Had this for a few months but as its unusual, I thought I'd share. If any one recognises it and knows any history then I'd love to know.
This was a bit of a risky buy. I saw it on Reverb back in September last year, at a great price, but in a poor state cosmetically, however, the spec of it hit all my buttons …. instant GAS. But it clearly desperately needed a full refret and had a humbucker (albeit a nice Gibson pat no.) shoehorned into its original CC pickup route. The vendor (in California) was very patient and answered all my questions fully, and lots of detail photos. Most importantly, other than the slightly modified pickup route, it had no structural issues.
Spec wise it is unusual and doesn’t fit any standard model Gibson were making at the time, though it has elements from all the classic archtops. While I was talking to the vendor, I contacted Gibson customer support who were great and told me it was a customer ordered guitar, built to the customer’s spec. and shipped in early 1963. Their shipping docs state it’s a custom ES-175. It all added up, so in the end I had enough confidence to buy it. FedEx delivered it from California to my door in Scotland in 5 days and no damage.
It’s an absolute peach of a guitar and plays beautifully since I had it professionally re-fretted. Same luthier also made the “goof ring” to cosmetically cover the slightly altered pickup route and allowing me to restore it to a CC pickup (it’s a Lollar). A lot of elbow grease on the crusty lacquer (It hadn't been cleaned for years by the look of it) and it eventually polished up to a lovely patinated finish.
Full spec is, ES175/ES4 sized body with laminate back and rims and a carved spruce top, factory routed for a CC pickup. Neck is Mahogany with an Ebony board, small headstock with flowerpot inlay. 24 ¾ inch scale. I put the ebony bridge and ABR on it, it came with a rosewood bridge.
The CC pickup is a revelation for me. Quite P90-ish but with a bit of a fender type scoop going on. It responds really well to volume and tone controls. I read about issues with string balance with CC ‘s but this one seem fine, also pickup noise is no worse than my P90’s. It’s wired to the original loom which has 500k volume, 250k tone and 0.022uF Sprague black beauty cap.
A pretty easy restoration really. One point though, fitting a Charlie Christian pickup with the 3 mounting points is the biggest PIA you can imagine, you need 6 hands and a lot of patience! 10 times worse than fully rewiring an ES-335 type guitar.
Interesting......lots of L-4 elements.....I think what the orig. purchaser ended up with is more L-4 than 175. Guess he really wanted it to say ' 175 '.
Oh wow. Good on you for restoring her. The "goof plate" works well visually; the Lollar CC blade pickup stands out against it. Lots of mojo going on. Play her in good health.
Post a clip, if you are so inclined.
Last edited by Jabberwocky; 09-04-2015 at 12:31 AM.
Really a great guitar and story. Saw it last night and walked away from my computer in envy.
Had to post now and say WOW YOU DID GOOD, and it's a real beauty...
While mods aren't always for the better(previous mod-der not your current positive attempt to bring it back to spec). I love your guitar and appreciate that modding and parting of these vintage guitars and awesome specimens like this allows them to be more affordable to more folks! Great restoration!
Gosh. An L-4, with an L-5-style neck, CC-pickup (not uncommon in the 50s/60s) and a 50s/60s appropriate 175 tailpiece. The fellow who ordered it was smitten with ES-175s--who wouldn't be, given that all the prominent late-50s jazz artists were touring and recording with them? Yet, the guitar is so much more than a 175.
That is a guitar that I and many others on this forum would cast a covetous eye towards, let me tell you...
It's a keeper!
Say, old tube, that's not a Washington, D.C., guitar by any chance? I used to know a fellow who played a regular gig in the Arlington area who played a guitar that looked like that, but with a humbucker in the neck position.
L-4C with CC and L-5 style fingerboard/headstock overlay?
Actually, it does fit something that Gibson was making at the time - a few guitars for Sascha Distel, which were L-4C models with installed CC or P-90 pickups. Distel was extremely popular in Europe, and my guess is that they were considering a Sascha Distel signature model along with the Johnny Smith, Barney Kessel and Trini Lopez models, but that it didn't happen. Your instrument fits right in with his in terms of features and timeline, IMO. Lovely guitar.
Like this:
Last edited by Hammertone; 09-04-2015 at 10:57 AM.
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“Shearing style”
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