Scotty Moore Rides Again…

1953 Gibson ES-295.

This incredible guitar weighs just 6.10 lbs. and has a very comfortable nut width of just over 1 11/16 inches and a standard Gibson scale length of 24 3/4 inches. Reminiscent of the ES-175, with the same sharp-edged single Florentine cutaway and pearl split-parallelogram inlays, this wonderful guitar has a 16-inch-wide laminated maple body, one-piece mahogany neck with a medium to thick profile, and rosewood fretboard with 19 original thin frets and inlaid pearl split-parallelogram position markers. Headstock with inlaid pearl "Gibson" logo and pearl crown inlay. Two-layer (black on white) plastic truss-rod cover secured by two screws. Individual single-line "no-name" Kluson Deluxe tuners with single-ring Keystone plastic buttons. Two original P-90 pickups with outputs of 7.98k and 9.62k. Cream plastic pickup covers, each secured by two screws. Clear plastic pickguard back-painted in cream and embossed with a gold floral design. Four controls (two volume, two tone) on lower treble bout plus three-way pickup selector switch on upper bass bout. Gold plastic barrel-shaped "speed" knobs (.50 inch tall). Les Paul combination trapeze bridge/tailpiece with strings looping over the bridge. All hardware gold-plated. With the original Gibson white oval label inside the bass f-hole, with the style "ES-295" written in black ink and the serial number "A-16216" stamped in black. Inside the treble f-hole is the FON number "Y6355 20". This guitar is in near mint (9.25) condition, with only the tiniest amount of finish checking and none of the "greening" that always plagues the gold finish on this model. Quite simply the second finest and most original ES-295 we have ever seen or heard of! (we had an equally minty 1952 example which we sold seven years ago). Housed in the original Gibson brown hardshell case with purple plush lining (9.00).

"The ES-295 was introduced in 1952 as the hollow body counterpart of the original Les Paul model. This is true in terms of finish, electronics and hardware, but otherwise the 295 is essentially a fancier twin pickup ES-175…According to factory records, the earliest production 295s (#A10554 and A10555) were registered on 14th May 1952. As mentioned previously, the ES-295 served as the basis for the ES-175D introduced one year later. Conversely, the ES-295 was developed after an all-gold ES-175 (#A9196 registered on 4th December 1951) specially built by Gibson at Les Paul's request and presented by him to a disabled guitarist. At least two other gold-finished 175s were made in early 1952, i.e. #A10137 registered on 3rd April and #A10474 registered on 2nd May, before the first ES-295 came out. The first variant underwent no modifications up to late 1957, other than the installation of a 20-fret fingerboard in 1955 like all the 16-inch wide hollow bodies" (A.R. Duchossoir. Gibson Electrics -- The Classic Years, p.173)