There are nice guitars, historic guitars, and nice historic guitars. After which there are guitars which are transcendent. Two examples constructed by Gibson on the peak of its “golden age” had been delivered to an iconic participant.

Hank “Sugarfoot” Garland is famous in pop, nation, jazz, and rock and roll. Had he not been disabled by a tragic auto accident in 1961, he absolutely would have been heralded as a number one voice and innovator in nation and jazz, with the likes of Merle Travis and Chet Atkins or Tal Farlow and Barney Kessel. An elite member of the Nashville A-Group, his studio credentials embody names like Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Everly Brothers, in addition to Patsy Cline, Don Gibson, Bobby Helms (“Jingle Bell Rock”), Marty Robbins, and Atkins. Garland is credited with bringing the electrical guitar to the Grand Ole Opry and making the primary jazz album in country-bound Nashville. He was additionally acknowledged as a musical and electronics genius.

Along with his skilled and sociological accomplishments, Garland was a forward-thinking instrument designer who was key within the improvement of the primary thinline electrical – the Gibson Byrdland (its title mixed his surname together with that of co-designer Billy Byrd) of 1955. Primarily a skinny (21/4″) model of the L-5CES archtop electrical with a shorter neck (231/2″ scale), the historical past of Gibson’s “Skinny” fashions started with it. However that’s one other story.

In 1958, Garland took supply of two customized Gibson semi-hollow electrics. They had been ostensibly thinline “brothers” – the prototype ES-345 with Stereo and Vari-Tone circuitry and a one-of-a-kind six-string bass dubbed the EB-6. Each have a sunburst end, twin PAFs, and our bodies measuring 16″ huge by 19″ lengthy by 13/4″ deep. Garland obtained the 345 first, to troubleshoot the electronics. The EB-6 was despatched later within the yr, and he used each extensively earlier than they had been formally issued in 1959.

Garland’s 345 shares options that might grow to be commonplace within the early manufacturing mannequin – gold-plated {hardware}, one-piece mahogany neck, rosewood fretboard with cut up parallelogram inlays, 8″ pickguard, Tune-O-Matic bridge, and manufacturing unit cease tailpiece. He subsequently modified his with a gold-plated Gibson side-pull Vibrola tailpiece and substituted a gold-plated Bigsby bridge-saddle unit for the Tune-O-Matic. The holes for the unique stoptail had been plugged, testifying to his private experimentation. Manufacturing facility-ordered semi-hollows with vibratos of this era had been fitted with a black-plastic plaque masking the cease tailpiece holes and bearing the phrases “Customized Made.”

The 345 was Gibson’s first stereo instrument – a revolutionary thought the corporate pioneered within the ’50s and dropped at market with the inventory ES-345TD of ’59, and later supplied as an choice with the ES-355TD-SV and customized orders. Gibson supplied a color-coded Y wire to feed stereo amps (just like the GA-88S or GA-79RVT). Hank’s guitar got here with an instruction sheet explaining the operation of the Vari-Tone circuit and methods to use the stereo output with Gibson stereo amplifiers, multi-channel amps, and mono purposes. It was shipped in a black Lifton case with plush yellow lining.

The ES-345 was additionally the primary guitar to be manufacturing unit outfitted with Vari-Tone circuitry. The prototype has an uncommon black knob and ring for the rotary change, totally different from the standard gold-and-black chickenhead knob on later fashions; the selector has serrated edges in addition to a chickenhead pointer, and the ring is black with six white numbers for the positions of the rotary change – all options that attest to its prototype standing. Garland usually ran it into an Ecco-Fonic mannequin 109 then two amplifiers or separate channels of a stereo amp.

The EB-6 is the direct sibling of his ES-345 and is a real bass guitar, clearly meant for a guitar participant. It was produced swiftly and has a 345 physique with a distinct neck, {hardware}, and electronics. This competition is supported by the very fact the physique has a plugged gap the place the Vari-Tone knob can be on a 345. The pickguard is the usual “lengthy guard” used on ’50s dot-neck 335s and the earliest 345s of the interval. It has guitar-style Kluson tuning keys with plastic tulip-shaped buttons.

The management format mirrors the association discovered on the 335 and 345 – two pickups with two Quantity and two Tone controls and a three-position toggle in the usual Gibson configuration. That is fairly totally different from the manufacturing EB-6 of 1960-’61, which was outfitted with just one pickup, one Quantity and one Tone management together with a pushbutton tone-change change that alternated between a bass and baritone sound. Furthermore, the situation of the controls and bridge is barely totally different, almost definitely to accommodate the bridge pickup. Hank specified placement of the pickups, that are spaced additional aside (8″) than different comparable six-string basses. In contrast to the manufacturing EB-6, the neck pickup is reversed, with polepieces dealing with the bridge.

Garland’s EB-6 has a one-piece mahogany neck and a dot-inlaid fretboard taken from the 1958-’62 335. It has an offset scale size; 311/2″ on the sixth string and 303/4″ on the primary, owing to the compensating angled-bar bridge on the tailpiece. The fretboard measures 211/4″ in size and is 13/4″ huge on the nut, 21/4″ on the finish. The headstock has an inlaid crown motif just like the 335, 345, 350, 175, 295, L-4, and later EB.

In contrast to the later EB-6, Garland’s was made with a certain 20-fret rosewood fretboard. Nevertheless, it sported the mixture bar bridge/tailpiece with adjustable string damper discovered on the early-’60s SG-style EB-6 and EB-3, making it an uncommon hybrid. Furthermore, Hank’s EB-6 was fitted with two ’50s-style amber bonnet knobs on the Quantity pots and two ’60s-style gold-capped knobs (with “Tone” written within the inserts) on the Tone pots. It shipped in a leather-based gig bag, as a hardshell case was not but accessible.

Considered one of his favourite guitars, owing to its many sounds, Garland performed the 345 on numerous hits from 1958 by way of ’61; the record consists of just about each Elvis Presley recording of that interval, the Blue Hawaii and Observe That Dream film soundtracks, in addition to hits by different artists together with “I Fall To Items” (Patsy Cline), “The place The Boys Are” (Connie Francis), “Apache” (Sonny James), “Simply As a result of” (Patti Web page), and others. It’s featured prominently in fills and the solo of the Everly Brothers’ “Bye Bye Blackbird.” He additionally used it (earlier than modification with a vibrato) when he appeared on “The Faron Younger Present,” the place he performed his signature instrumental “Sugarfoot Rag.”

Garland used the EB-6 for particular bass strains on numerous recording periods, probably the most well-known of that are Elvis’ “I Acquired Stung,” “Caught On You,” and “Fame and Fortune.” He additionally employed it to enhance the usual upright bass components on different recordings.

The unique model of this characteristic appeared within the November ’11 situation.

This text initially appeared in VG’s October 2025 situation. All copyrights are by the creator and Classic Guitar journal. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.