A Tale of Two ES-125s......

[DMgolf66]

Thought you guys might find this interesting.
I just got one of these (one on the Left) back from a setup done by Marc Tappan at Guitars N Jazz. Marc is a wonderful guy and friend who does great work, IMHO. Anyway, I had picked it up from an estate sale near me and immediately dropped it off to Marc before I could ever "A/B" it with my other 50s ES-125, so I was anxious to see, hear and feel the difference.

Just got it back a few hours ago and the thing that struck me immediately, before even plugging it in, was the difference in pickup location and slope/shape of the pickup. There is at least a half inch of difference in the location of the pickup with my original 125 being closer to the Nut than the other. I know that this model was a "student guitar" so I imagine tolerances weren't quite as tight, but also (I haven't been able to date the new one yet) it could be from a different period where they made this change.

Anywho, thought it was kinda Interesting. Also, FTR , my original 125 sounds better. It's probably the "best" guitar I have and that's according to people who actually know what they're doing with a guit-fiddle in their hands, unlike me, ha.

[DMgolf66]

[blille]

I think that’s fascinating. Thanks for sharing it.

Is one of them where fret 24 would be and the other closer or further away from the neck?

[DMgolf66]

I think that’s fascinating. Thanks for sharing it.

Is one of them where fret 24 would be and the other closer or further away from the neck?

I measured from end of last fret.

[rpjazzguitar]

Looks like the top one has more frets.

[DMgolf66]

Looks like the top one has more frets.

Haha. Mystery solved!

[edpirie]

I have read in other posts that the spec changed from 19 to 20 frets around 1955. That figures with the difference in sunburst - the one on the left has the early 50s darker burst whereas the other looks more like 1959.

Does anyone know the history of the tailpiece variations? The right-hand one has lines across instead of the raised diamond. I am using a borrowed ES-140 at the moment with the same tailpiece and thought it must be an early replacement, but there seem to be too many around for that to be the case.

[Hammertone]

Most likely, neither are original. The older guitar has a cheap-o but sturdy tailpiece commonly found on cheap-o arch tops from companies like Kay. I don't know who made these. The newer guitar has a Waverly tailpiece, which was used never used on Gibson archtops (at least, not on purpose), but was used on several Gibson-built Epiphone archtop models from the late 1950s until production went to Japan @1968. It's one of my favourite designs, and the basis for current archtop tailpieces used by Collings, Epiphone (Masterbilt Century Collection) and at least one other maker. On this guitar, it has replaced the standard Gibson tailpiece used on a variety of the company’s archtops, including the L-48, L-50, ES-125, ES-330, ES-335, ES-325, and so forth).