The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #51

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    so after a week of borrowing this thing I fell in love with the sound and playability of this guitar. It's hard to put down, if you know what I mean….and that's a good sign. I doesn't seem to overlap at all tone wise with my 57 L7C or my Gibson Wes. The 175 could easily be my go to guitar.

    this one is very dark sounding, even the bridge pickup is smooth and mellow with just a touch of bite through a fender deluxe reverb. Is this a trait shared by most 175's of is it more guitar specific? I'm wondering now if I should just save my pennies and go for the memphis 1959 175D custom shop. It would be double the price of pretty sure.

    j

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  3. #52
    looks fine to me, my '63 has a huge amount of negative relief in the top and it's the best sounding guitar I've ever owned...I don't see any top cave on the pictures you posted.

  4. #53
    Quote Originally Posted by callouscallus
    so after a week of borrowing this thing I fell in love with the sound and playability of this guitar. It's hard to put down, if you know what I mean….and that's a good sign. I doesn't seem to overlap at all tone wise with my 57 L7C or my Gibson Wes. The 175 could easily be my go to guitar.

    this one is very dark sounding, even the bridge pickup is smooth and mellow with just a touch of bite through a fender deluxe reverb. Is this a trait shared by most 175's of is it more guitar specific? I'm wondering now if I should just save my pennies and go for the memphis 1959 175D custom shop. It would be double the price of pretty sure.

    j
    NO, the shiny reissue can't touch the older one.

  5. #54

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    I agree, the mahogany 175's are especially awesome.

  6. #55

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    I just bought a new ES-175 from a major online store and am wondering if I got a defective one with a sunken top. Does the area around the neck pickup look unusual to you? This is my first 175 and any help would be appreciated. The guitar plays and sounds fine but I'm wondering if I should return it.
    Gibson ES-175 Sunken Top?-img_0007-jpgGibson ES-175 Sunken Top?-img_0014-jpg

  7. #56

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    It looks weird, but I'm pretty sure this is normal. I'll let one of our 175 experts confirm, but I don't think you need to worry.

  8. #57

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    Flip the neck pickup frame around and I’m pretty sure it will look normal. When in doubt: check the tone bars / parallel bracing inside with a mirror for any cracks or unglueing. But I don’t think you have to worry.

  9. #58

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    Here is what a similar view of my 1972 ES175D top shows, and doesn't make me think there is anything out of the ordinary, except, some people like the black ring turned like mine, which is reversed from the position of yours. The thread sort of referenced above goes into a detailed discussion of whether it was intentional or a mistake by gibson to do the ring that way, but as I recall, there was some gibson 'science' involved. Congrats on the guitar! If it plays and sounds great, then I wouldn't mess with it! I sure love mine! In fact, now that it's out of it's case I better go play it! Cheers!
    Gibson ES-175 Sunken Top?-175-top-jpg

  10. #59

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    looks fine...you might be able to lower the action some tho...hows the bridge height?

    the pup ring mounted like that keeps the screw polepiece/24th fret node spot best...looks off, but actually fine for tone

    cheers

  11. #60

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    Let's try that again....this time from my laptop.

    A theory about the ES-175 Neck Pickup

    B.

  12. #61

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    Thanks for your helpful comments everyone. I’m going to stop worrying about it, lower the action a little and enjoy the guitar. Will save the ring reversal decision for later.

  13. #62

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    That pickup ring is mounted backwards. It creates the illusion that the top is sinking towards the bridge.

  14. #63

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    It won't be an ES-175 without that infamous S-curve in the top. That's when you should be alarmed!

    It is up to you whether to flip the ring around or not. I don't think it means a hill of beans but others think that it does matter so I defer to them. Looks nicer though with the top of the pickup nice and parallel.

  15. #64
    doesn't look like top sink to me. The typical place a 175 sinks is at the bridge and the symptom is a long distance between the bridge foot and the bottom of the bridge. By the way, my Kessel has a lot of top sink but is still the best guitar I've ever owned. My repairman said it was good for another 30 years at least...

  16. #65

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    Quote Originally Posted by skykomishone
    Here is what a similar view of my 1972 ES175D top shows, and doesn't make me think there is anything out of the ordinary, except, some people like the black ring turned like mine, which is reversed from the position of yours. The thread sort of referenced above goes into a detailed discussion of whether it was intentional or a mistake by gibson to do the ring that way, but as I recall, there was some gibson 'science' involved. Congrats on the guitar! If it plays and sounds great, then I wouldn't mess with it! I sure love mine! In fact, now that it's out of it's case I better go play it! Cheers!
    Gibson ES-175 Sunken Top?-175-top-jpg
    Dang, that neck pup sure looks close enough to the strings for the magnetic field to inhibit string vibration. Maybe it's an illusion.

