Crooked pickup on Gibson ES-175

[boatheelmusic]

Here we go again....

If you want the sound of the Gods, get a 175.

If you want something else, go for it!

[Quabrumbel]

My ES-175 2006 is exactly the same. It has nothing to do with the mounting ring but with the contour of the arched top. The top starts out flat at the cutaway, stays flat up to the treble side of the pickup and then gradually rises uphill. I sanded the mounting ring down on the bass side to compensate.

I researched in disussion forums and it seems to be the case with all 175s from a certain date on. But the reason is guessing, somenone wrote it is the normal shape of the forming press, someone wrote Gibson is using the same now very old press as ever and the press did disorientate over the years. I can't know of course.

Everything is possible with Gibson. On my ES-175 the lower knobs controlled the neck pickup... because they put the bridge pickup in the neck slot - overstretched wires and everything.

[Chazmo]

+1 for what Quabrumbel says above about the shape of the top. My new 1959 VOS is the same way. They play great, every note on the fretboard is clear and defined, and that's the quintessential jazz sound since the late 40s. I won't be sanding the pickup ring.

Don't worry about it. Just play it.

[Quabrumbel]

Don't worry about it. Just play it.

Right! Just as he does:

[zigzag]

oudface's neck pup tilts in the opposite direction, which in his case, should make bass strings (even) muddier and reduce sustain. If that problem is "normal" then I just lost my GAS for an ES-175.

I've never seen a perfect Gibson, and I've played my share that were so flawed I wouldn't own them. Sorry guys, but there are so many reasons why I'll never own another Gibson... but I do love my ES-335, even with its uneven neck binding and the slightly asymetric area around the heel.

[oldane]

oudface's neck pup tilts in the opposite direction, which in his case, should make bass strings (even) muddier and reduce sustain. If that problem is "normal" then I just lost my GAS for an ES-175.

In all fairness, it's more likely that is is caused by the strings used (Pyramid flatwounds which are bass heavy?) or personal ideosyncracies rather than the guitar and/or the PU.

[Chimera1to1]

Wow, we've degenerated to turd stories. I'm outta this thread.

See you!

Good to see free speech is alive and kicking

[lawson-stone]

I found this thread after picking up a Gibson Memphis 1959 ES175D VOS at a price just too good to pass up. It wasn't until I got it out more, playing it, that I noticed the quirky pickup ring angle for the neck pickup.

Comparing it with an ES165 Herb Ellis, it became clear to me that the issue was simply one of assembly: the pickup mounting ring was 180º reversed. Likely at some factory stage, some worker loaded the mounting rings in backwards?

Anyhow, it was an easy, 15 minute fix. I pulled the pickup+ring, removed the pickup (being careful about the springs), reversed ring relative to the guitar top, re-installed the pickup (didn't have one spring launch into orbit!) and re-mounted the PUP+ring assembly.

All's now well and my love for this instrument is not almost as intense as my love for my ES165, which is still my sentimental favorite.

Picks below illustrating the bizarre angle of the pickup mounting ring (second picture, actually), and the corrected angle (first picture).

[citizenk74]

Yep. That's the way my 55th Anniversary ES-175, purchased in 2006, came. Same problem, same solution. Love the guitar not a whit less. Witless, perhaps on occasion, but rarely without at least a whit or two.

[icr]

I think they come that way so the pickup ring is level under the pickguard. When you flip it around like that it is probably not parallel to the fingerboard on the other side. Probably does not make much difference either way.

[boatheelmusic]

I'm not so sure that the neck pickup was intended by Gibson to be parallel to the strings, given the number of us that have experienced this over a number of model years. Just maybe, they intended this for a more airy sound. As well, more picking room.

Just thinking.....