Expand the categories below, or go back home Amplifiers Effects Guitars Dan Armstrong Epiphone Fender G&L Gibson bass catalogues Gibson soundclips guitars - electric acoustic Barney Kessel Citation ES125 ES125C ES150 ES150DC ES175D 1954 ES175 1966 ES175D 1967 ES175D 1970 ES175D 1974 ES175D 1979 ES175D 1981 ES175D catalogue chronology pot. list (ES-175 CC) pot. list (ES-175) pot. list (ES-175D) ES225T ES5 Switchmaster Howard Roberts J160E Johnny Smith L5 L5CES Super 400 CES Tal Farlow Trini Lopez Deluxe Trini Lopez Standard guitars - solid-body guitars - thinline parts vintage Gibson adverts Gretsch Guild Hagstrom Harmony Hayman Hofner Kalamazoo Musicman Ovation Rickenbacker Supro Vox Home Search vintage guitar advertisements vintage guitar catalogues vintage guitar classifieds Vintage guitar forum Vintage guitar soundclips Vintage guitar values

Latest vintage guitar updates

1964 Gibson Melody Maker - a classic vintage guitar

A closer look at a Gibson Melody maker from 1964. The Melody Maker is one of Gibson's best ever selling guitars - despite it's comparatively low price it didn't skimp on Gibson tradition: well-built instruments, constructed from the finest materials. The body and set neck are both of South American mahogany whilst the fingerboard is South American rosewood. With a sunburst nitrocellulose finish the Melody Maker certainly looked the part. In fact the Melody Maker had more in common with many higher end Gibson instruments than guitars of a similar price bracket made by other manufacturers. The circuitry was simple; just a volume and tone control for one single coil pickup. See also Gibson Melody Maker shipping figures

1966 Kalamazoo KG2a electric guitar

Details and information on the Kalamazoo KG2a electric guitar. The beat boom of the mid 1960s heralded a huge demand for electric guitars; youngsters up and down America were looking for affordable, well-built solid-bodies, with modern looks and a great sound. Gibson, better known for it's high-end jazz guitars, responded by producing the KG guitar and KB bass lines, under the Kalamazoo brand. They were initially modelled on the Fender Mustang, though soon took the shape of the Gibson SG, which was rapidly rising in popularity. The resulting instruments used modern composite wood technology, Fender style construction and actual Gibson hardware. They looked good, played well, and sold in large quantities. See also Kalamazoo KG shipping figures, a 1966 Kalamazoo KG1 (single pickup) and listen to the Kalamazoo KG soundclips.

Gibson / Monzino (Italy) guitar catalogue, 1971

Gibson / Monzino guitar catalogue, 1971. America saw numerous promotional publications from Gibson in the first years of the 1970s, but new models were coming and going at such a rate, that some never made it into print. Just one US catalogue was printed in 1971: the Low Impedance for High Performance mini-catalogue, which contained just the Gibson Les Paul Recording guitar, and the Gibson Les Paul Triumph bass. However other countries were producing their own literature, capturing a snapshot of the Gibson range not seen in print in the US. This brochure was printed by the new Italian distributors, Monzino, and shows several instruments yet to be seen in US catalogues (the SG range in particular) and one that would never make it: the Gibson SB400 bass.

Gibson Victory MV series

The Gibson Victory MV (multi-voice) guitars were launched towards the end of 1981, with a production period lasting just over two years. There were two models, the Gibson Victory MV2 and the Gibson Victory MVX. Both were very fine passive guitars with maple bodies and set maple necks. They had coil-tapped pickups for either humbucking or single coil sounds, but neither managed to give Gibson the Victory they required in terms of sales.

1969 Gibson SG Special

The Gibson SG came in several varieties; and the Special is a typical 60s Gibson in many ways. Naturally, it has a mahogany body with a set mahogany neck, in true Gibson style. The pickups are typical Gibson single coil P90s, and the control layout, too, is classic Gibson. Have a closer look, or check out the SG Special soundclips of this guitar, through various vintage amps.

