The Gibson ES-345 was originally launched in 1958, at the same time as the ES-335. The ES-345 was designed as a slightly more deluxe version of the 335: with a multi-position "Varitone" switch, an optional stereophonic output jack, gold-plated hardware, large parallelogram fingerboard inlays, and  thicker edge binding than the ES-335.

While the original was discontinued in 1981, around the time Gibson introduced the Lucille model. It was later reissued from 1998 onwards as a Gibson Custom Shop model. These Custom Shop reissues had optional Maestro and Bigsby vibratos up until around 2000 The pickups on these reissues were two 1957 Classic humbuckers with 6-position Varitone switch, stereo and mono jacks, and all-maple semi-hollowbody. Parallelogram pearloid inlays on the bound rosewood fretboard, multi-ply top binding, gold hardware.