Gibson Archtops returning 2026?

[pawlowski6132]

What I dont get is why anyone would buy a new Gib carved archtop when the markets full of used examples of every kind and and condition and even more you can buy a fine hand carved luthier built guitar in any country for what you would pay ( or far less) for a new Gibson. Ive had my 175 since I was a kid and managed to get an L5 and L7 pre wars along the way. If I was running out the door it would be my luthier builds, Epis, Heri GE then my Gibs, thats just personal preference but if I was looking new I would not even consider a Gibson at their prices and thats based on what Ive seen and heard on this forum. If I was looking for a truly fine carved archtop made by a master craftsman and had the $ for a new gibson Id be on the phone to dealers like TRM for something equivalent to pre or early post war or to a luthier. Lastly, I was in manufacturing in the U.S. for over 50yrs. For Gibson making a "custom shop" quality archtop would be good for image but damn near impossible to sustain their manufacturing but more important in the 21st century Gibson means nothing. Even the Les Paul and 175 have been bettered for less by everyone.

I agree. I don’t think anybody in their right mind would buy a new Gibson art tap today. The secondary market is so rich with different models and price points. As a matter of fact, I don’t know why anybody would buy any kind of used guitar



I agree. I don’t think anybody in their right mind would buy a new Gibson art tap today. The secondary market is so rich with different models and price points. As a matter of fact, I don’t know why anybody would buy any kind of guitar new. Electric solid body or otherwise. River probably has 1 million guitars listed right now. Anything that you would want you could probably find their used at a markdown from retail. If anybody has bought a new guitar recently, I would love to understand why?

[Archie]

^^ES175’s were not super cheap back in the day. I paid $8-900 for mine back in 1982, which meant a lot of minimum wage work to save up.

A new one would undoubtedly be much more than the above plus inflation though.

Question about modern carved top—would a company like Gibson use mainly CNC to rough it out? Would they tap tune and hand carve the braces?

Any large company has already invested in CNC. That and their plates, sanders, polishers, etc. are sunk costs. I agree with Archie that it SHOULD be possible to make a rather cheap archtop. But the actual business of making and selling a fine archtop is not so straightforward.

Also question about Archtop Tribute—they look very nice. Their website is in Japanese though. Does anyone know how one would go about ordering one, and calculating shipping and tariffs?

Not to digress too much—but tariffs are really hitting smaller operations that export individually or small volume to the US big time. It can be a lot more than the nominal cost—15-25% for instance, because tariffs may affect many parts of the construction differently. Many companies are getting out of the US altogether.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...cker-industry/

In case you can’t access this, it’s about the impact of tariffs on German nutcrackers.

“The biggest concern wasn’t price — it was instability,” CEO Rico Paul said, standing in front of a glass cabinet filled with colorful nutcrackers. “Policies changed depending on political mood. For us, planning ahead is essential. One day, the rules were one way, the next day they changed.”

For six months after Trump’s inauguration, confusion reigned. Initially, the president threatened tariffs of 30 percent or more on most goods, prompting the E.U. to ready plans for retaliation. The deal on 15 percent tariffs, reached in late July, ended that uncertainty.

But in late August, Trump issued an executive order ending the “de minimis” exemption, meaning a slew of new paperwork and bureaucracy.

Costs rose and delays mounted as Customs and Border Protection grappled to keep up with the surge in new parcels requiring clearance. With the holiday season approaching, Steinbach faced the possibility of its nutcrackers getting stuck in customs warehouses.

More than half of Steinbach’s business comes from online orders shipped directly to American doorsteps, and customers soon felt the increase. Prices are up roughly 25 percent compared to last year, because of the tariffs and customs costs, as well as rising wages.

Fair point Doc but back in the day would be the 1950’s not the 1980’s.
$175 in 1955 adjusted for inflation today is $2,150. So yes, they should be about @2k-2.5K. Manufacturing has increased productivity over this time so they should cost less to make but materials might have been cheaper so.. Let’s settle on $2.5K

Edit** I just read Stringswingers point about land costs, cnc etc.. Gibson mostly use their old press from the 50’s? To press their plates so no added cost there per se. CNC machine get spread across their entire range so hard to quantify what that adds but it does.
regarding land costs, if Gibson owned their factories, which they likely did, or should have (correct me if not), then that wouldn’t really matter.
It also depends on how much profit Gibson needed or wanted to make back then compared to today. Share holders, other costs etc..