1979 Gibson ES-175D

A closer look at a 1979 Gibson ES-175D. By the late 1970s, the ES-175D had followed the path of most Gibson guitars and changed it's mahogany neck, in favour of a maple neck with volute. It didn't last long, and the neck was again mahogany by 1983. Details of the changes in the ES-175D over time are detailed in the ES-175 timeline.

Older updates here

Gibson ES-175D
Electric acoustic guitar

Gibson ES-175D description | ES-175 Catalogue appearances | ES-175 timeline

1954 ES-175 | 1966 ES-175D | 1967 ES-175D | 1970 ES-175D | 1974 ES-175D | 1979 ES-175D

Latest posts on the VintageGuitar forum forum index | post message Template for ES-175 pickguard 0 replies last message by Shaggy 23/04/2010 17:29 Gibson ES175 0 replies last message by bilbo230763 28/02/2008 08:29

Steve Howe plays Gibson - 1971. UK Selmer advertisement for Gibson guitars. Steve Howe bought his first Gibson, An ES-175D from the Selmer shop in Charing Cross Road, London, in 1964.

Strings suitable for this guitar D'Addario EXL130 Nickel (D'Addario Electric Extra Super Light) D'Addario EXL110W Nickel Regular Light Wound 3rd (D'Addario Electric Regular Light / Wound 3rd) Dean Markley 2502B (Dean Markley Nickelsteel Electric - Light) D'Addario EXL125 Super Light Top/Regular Bottom (D'Addario Electric Super Light Top / Regular Bottom) D'Addario EJ22 (D'Addario Electric Guitar Strings Jazz Medium) Dean Markley 2506B (Dean Markley Nickelsteel Electric - Jazz) Gibson Vintage Re-issue Strings 11-50 (Gibson Vintage Re-issue Strings 11-50) D'Addario EXL115W (D'Addario Electric Guitar Strings Blues/Jazz Rock Wound 3rd) D'Addario EJ20 (D'Addario Electric Guitar Strings Jazz Extra-Light) Dean Markley 2501B (Dean Markley Nickelsteel Electric - Extra Light)

Gibson cello-bodied guitars were very well regarded in the 1930s and 1940s. Models such as the ES-350, launched in 1935 showed what was possible, and immediately earned Gibson respect from jazz guitarists of the time. Gibson archtops set the standard, both in terms of quality and design that other manufacturers would emulate, and still do to this day.

The story of the ES-175 starts in 1949 with the launch of the one-pickup model, to be joined in 1953, by a two pickup version, ES-175D. This was a smaller bodied instrument than other archtops, measuring just 16 1/4" wide, (compared to 18" for the Super 400 CES, and 17" for the L-5CES, ES-5 and ES-350) and with a shorter scale (24 3/4"), to faciltate tricky jazz chordings.

The Florentine cutaway was also seen as an advantage over the more usual Gibson Venetian cut, and this again proved popular. Body material was maple throughout, with a set mahogany neck.

There was no completely analogous Epiphone model to the ES-175, the closest being the Epiphone Windsor which shard the same construction, materials, scale length and body dimensions as the ES-175, but as a thinline, with an Epiphone mini humbucker.

The single pickup model was last listed in price lists in 1970, although seems to have been shipped way beyond that date. The two pickup version, is by far the most familiar ES-175, and is still available today, largely unchanged in six decades. There was one significant change though; the pickups in use originally were single-coil P90s, however the ES-175 was the first of all Gibson guitars to be shipped with a humbucker. Original Gibson legers mark this event clearly; it was February 18, 1957, on an ES-175N with serial number A25000.

Summary

Back to the GIBSON INDEX | comment

If you are looking for specific vintage guitars for sale, you may have to keep an eye on numerous vintage guitar stores, classifieds websites and ebay listings. Below are just the auctions - Vintage guitar stores tend to advertise theirs in their ebay online vintage guitar stores - have a look because there are some different listings.