1937 Gibson ES-150 Tribute Guitar

[vinnyv1k]

WOW ! We love your posts icr.

[pingu]

thats great , sounds really 'tubey'

did cc pickups make that pickup ?

[lawson-stone]

Just inspiring on every level. The perfect continuum of craftsmanship, from the wood-work on the guitar, through the hardware, the electronics, right on through the playing. Complete integration!

Hat's off to you!

[Dedalus]

I'm in awe.
Excuse my ignorance, but do you do this professionally?
I'd love to develop these skills...not sure I possess the patience. Ha.
Sounds great, too. Very "pure" tonality to my ears.

[icr]

The pickup is from CC pickups CC Pickups - Pickups

I got the book Gibson Electrics by A. R Duchossoir in the 1990s. The book has a ES-150 on the cover. I had been thinking of an L50 conversion ever since I read about the similarity between the L50 and ES-150 in that book. I'm a hobbyist, and did this project for fun.

[neatomic]

bet you are happy you got to install that cc pup with the guitar back off!!! haha

good work...enjoy

cheers

[icr]

My projects kind of take a meandering course. I can trace this project back few generations for reading entertainment.

I have somewhat of a collection of red guitars. A friend in the 1990s had a red ES-165 and wanted to buy it from him to add to my collection, but he did not want to sell.

Something this last summer clicked in my mind, realizing that I have over 20 Gibson guitars and don't have an ES-175 or ES-165. I started searching for a red ES-165 and even contacted my friend via e-mail and he still did not want to sell. I could not find any ES-165 for a reasonable price, let alone a red one. In fact I have never seen another cherry red one like my friend's.

In my search I came across an inexpensive red ES-175 that needed to be re-finished on the back.

I re-finished a Red/Maroon Les Paul Custom 1976 a few years ago. Someone had stripped the guitar with a sander, leaving only the serial number area. After refinishing, I wish I had mixed a little more red with the maroon. After buffing, serial number area was just a little brighter red. The guitar came out great but if I knew then what I know now it would have had some red dye mixed in with the maroon.



Put two and two together and this last Fall I'm all keyed up to do a proper cherry repair on this ES-175 with the bad back. I even have my Stewart McDonald e-shopping cart filled with supplies, I'm all ready to go....

[icr]

So, this is the ES-175 I found with a known "Blemish" on the back (seller's description). This is the seller's picture I got and the seller gave me a good deal on it. It looks kind of messed up, and I'm planning on re-doing the whole back.

[icr]

So, I'm all ready to go and follow the shipping progress on the tracking number. Driving home from work, I know the day it would be there. I quickly open the box and put the guitar on my work table to assess the damage and I almost fell over when I saw it...

The back of the guitar looked fine!

In retrospect, that sand-through area was, in fact, a reflection of a light in the seller's picture. The "Blemish" he mentioned was that little scratch on the left-hand side of the seller's picture.

[icr]

So, yes I'm very happy with the ES-175, but I had even taken off some work in the Fall for the refinishing project and the excitement created a vacuum that needed to be filled with another project. It was at that point I seriously started doing research on the feasibility of an L50->ES-150 conversion. The rest is history.

[lawson-stone]

I could read a dozen more threads like this one.

You really should think of doing a book on rescuing/retrofitting/redeeming and reviving classic guitars.

[Jehu]

JEHU LIKES THIS.

(The 'like' button was simply not sufficient.)

[citizenk74]

Very nice work, icr. Well done!

[Dedalus]

I could read a dozen more threads like this one.

You really should think of doing a book on rescuing/retrofitting/redeeming and reviving classic guitars.

My thoughts exactly. Just a fascinating thread to follow. Inspiring...but I wouldn't even know where to begin. But inspiring none-the-less. Please keep 'em coming.

[icr]

I may have to start a thread about that Les Paul Custom. It has its own unique story as it was separated from me for about ten years. Basically lost.

Here is how it happened; I bought the guitar in the early 1990s as a piece of unfinshed wood in a case with some scraps of hardware for $250. I was in school at the time and had no way to restore it then, so I took it to a shop. Then I moved and the guy moved and we lost touch. Many years passed, I finished school, got married, had kids etc. Then, in 2007 I located the guy on the internet ; he still had the guitar and was looking for me. Turns out he re-fretted it with nibs, and redid the binding and inlays. However, the repaint went sour. He got fisheyes and put it on the shelf and it sat for a decade. After I contacted him, he gladly returned the guitar with all the work done, except painting, for no charge. After receiving the guitar I decided to spray it myself and that was an adventure!

[GNAPPI]

Funny that... I have a thing for red and wine guitars also, and luckily for me it seems as if as red or wine models regularly sell for less than their natural or tobacco burst counterparts. Consequently, I have a number of wine and several cherry bursts.

I would love a wine ES175 and L4CES someday, but I wouldn't give up my 175 for another unless it played and sounded as good as mine. I'm not fussy about perfect guitars, your 175 even if it did have the blemish you thought it had would remain untouched in my hands :-)

PS. There's a Super V on Feebay right now in wine red

[Jabberwocky]

Amazing, icr. I wish I had your skills. It looks very well thought-out. As for the red ES-175, what a nice score! Wine Red, the "economy" Gibson finish is in my future. I like Wine Red...reminds me of Rustoleum.

[Frank67]

Amazing! Great job icr. Congratulations on pulling off a great project. Enjoy the guitar for a long time to come.

[kris]

great work!

[Little Jay]

Oh how I love threads like this! Great job, it turned out an awesome guitar. You might be a hobbyist, but your profesionalism impresses me!

Funny that a brace was completely missing. My ES-125 was completely missing both top-braces when I got her (I placed a sound post to prevent the top from sagging), but I did see some traces of glue. So someone apparently went through the trouble of getting the braces out through the pick-up hole (I think you have to cut them up or break them for that). Puzzles me why people would take braces out and apparently don't feel the need to replace them or reinforce the top.
(*EDIT: oh wait, we discussed this already in the ES-125 thread :-) )

Why did you do the extra x-bracing? Extra reinforcement to compensate for the pickup cut-out and cut braces or also out of considerations of sound? (The ES-150 had X-bracing?)

Again: great job!

[kevmoga]

Back reconstructed with new #2 brace. This L50, like the original ES-150/CC, has a hybrid construction. The top is carved, but the back on both is a flat piece of wood bent over slightly curved braces. The later Non-CC ES-150s have carved front and back pieces.
Attachment 27392

Really impressive work, congrats. Do you know what year the later non-CC 150s changed from carved to laminate? I have a 49 with a p90 that appears to be laminate.

[travisty]

This is an awesome project with an awesome result. Very well done and kudos!
Simply inspiring and I just adore threads like these.

I love the groove and the playing too.
It sounds awesome - reminds me of why I love CCs so much. Makes me want to try and rescue something like that in the same way - there are certainly some out there which need rescuing.

[Woody Sound]

Awesome job! Can you share what type/gauge strings those are?

[bananafist]

Just want to add my congratulations to the others. Amazing job and you make it sound so easy!
Envy,envy!!

[orri]

awesome!
I really enjoyed looking at the photos and the video.