Gibson ES-175CC Pickup

[rabbit]

Somehow I missed this thread entirely.

Congratulations on a beautiful guitar!

[citizenk74]

A rare and beautiful guitar. Congratulations, and play it in good health!

[pingu]

Good news , congratulations .... Nice

Are you staying with the fretless wonder effect ?
(They do look incredibly low from the pics)

[Iced Tea]

Good news , congratulations .... Nice

Are you staying with the fretless wonder effect ?
(They do look incredibly low from the pics)

Yeah for now! The action set pretty low now and it plays great. Maybe at some point down the line.

[Iced Tea]

Hey guys,

So I was very lucky to get hold of an ES-175CC in great condition at a great price. I've had the guitar for a few weeks now and I love it. I've read that the CC pickup in these guitars is different to the originals from the 30's and 40's but to be honest I can't hear much difference! I've got the guitar strung with monel 12 roundwounds and they add a bit of zing to the guitar's tone, also the guitar sounds very resonant unplugged as well, not the sort of flat sound you might expect from a laminate built guitar.

I've recorded a little recording of Stella By Starlight just as a rough demo of the sound. The amp I'm using is Vintage47 VA-185g - the EH-185 style amp, it's fitted with an Eminence Lil' Texas based on Jonathan Stout's recommendation on this forum. The amp's volume is about halfway and the tone is full - same for the guitar. The recording was made a Zoom handheld recorder and then edited on Audacity, with no eq adjustment.

[mr. beaumont]

I'd probably go for a little more "attack" on the notes, but this sounds just great. Classic tone.

[Woody Sound]

Nice playing, too!

[joe2758]

jeff, do you mean physically pick harder? i used to pick too hard now im worried i over corrected lol

[Greentone]

Iced Tea,

Now, that's what I'm talking about. I had a ES-175/CC for about six months, and a '37 ES-150 for about six months--due to the generosity of a great friend.

I played them each every day and got to gig with them. The guitars were both marvelous.

The 150 remains my very favorite electric guitar of all time. The 175/CC is certainly on of my top ten.

Your "CC" is beautiful sounding, and it does indeed capture much of the sound of the great old 150.

ENJOY! (Oh, very nice playing.)

[mr. beaumont]

jeff, do you mean physically pick harder? i used to pick too hard now im worried i over corrected lol

On electric, I like that amp to do some of the work, but old school guys like Charlie, they did pick pretty hard.

It's just a personal preference thing...I like to hear a little more of the attack on the initial impact. Think 50's Jimmy Raney. That's like the ultimate Charlie Christian pickup tone to me. I think Charlie would have sounded a bit more like that with 50's recording technology...

But make no mistake, the OP sounds great. That's an ES-175 with a CC all right.

[Iced Tea]

Iced Tea,

Now, that's what I'm talking about. I had a ES-175/CC for about six months, and a '37 ES-150 for about six months--due to the generosity of a great friend.

I played them each every day and got to gig with them. The guitars were both marvelous.

The 150 remains my very favorite electric guitar of all time. The 175/CC is certainly on of my top ten.

Your "CC" is beautiful sounding, and it does indeed capture much of the sound of the great old 150.

ENJOY! (Oh, very nice playing.)

Thanks for the kind words! I have to say I’m now a big fan of the CC sound. In the last two years I’ve had a Guild with a Franz pickup, a Gibson ES-125 without a P90 and most recently an Epiphone with a reissue DeArmond Rhythm Chief, this is nicest sounding though, although the Franz pickups was a close second.

[Iced Tea]

On electric, I like that amp to do some of the work, but old school guys like Charlie, they did pick pretty hard.

It's just a personal preference thing...I like to hear a little more of the attack on the initial impact. Think 50's Jimmy Raney. That's like the ultimate Charlie Christian pickup tone to me. I think Charlie would have sounded a bit more like that with 50's recording technology...

But make no mistake, the OP sounds great. That's an ES-175 with a CC all right.

Thanks! I had the same issue with my playing and switched from rest stroke picking to alternative picking, I also use a pretty thin pick as well.

[Jabberwocky]

Love it, Iced Tea.

[Dioxic]

Great playing! Just for a different perspective / opinion, I like the level of pick attack. I think it really just depends on what you're going for. I have the same guitar and it's easily the best guitar purchase I've ever made.

