Gibson introduced a new series of guitars in 1949 with the prefix "ES" for Electric Spanish. The Gibson ES-330 had to wait until 1958 for its introduction. The ES-330 was constructed with a fully hollow body of laminate Maple with two howlin’ P-90 pickups. Since it doesn’t have a center block like a 335, it’s lighter and more resonant. The ES-330 was not meant to be the little brother of the ES-335, but a completely different guitar. The neck joins at the 16th fret instead of the 19th like a 335. It also utilized the P-90 single coil pickup instead of the humbucker on the 335. This combination of a hollow body, fewer frets clear of the body and P-90 pickup makes for a completely different instrument.
