gibson 335: its history and its players – Adrian Ingram ↩︎
3. Of course, it’s possible that we’re looking at two different ES-345s with different sets of tuners – but considering the timeframe and the similarities, that seems highly unlikely. ↩︎
4. https://www.es-335.com/2020/06/13/parts-timeline-2-tuners/ ↩︎
5. http://www.stopcryingyourheartout.co.uk/2007/06/photos-of-oasis-in-abbey-road-recording.html ↩︎