CME Gibson ES-175 59 VOS Natural

**Lobomov** · 11-07-2017, 03:37 PM

Originally Posted by docbop

I read in an interview Pat's guitar was originally a single PUP 175, but he decided all the guitarists he liked had dual PUP guitars so he took the guitar to school and cut the hole for second pup and installed one. The 175 took a beating and he had to retire it while still holding together. In the DVD of Pat and Charlie Haden you can see all of Pat's guitars are have cracks and repairs, Pat is a road dog and his gear gets the worst of it. Even some of the musicians only last a couple years and get tired of all the travel.

Yeah .. he put in an extra pup and found that it made it worse, so he removed it again.

But with regards to the road life. In an recent interview he stated that he wasn't after the best musicians necesarily, but those that still sounded good after 50 back to back gigs. (Or somerhing like that)

**docbop** · 11-07-2017, 03:50 PM

Originally Posted by Lobomov

Yeah .. he put in an extra pup and found that it made it worse, so he removed it again.

But with regards to the road life. In an recent interview he stated that he wasn't after the best musicians necesarily, but those that still sounded good after 50 back to back gigs. (Or somerhing like that)

It's like his auditions. He doesn't tell people it's an audition he just invites them over to jam, then they spend a day just playing a mix of Pat and other tunes. Later if he's interested he'll tell them what going on.

**lawson-stone** · 11-07-2017, 04:21 PM

Originally Posted by vinnyv1k

Long live the CME deals.

May they be the signs of a changing in Gibson's marketing and retailing concept- excellent guitars sold at reasonable and competitive prices!

**gggomez** · 11-07-2017, 04:58 PM

Little rubber grommets under the pick up screws and you got two floating pickups and maximum top vibration.

**chemiorro** · 11-07-2017, 06:22 PM

Hey, I've never heard before the grommets improv. Does it really work? Where can one find one of those?

**lawson-stone** · 11-07-2017, 06:41 PM

Originally Posted by gggomez

Little rubber grommets under the pick up screws and you got two floating pickups and maximum top vibration.

But we buy the ES175 because we like how it sounds. Honestly, I've never heard of anyone "floating" the routed in pickups. And rubber absorbs vibration anyhow. We buy ES175 because we like it's iconic sound, not because we want to jury-rig a quasi floating pickup (with rubber shock absorbers and two big holes cut in the top?). Just buy a guitar with a floater if one wants that.

**Mark M.** · 11-07-2017, 07:50 PM

What's the toothbrush reference all about?

**docbop** · 11-07-2017, 09:38 PM

Originally Posted by Mark M.

What's the toothbrush reference all about?

Pat's guitar lost the strap button; on old 175's the strap button was just a piece of plastic shoved into a hole, kind of like an acoustic guitar bridge pin. Well he had to play so he wound end of the strap around the tailpiece and then used a toothbrush to hold it in place. It worked so he never changed it. Look at the picture in post #8 from BigMikeInNJ and you can see the toothbrush holding the strap. So as Pat got famous so did that toothbrush.

**neatomic** · 11-07-2017, 09:59 PM

Originally Posted by guido5

In a lot of ways the 175 is pretty close to the sweet spot, although I do wish Gibson would make a single pick-up version again...

^ single p90!!! would be even"sweeter" hah

congrats on the new guitar docb...beauty...enjoy

cheers

**guido5** · 11-07-2017, 10:05 PM

Originally Posted by docbop

Pat's guitar lost the strap button; on old 175's the strap button was just a piece of plastic shoved into a hole, kind of like an acoustic guitar bridge pin. Well he had to play so he wound end of the strap around the tailpiece and then used a toothbrush to hold it in place. It worked so he never changed it. Look at the picture in post #8 from BigMikeInNJ and you can see the toothbrush holding the strap. So as Pat got famous so did that toothbrush.

You pay extra for the toothbrush version...

**guido5** · 11-07-2017, 10:06 PM

Originally Posted by neatomic

^ single p90!!! would be even"sweeter" hah

Quite true...

**Easy2grasp** · 11-07-2017, 11:44 PM

Originally Posted by Easy2grasp

I am very surprised that there is some variation in the neck thicknesses of these and it is not standardized. How does that come about? I thought the CNC machines would spit them out identically. Is the operator tweaking the dials or is there a final dressing stage where some are not sanded down as much?

I did some research and found the answer to my question. There is a hand rolling step in the neck manufacture where a worker sands the neck to the final contour as seen at 13:20 in this detailed Memphis factory tour video. Ted

**TedBPhx** · 11-08-2017, 11:14 AM

So, Gibson Memphis runs all their guitars through a Plek machine? The sales associate at CME I went through thought only Nashville Gibson’s were Pleked. The frets on my 2016 Memphis 175 feel perfect to me.

**icr** · 11-08-2017, 01:49 PM

Enjoy you ES-175 it looks fantatstic!

I was late to the ES-175 game, having wanted one for many years. I started playing guitar in 1979 and only got my ES-175 a few months before I joined this forum. I have a spreadsheet with dates and it was the 40th guitar I ever purchased.