  17. #66

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    Enjoy your amazing ES-175. Looks just the way it’s supposed to look. I’ve had 4 and they’ve all looked like that.

    Rotating the pickup ring makes an improvement but you also have to remove the pickup height adjustment screws to remove the pickup and put it back after you rotate the ring. if you haven’t played with pickups, read up on best ways to handle getting the springs back on the adjustment screws right.

    Otherwise, plenty of players like the way the pickups sit. 175s are notorious for the neck pickup being positioned such that your picking hand rests right over it. If you’re not careful, you’ll often hit the pickup with your pick. Much debate about this, but I don’t mind the dip in the middle and how the neck pickup tilts a little.

    Bottom line, your beautiful guitar is probably just fine. But if you’re still concerned, inspect the braces to be sure.

    Roli
    Last edited by rolijen; 01-27-2018 at 12:43 AM.

  18. #67

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    Quote Originally Posted by Greentone
    The entire violin family--violin, viola, cello, bass--uses sound posts. A violin would have less volume without one. A bass--which is basically falling apart from the time it leaves the factory--would collapse without one.
    In French they call a bowed instrument's soundpost "l'âme", and in German "die Seele", i.e. "the soul", for depending on its position it can make or break the instrument's tone, or character, or what have you.

  19. #68

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    Quote Originally Posted by Zina
    In French they call a bowed instrument's soundpost "l'âme", and in German "die Seele", i.e. "the soul", for depending on its position it can make or break the instrument's tone, or character, or what have you.
    Interesting. This reminded me of a cello I played as a young man. Once I got a lesson with somebody who knew what they were doing I was told it had a very strong wolf-note in a bad spot on the finger-board, and that I should take it in for adjustment. They moved the wolf-note so it would only sound if I was playing waaay out of tune. IIRC that was done by moving the post a bit.

  20. #69

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  21. #70

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    So...I was searching for a vintage ES-175 e stumble upon this 70/72 one.

    Really nice looking , all original except for new fret job...so far so good until I started doing my research and found out about sunken tops on these guitars.
    The seller is upstate from me , so theres no way I can inspect the guitar , but Ive asked him to send me pics.

    So, what do you guys think? It looks like it has a sunken top...

    Gibson ES-175 Sunken Top?-4076240e-b13a-4216-87f4-b76fb799ecec-jpg

    Gibson ES-175 Sunken Top?-2319f48b-0414-40a2-892c-bae2098e8fd1-jpg

    Gibson ES-175 Sunken Top?-c223d0ba-dd9e-4a94-b082-7e14d0d4212c-jpg

    Gibson ES-175 Sunken Top?-dcd31171-bd3c-40b6-9464-fe789e5acb93-jpg

    Gibson ES-175 Sunken Top?-ee2ec1ef-63ec-4f1b-a617-57027ffa54b9-jpg

  22. #71

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    It doesn't look like it's got a sunken top to me. The "cavity" between the pickups is an optical illusion due to the angled lines of the pickup rings where they sit on the top.

    Exposed bridge post margins may indicate high saddle position but that's because the bridge base is very thin. Pickups are set up close to the strings yet they are not abnormally high. That all says not sunken top. You can also see the arch following a normal curvature.

    I doubt you get very many sunken top 70's models. They are built heavily.
    Last edited by Tal_175; 05-21-2020 at 11:05 AM.

  23. #72

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    I had an ES-175 from the same period. It had the same curvature. It came from the factory like that. The top is fine. It's one of the quirks of the instrument. That and fine tonal response and playing ease. There is a reason they are so popular. They work really well!

  24. #73

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    The top does look a little sunk to me, but also the bridge base is indeed very thin so that may obscure the picture. So maybe K and Tal are right and it hasn’t sunk at all!

    Anyway, if it’s sunk it’s not too bad and can easily be repaired or if you don’t want to spend money it can be stoped by putting a sound post under the bridge.

    If the price is right and it plays and sounds good it wouldn’t be a show stopper for me!

  25. #74

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    looks fine to me, if the inner side of the f-hole is on the same plane or higher than the outer side of the f hole you're usually fine [not always, you need a little common sense when inspecting it also]

  26. #75

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    Looks like a typical 175 top in the pics to me.