[omphalopsychos]

I was once seconds from buying an ES 175 CC, specifically one that previously belonged to Miles Okazaki. The only reason I didn't was because Adam Rogers was in the shop and we were just chatting about life and guitar well past closing time and the shop owner told me to come back the next day if I wanted the guitar. I couldn't come back because I was flying out that day. I almost regretted it, but then another opportunity opened up very quickly thereafter. I could not resist for the bigger neck and solid spruce top. This is an L50 from 1940 that I installed a CC Pickup in. As with the OP, I couldn't be happier with the turnout. God I wish I had time to record lately. Maybe during the holidays.

[lawson-stone]

I was once seconds from buying an ES 175 CC, specifically one that previously belonged to Miles Okazaki. The only reason I didn't was because Adam Rogers was in the shop and we were just chatting about life and guitar well past closing time and the shop owner told me to come back the next day if I wanted the guitar. I couldn't come back because I was flying out that day. I almost regretted it, but then another opportunity opened up very quickly thereafter. I could not resist for the bigger neck and solid spruce top. This is an L50 from 1940 that I installed a CC Pickup in. As with the OP, I couldn't be happier with the turnout. God I wish I had time to record lately. Maybe during the holidays.

I have an L50 that I really would love to have a CC pickup in, but the parallel bracing inside seems asymmetrical with one brace very close to the center of the top. Was the installation of this pickup pretty "invasive?"

[Greentone]

Hey, Omph...

That's a great L50 redo.

I have thought for years about doing something similar to my '38 L50. Only a bunch of electric archtops at home has kept me from taking the '50 and popping a "CC" in there. After all, that's what Gibson did.

[omphalopsychos]

Lawson, the bracing on this guitar is symmetrical, as far as I know. They did have to cut the braces, but there is little added support provided by that extra inch. A local professional swing guitarist had the same mod done in the past and has had a very stable top, so I'm not too worried. Will the top last another 80 years? I don't plan to be around to find out

[Iced Tea]

Lawson, the bracing on this guitar is symmetrical, as far as I know. They did have to cut the braces, but there is little added support provided by that extra inch. A local professional swing guitarist had the same mod done in the past and has had a very stable top, so I'm not too worried. Will the top last another 80 years? I don't plan to be around to find out

Nice looking guitar! Does the L-50 have a flat back?

[lawson-stone]

Lawson, the bracing on this guitar is symmetrical, as far as I know. They did have to cut the braces, but there is little added support provided by that extra inch. A local professional swing guitarist had the same mod done in the past and has had a very stable top, so I'm not too worried. Will the top last another 80 years? I don't plan to be around to find out

Did he have to remove the back to install the pickup?

[Greentone]

FWIW, the backs pop off fairly easily.

I don't believe that the L-50 had a flat back after 1936. By 1937, the guitar featured a carved maple back.

For the 1937-40 ES-150, however, Gibson used the flat-back L-50 design to serve as the candidate body for the new electric guitar because acoustic tone wasn't really what the company was after.

As it happens, the carved-back L-50 sounds better as a purely acoustic guitar than does the flat-back model.

[omphalopsychos]

Did he have to remove the back to install the pickup?

Nope.

[omphalopsychos]

Nice looking guitar! Does the L-50 have a flat back?

No. Greentone is correct. By 1940 they had started tweaking the design a bit, beyond just the curved back. If you look closely you'll notice that the f-holes are bigger than the 30s models. Also, the bridge is made of rosewood by this time. The tailpiece is also different (slanted parallelograms). Finally, the neck profile is quite different, exhibiting the round baseball-bat clubbiness of Gibson necks in the 40s. Some people dislike this profile. I have enough guitars with drastically different profiles that I feel comfortable by now on any neck, as long as it isn't too narrow. I have 2 guitars with the 30's Gibson V-neck profile: a 1934 L7 and a Waterloo WL-14L. It might be my favorite neck profile out there, but I can handle a full-shouldered clubby neck just as well. The v-neck makes it easier to grab drop-3 chords for things like swing comping, but the rounder neck makes it easier for me to play across strings, since it lets me adapt my thumb placement on the back.

[Tabor]

Hi all, Just reviving a thread to note that I am selling my es-175CC. Interested buyers can see the posting here: Gibson ES-175CC 1979 $5000 plus shipping . The guitar sounds just as sweet as mentioned by others here, and plays fantastically.

[rsclosson]

Years ago, a 175 CC arrived at a local music store. It was fantastic! It was at a time I was really broke. So sad! Congrats on your guitar. Don't let anybody talk you out of it, no matter how much I beg!