In the end I could make a 175 for £1,000-£1,250. If I sold it for £3-3.5K ($4k US), then I make double my costs. Let’s say for arguments sake it costs Gibson $2k. If I had to take people off other models I made, like a 'Back To The Future $17,000 ES345, I wouldn't make the 175, there would be far much more profit in the ES345.
If I had to expand my workshop to make the 175, I'd hold off until I needed to expand to accommodate other models that need increased production, then I can fold it in with that.

That asks the question, should a 175 be $4K-5K? For me no but for some maybe. Limited run re-issues, A ‘Jim hall’ reissue. Little market attacks like that would probably be wiser. Then you can 3x your profit.

[Archie]

This calculation seems, uh, optimistic.

Where are you building these at that you can pay someone with the skill/care to build an L5 for $12.50hr in 2025? I don't know if you can get by living in your car in Nashville TN in 2025 on $12.50hr.

Fair, hard for me to translate what would be a slightly above minimum wage job in the US. Here it would be about £30-35K per year (imo).
Perhaps wrong of me to guess what the guys in the ‘Custom Shop’ are on but judging by the majority of the work being laborious unskilled labour (for the most part), 'Take part x, add glue, put in mould, press switch for compressor’, they won't be paying too much.
The guys involved in the binding and scraping, the finish and buffing, they probably get more than the rest. All the other jobs are mostly automated.

What do you reckon?

[John A.]

Fair, hard for me to translate what would be a slightly above minimum wage job in the US. Here it would be about £30-35K per year (imo).
Perhaps wrong of me to guess what the guys in the ‘Custom Shop’ are on but judging by the majority of the work being laborious unskilled labour (for the most part), 'Take part x, add glue, put in mould, press switch for compressor’, they won't be paying too much.
The guys involved in the binding and scraping, the finish and buffing, they probably get more than the rest. All the other jobs are mostly automated.

What do you reckon?

Minimum wage in the US is $7.25/hour (higher in some states, but not Tennessee). Googling around a bit, Gibson wages for laborers run ~$20-$25/hour. This is about double your $500/week assumption for a Gibson worker (and in line with the median hourly wage in the US, not a little above minimum wage).

[Rickco]

Im sure theres members here with backgrounds in manufacturing, I sold a solid manufacturing business ( in the US) about 5 yrs ago, we were in buisness for 50+yrs. So heres something to consider, labor and material are a fraction of costs added to by "employers burden" added to by too many costs to go into here. I had lunch with the new owner last week, currently their lowest paid workers base pay is $35. hr plus benefits. Finding good quality help even at that rate is difficult add to that the costs of doing business in the US now has kicked the operating ratio for labor intensive goods into the upper luxury market where (if your established) you can price accordingly. If Gibson made something now on the level of a Campellone theyd have to charge twice as much to break even unless they made it in Asia. Some can remember when Japan was the worlds cheap labor market with goods priced accordingly, what is the current car market surviving on....same thing...? Heres the punch line, I wanted something they make, I could have called and gotten it cheap or free but I didnt feel right about asking for favors from someone in my former position so I decided to go through their regular sales point...I couldnt afford it!

[vernon]

My problem is I have trouble spending over 2 - 2.5 K on a guitar so I’ll never have a Gibson archtop.

I’m with you… 2.5K was my limit when I was still buying guitars. I had a 1974 Gibson ES-175 and a Heritage Eagle. Now I just have a tele I assembled and a Soloway single 15” hollowbody. Those will do me just fine.

[Bflat233]

I used the Wayback Machine to pull up the 2016 Gibson Catalog and the product line they manufactured in the Memphis Plant in 2016. At the time, a 2016 1959 ES-175D (a period-correct re-issue) had a list price of $5,749. This equates to approximately $8,200 in 2025 US dollars. The 2016 1959 ES-335 was listed for $6,499.

Here is a deep-link to the Catalog via the Wayback Machine.

Many forum members that were online here in 2016 benefitted (greatly) from the liquidation sale managed by Chicago Music Exchange. But there were folks paying near-list price for the guitar around the country.

I wonder how a similarly outfitted ES-175 would bring in 2026?

[MHeld]

I wonder how much would a similarly outfitted ES-175 bring in 2026?

Hard to say. But after the new ownership took over, they simplified the line and actually lowered the prices on the USA standard guitars. A 335 in 2025 lists for less than one in 2016.

[jads57]

Concerning 2016 Gibson catalog,Gibson was in the Lifestyle Brand business,more than luthier business.
So those prices were reflecting vintage guitar prices as well. They weren’t that much in the late 1950’s originally.

