By 1958, Gibson was making a few solid-body models that had much lower feedback and better sustain but lacked the darker, warmer tone and unamplified volume of hollow bodies.

Though semi-hollow-bodies like the ES-335 are essentially a compromise of earlier designs, they are for this reason extremely flexible, as shown by the ES-335's popularity in a wide range of music, including blues, jazz, and rock.

The ES-335 Pro, ES-335TD CRS, and CRR models had Gibson "Dirty Fingers" humbuckers, which had a higher output than the standard pickups.

The company has produced a number of signature guitars as well, such as Trini Lopez-inspired model (1964–1970) with narrow diamond-shaped soundholes replacing the f-holes, a Firebird-style headstock with all the tuners on one side, and slashed-diamond inlays.

The Trini Lopez Standard has the same body shape and profile as the ES-335, with diamond-shaped holes in the place of the f-shaped holes, a Gibson Firebird headstock (of the ‘non-reverse’ style), split diamond inlays on the fingerboard, a trapeze tailpiece with a plaque with Trini Lopez's name, and a standard cherry red finish.

Although the design is very similar to the 335, the 345 featured a multi-position "Varitone" switch located just above the lead tone and volume controls, which added various combinations of inductors and capacitors to the electronic pickup circuit of the guitar in order to alter its resonant frequency and add "color" to the sound.

The ES-345 also featured an optional stereophonic output jack, gold plated hardware, large split parallelogram fingerboard inlays (similar to ES 175), and a thicker three-ply edge binding than that of the ES-335.

[8][9] British guitar player John McLaughlin owns a Sunburst ES-345 modified with a Bigsby tailpiece and a scalloped fingerboard.

Instead of the Varitone switch and stereo output, this new version differentiates from the ES-335 mostly in its traditional aesthetics, but does feature a thermally-engineered maple centerblock and quartersawn adirondack spruce bracing.

Early models of Epiphone's limited edition budget version had an ebony fingerboard but the later issues had a rosewood board.

[18] Due to a boom in the use of the EB-2 and its sibling, the Epiphone Rivoli, in the Merseybeat in England in the early sixties, production restarted in 1964, with a 2-pickup version called the EB-2D being added to the line in 1966.

The back and sides of this guitar are constructed from a single piece of carved mahogany, and its reduced size is closer to that of the Les Paul.

The Chris Cornell ES-335 Tribute was designed by Gibson and Chris himself based on the guitars he played in the 80's and 90's, mostly Gretsch Jet models, but in Gibson's own 335 style, using the same construction of a typical 335 with the 3ply maple top, maple center block, mahogany neck, rosewood fretboard, but with Lollartron™ pickups in the neck and bridge, resembling the classic look on the Filter'tron™ pickups, used extensively by Gretsch.

The Lucille meanwhile, also features a VariTone control and, in keeping with BB King's Gibson signature model, no f-holes and a fine tuning stop bar tailpiece.

Other models based on the 335 include the ES-333, the ES-340 (the toggle switch has settings of the pickups in-phase, pickups out-of-phase and standby), the ES-347 (includes a coil tap, block markers on an ebony fretboard, fine tuning tailpiece and, on earlier models, a brass nut, and a greater sustain block), the ES-339, essentially a 335 with the body reduced to Les Paul size; and the Gibson Les Paul signature bass.