One of the First "Thinline" Guitars Produced

This wonderful two-tone Sunburst ES-125T weighs just 5.50 lbs. and has a nice, fat nut width of 1 11/16 inches and a standard Gibson scale length of 24 3/4 inches. Single-bound laminated maple body, one-piece mahogany neck, and rosewood fretboard with 20 medium jumbo frets and inlaid pearl dot position markers. Headstock with gold silk-screened "Gibson" logo. Closed-back Kluson Deluxe strip tuners with white plastic oval buttons. One black P-90 pickup with an output of 8.38k. Tortoiseshell pickguard. Two controls (one volume, one tone) on lower treble bout. Gold plastic bell-shape "Bell" knobs. Rosewood bridge with pre-set compensating saddle and original factory-fitted ES-140-style trapeze tailpiece with vertical ridges on cross-bar. This guitar is in near mint (9.25) condition, with virtually no finish checking. The color is a wonderful two-tone Sunburst -- quite different from the three-tone Sunburst that was introduced on this model in 1959. The tailpiece is an interesting and totally original factory-fitted variant, being the one normally used at the time on the three-quarter size ES-140. Original "alligator" softshell case.

"The ES-125T was introduced at the end of 1956 as a budget model to complement the range of thinline electrics. In 1957 a 3/4 size and a dual pickup version became available, but they never gained the same popularity as the ES-125T. By 1960 two versions with a Florentine cutaway, the ES-125TC and TCD, were released as a replacement for the ES-225T and TD discontinued the previous year. All these models were gradually phased out at the end of the 60s...As implied by its designation the ES-125T is merely an ES-125 with a thinner body [1 3/4 inch as opposed to 3 3/8 inches]. By 1958 the T-version outsold the full body 125 shortly before peaking in 1959 with 2,072 instruments...The family of thin-bodied 125s accounted for a substantial portion of the thinline instruments shipped in the late 50s and early 60s. A total of 9,277 ES-125T were produced between 1956 and 1965" (A.R. Duchossoir, Gibson Electrics -- The Classic Years, p. 227).

The first six ES-125Ts were shipped from the factory in 1956, but the model was not manufactured in quantities until 1957, when 889 were produced. On July 15, 1957, both the ES-125 and ES-125T retailed at $145.00.