Another interesting side note about the Cherry Sunburst color of those famous Bursts. Apparently the older employees who also built the Archtops hated the Cherry Sunburst finishes. So that’s why there are some Tobacco Sunburst finishes on some of the famous Bursts,Lol!

[John A.]

I don't think those list prices mean much. They certainly don't have much to do with the actual retail prices people pay.

[Litterick]

Most of Gibson's line is a luxury brand.
Click on my link. This is from the big Gibson dealer in Canada., L&M. Multiply by 1.26 for $NZ plus whatever added mark-up your distributor charges which appears to be about 20%. Now, yes, these are the CS guitars but all 170 guitars are over $5,000. 17 are over $10,000. 27 are $9,000 - $9,999. In the USA production list, there are 160 of 280 guitars $3,000 or over. I chose $3,000 as an arbitrary point of where an expensive guitar begins. Your point could be triple that. Or half. My point is that Gibson is no longer a manufacturer of instruments for working musicians but another purveyor of luxury goods.
Professional Electric Guitars - Long & McQuade

In New Zealand, Gibson electric guitars are sold by the Rock Shop, in twenty-five stores nationwide. The numbers of Gibson guitars currently available are as follows:


$2799 to $3999 – 65
$4000 to $5999 – 77
$6000 to $9999 – 26
$10,000 to $17999 – 20

New Zealand buyers have a choice of 142 guitars below NZ $6000 and 46 between $6000 and $18000. While a visitor to Long & McQuade may have the impression that Gibson is mostly a luxury brand, the Rock Shop customer would see mostly guitars that are not cheap but not expensive.

Gibson and its Epiphone brand together provide a range of instruments at prices from beginner to boomer. You can choose your price and find a guitar to match it. This is not how luxury brands behave. They make stuff that is expensive, without exception. A Louis Vuitton bag or a Dior dress is a Veblen good, “a luxury item that becomes more desirable as its price rises, due to its exclusive nature and appeal as a status symbol”. A Gibson Custom Shop Les Paul guitar is a superior version of the ordinary Les Pauls. Its price reflects its quality and its labour value, as well as its rarity. But you still have the option of buying three ordinary Gibsons for the same price.

[Hammertone]

Most of Gibson's line is a luxury brand.
Click on my link. This is from the big Gibson dealer in Canada., L&M. Multiply by 1.26 for $NZ plus whatever added mark-up your distributor charges which appears to be about 20%. Now, yes, these are the CS guitars but all 170 guitars are over $5,000. 17 are over $10,000. 27 are $9,000 - $9,999. In the USA production list, there are 160 of 280 guitars $3,000 or over. I chose $3,000 as an arbitrary point of where an expensive guitar begins. Your point could be triple that. Or half. My point is that Gibson is no longer a manufacturer of instruments for working musicians but another purveyor of luxury goods.
Professional Electric Guitars - Long & McQuade

This is completely wrong. It excludes Gibson's regular production guitars. L&M's sales of regular production guitars vastly exceed those of their Custom Shop guitars.

[John A.]

Gibson makes guitars that are not luxury goods, but the brand is a luxury brand. For instance, a Les Paul Studio has a price premium over another brand’s essentially identical product (or even a fancier one) due to the way the brand is perceived (and marketed).

[AllanAllen]

Gibson makes guitars that are not luxury goods, but the brand is a luxury brand. For instance, a Les Paul Studio has a price premium over another brand’s essentially identical product (or even a fancier one) due to the way the brand is perceived (and marketed).

The brand is always the luxury.

[vinnyv1k]

I have always been a Gibson fanboy. I have 4 L-5’s, 2 Super 400’s, 2 Tal Farlow’s, a Byrdland, and a 175 and if they make them again I will have more. IMO - nothing sounds as good as a Gibson electric archtop. To me $10K for a L-5 and $6K for a 175 is totally worth it.
Eagerly awaiting and hoping for their return.

[Stringswinger]

I have always been a Gibson fanboy. I have 4 L-5’s, 2 Super 400’s, 2 Tal Farlow’s, a Byrdland, and a 175 and if they make them again I will have more. IMO - nothing sounds as good as a Gibson electric archtop. To me $10K for a L-5 and $6K for a 175 is totally worth it.
Eagerly awaiting and hoping for their return.

Gibson electric archtops and D'Angelico acoustic arctops (made by John D'Angelico himself) are the jazz guitars that sound the best to me. And the recordings of Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass and Johnny Smith have a jazz guitar sound that is sublime, all being played with the guitars I mentioned.

