"I think there were actually two paths. One was the wild pointy-shape things. The other was what I believe led to the 335": The 1955 'missing link' guitar designs that offer intriguing clues to Gibson's Golden Era developments
The images inspired the recent production of the Theodore solidbody, but could also fill some crucial gaps when it comes to our knowledge of Gibson’s 1950s R&D process
Source: guitarworld.com