1960 GIBSON ES-175DN

Splendid Gibson ES-175DN from late 1959 / early 1960, in excellent original condition.

This is an exceptional example from what many consider to be Gibson’s golden age of electric guitar production. This particular model has long held the place at the top of electric jazz guitars produced by the Kalamazoo manufacturer, and its popularity has not waned since its introduction in 1953. With two “Patent Applied For” humbucking pickups and the four-knob/single-switch wiring configuration that has become the standard setup, what we hold here is an absolutely essential creation from Gibson.

The ES-175 features a laminated maple body construction, here in a Natural finish that has aged beautifully over its 60-year history. The mahogany neck is topped with a rosewood fingerboard featuring the double parallelogram inlays. The headstock holds the Gibson logo and crown-shaped inlay, and is equipped with repro Kluson tuners, the buttons of the original tuners (kept in the case) having degraded with time. We also find the zig-zag tailpiece, an important visual marker of the model which Gibson starting using in 1956.

Beyond the rareness of the instrument (111 examples produced for the year), there is an undeniable interest in these guitars due to the fact that they are among the first to be equipped with the new PAF humbucking pickups, installed by Gibson on their instruments starting in 1957. These allow a significant technological advancement compared to older single-coil designs, in particular in that they greatly reduce the sensitivity to parasitic interference notoriously plaguing P-90 pickups and other previous version. Many musicians and enthusiasts also agree that PAFs provide a distinct clarity and grit, with superb acoustic sound reproduction across the entire frequency range – which has no doubt helped to establish these pickups as true legend. This is confirmed concretely when playing the presented guitar: the configuration with two pickups allowing a wide tonal palette, lending itself of course perfectly to jazz but delivering great versatility – in the words of Gibson, it is the “ultimate for recording, broadcasting, or whenever truly fine performance is desired” (sic). The pickups in this instrument each have their Patent Applied For labels, and all of the solder joints on the pickup covers and associated wiring are perfectly intact – making this a rare untampered example of a 175.

Thorough check of all elements and complete professional setup done in our workshop, in perfect playing condition. The guitar is sold in its beautiful original Lifton case.

Please enquire for the price of this instrument.