Feeding My ES-175 Addiction with a '59

**Easy2grasp** · 01-01-2022, 07:18 PM

My collection of ES-175’s has reached the hoarding stage again with number eight. The last time it reached this level was last January and I felt compelled to sell one. It was my very nice 1959 ES-175D with cloned humbuckers. How could I have been so stupid! I asked $7500 on Reverb and it was snatched up overnight. I guess that was a good price to get someone to pull the trigger.
I’ve regretted the sale of that guitar so much that when I had the opportunity to buy this heavily modified 1959 single pickup ES-175 for under $6000, I snatched it up. First of all I wanted to get rid of the Bigsby and roller bridge. The Bigsby has always seemed to me to be something you would use with a bridge pickup and this guitar didn’t have a pickup there. I was able to find a vintage bridge, but sourcing the zigzag tailpiece was going to be tough. I found a chrome one ~1965 and looked into stripping chrome and electroplating the brass casting in nickel. It seemed doable but complicated. The YouTube videos always make things seem simple, don’t they? Then I found a vintage nickel zigzag tailpiece that was broken where the tabs on the bottom plate curl around the heavy wire. I bought it and one of the bogus nickel ones from WD Music that have the zigzags too wide. Using heat from a pencil butane torch, I was able to slowly pry open the curled tabs on the base plate of the Korean one. I then installed it successfully on the vintage zigzag top piece using a small hammer and a drift pin punch. This all must be done very slowly and carefully so one does not scratch the nickel, which I protected with tape. And voila! I had an almost-all vintage zigzag tailpiece for $160. Next I replaced the reflector knobs with the correct amber ones. I found someone selling a like-new pickguard from a VOS 1959 ES-175 and someone else selling a vintage truss rod cover that looked correct. I don’t really care for the greenish tint tuner knobs but these tuners are Made in Germany Klusons and the ones made now in Asia are inconsistent. I think I can get used to the tint, plus the tuning peg holes were enlarged to accept the German Klusons.
The pickup looks like a PAF that has been around the block a few times. Even the height adjustment holes got stripped over time and were fixed. I gave up a long time ago trying to figure out whether a PAF was original or faked, but the fact that the pickup legs were repaired would suggest to me that it is an original. Oh and did I mention how sweet this box sounds with tons of natural reverb? And I lucked out that the neck is very playable! I have vowed not to buy or sell anymore guitars for 3 years and I will see if I can do it. Especially the ES-175’s.

**Doctor Jeff** · 01-01-2022, 08:08 PM

Some serious mojo on that one, but…

Couldn’t you have at least 12.5% of your herd with a Bigsby?

I think it looked awesome with the Bigs!

**Easy2grasp** · 01-01-2022, 08:24 PM

The Bigs did look gnarly, but I have no need for that mod. I used to be able to Travis pick and it would be great for that, but I sustained a post-surgical ulnar nerve injury and can only flat pick now. And the roller bridge is no good with a wound G string.

**vinnyv1k** · 01-02-2022, 11:10 AM

I love 1 pu 175’s. Sweet !

**Stringswinger** · 01-02-2022, 12:16 PM

Congrats Ted! I am guessing that like Jack Zucker and myself (and Joe Pass and Herb Ellis among others), you view the ES-175 as the best guitar in history.

May she inspire your playing for many years to come!