[jads57]

I was once told by Charlie Hoffman (Flat top Luthier) that he makes his guitars to sound like great old Martins and Gibsons. Mostly because that’s what people have heard on records and radio all of their lives.
I think there are certain designs that were great recipes and got it right. Can they be improved,sure take Collings guitars for example.

I also think there will always be new innovative people making instruments as well. Ken Parker and Ned Steinberger come to mind.
Im glad we have both these days!

[bluejaybill]

Concerning 2016 Gibson catalog,Gibson was in the Lifestyle Brand business,more than luthier business.
So those prices were reflecting vintage guitar prices as well. They weren’t that much in the late 1950’s originally.

Another interesting side note about the Cherry Sunburst color of those famous Bursts. Apparently the older employees who also built the Archtops hated the Cherry Sunburst finishes. So that’s why there are some Tobacco Sunburst finishes on some of the famous Bursts,Lol!

I've never heard that, and I seriously doubt it.

What I have heard is that they used red pigments that faded in '58 and'59, and then in '60 switched to a red that wouldn't fade, so the later ones kept more of their color.

[deacon Mark]

Gibson electric archtops and D'Angelico acoustic arctops (made by John D'Angelico himself) are the jazz guitars that sound the best to me. And the recordings of Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass and Johnny Smith have a jazz guitar sound that is sublime, all being played with the guitars I mentioned.

Wes played the L5, Joe the 175, Johnny a D'angelico. In the jazz guitar world it is basically covered by these 3 players and guitars. I hope Gibson can make at least a run of the guitars and be successful. Right now the success in jazz guitars probably goes to Mark Campellone and he is basically winding down in retirement. I think even for a price that might seem a bit high if you buy any Gibson we are discussing or Campellone you are going to be ok. If you want to completely be ok I will add this when you buy. Buy one that has no issues regarding neck cracks or other things that even seem odd. Eliminate the rabbit holes and in the end, you spend more but have nothing to give up should you need to give them up or your heirs.

A younger guitarist say under 40, that wants a guitar so to play and grow on I suggest you buy and L5 or a Campellone. Buy the best one you can afford and take care of it. Play it at home and do not expose it to the rigors of the road. My guess is if you have this guitar 25 years later you will pat yourself on the back.

[jads57]

I guess I kind of believe it since there aren’t that many Tobacco Sunburst Les Pauls from that era. Either way,it’s fun to think the old guys had certain principles of taste, Lol!

[Stringswinger]

Add the Super 400 CES (as played by Kenny Burrel when he was not playing his DA New Yorker) and you have the complete list of guitars to buy following the Deacon's sage advice.

[joebloggs13]

I was once told by Charlie Hoffman (Flat top Luthier) that he makes his guitars to sound like great old Martins and Gibsons. Mostly because that’s what people have heard on records and radio all of their lives.
I think there are certain designs that were great recipes and got it right. Can they be improved,sure take Collings guitars for example.

I also think there will always be new innovative people making instruments as well. Ken Parker and Ned Steinberger come to mind.
Im glad we have both these days!

Regarding the Collings...a lot of people will say that a Collings will not sound like a Gibson. Whether or not that is better is up to the individual...but they don't sound like a Gibson.

[vinnyv1k]

Add the Super 400 CES (as played by Kenny Burrel when he was not playing his DA New Yorker) and you have the complete list of guitars to buy following the Deacon's sage advice.

Covered

[Rickco]

With full respect, Wes, Joe and Johnny didnt have the choices there are today, didnt have the luthiers available outside of word of mouth. Fact is they played Epiphones and Guilds as well as Gibsons. Fact is they all played every guitar we fantasize about in their day. I was lucky as a kid when Johnny, Les , Bucky and others were in my buds living room playing with his dad. You wouldnt even think about what guitar they were playing and to this day would I pick my favorite cut based on which guitar they played...? Kenny and Johnny played Heritages also, someone here going to tell me they didnt sound as "good" on those guitars? George played an Ibanez. Im not criticizing anyone one for their choices or passion for a brand (im sitting next to 7 guitars, I can only play one at a time) but to claim any of them best or better because of brand loyalty or possible resale value for me is short sighted. Theres a whole bunch of L5s for sale on reverb, the high priced ones are sitting for a long time. The current generation of jazz players have choices us old farts never dreamed of like the LHT someone showed here or Ergon etc and no attachment to the old nostalgia.

[Rickco]

I damn near forgot the green Gretsch!