A Mint 1963 ES-175D With Two PAF's

1963 Gibson ES-175D.

This mint 16 1/4-inch-wide guitar weighs just 6.70 lbs. Three-ply laminated top and back with a superb two-tone sunburst finish with nice flame and light birds-eye. The top is triple-bound and the back is single bound. The sides stained with a walnut finish as usual. One-piece Honduras mahogany neck with a nut width of just under 1 11/16 inches and a very comfortable medium-to-thin profile. Brazilian rosewood fretboard with 20 original jumbo frets and inlaid pearl split-parallelogram position markers. Headstock with inlaid pearl "Gibson" logo and pearl crown inlay. Two-layer, black over white plastic truss-rod cover with two screws. The serial number "129703" is impressed into the back of the headstock. Individual single-line Kluson Deluxe tuners with double-ring Keystone plastic buttons (each one stamped on the underside "D-169400 Patent No.". Two original 'double black' PAF humbucking pickups with rectangular black "patent applied for" labels on the underside and outputs of 7.68k and 7.95k. Five-layer black over white plastic pickguard. Four controls (two volume, two tone) on lower treble bout plus three-way selector switch on upper bass bout. Gold plastic bell-shaped knobs with metal tops. ABR-1 (retainer) Tune-O-Matic on height adjustable rosewood base and zig-zag tailpiece with central "T"-shaped design. Inside the bass f-hole is the orange Gibson label with the style "ES-175 D" written in black ink and serial number "129703" stamped in black. There is the absolute bare minimum of finish checking, some very minimal playing wear to the first five frets and a very small surface mark on the treble side of the body in-between the jack input and the tailpiece. Complete with the original Gibson hang-tag / guarantee card with matching serial number, the original Gibson 'Sonomatic Strings hang tag, the "*Humbucking Pickup Adjustments" sheet and the original Gibson 'Professionals Attention' hang-tag. This guitar is the best ES-175 that we have ever seen so we can comfortably award it a mint (9.50) condition rating. Housed in its original Gibson five-latch, shaped black hardshell case with orange plush lining (9.00).

This is one of 483 ES-175D's shipped in 1963.

Although the ES-175 was originally introduced in August 1949 (so-called because it initially retailed at $175.00), it only had a single P-90 pickup, and  it was not until 1953 that the two pickup version with four controls and a three-way toggle switch was introduced. So successful was this configuration, that Gibson went on to adopt this arrangement for most of its twin pickup guitars.

"At the time the ES-295 was introduced in 1952, the ES-175 was available only as a single pickup model even though a very few models had been custom-ordered with two pickups since its inception in 1949. But it did not take long to realize that a 175 with two pickups would be a neat proposal to consolidate the lower end of the electric range. In early 1953, a 295 was thus converted into a two-pickup 175 and by April the first production ES-175D (D stands for dual pickups) were shipped from the factory. Ted McCarty and Clarence Havenga probably did not fully appreciate it at the time but one of the all-time Gibson classics was born. The affordable 175 and 175D proved immensely popular during the 50s and became the workhorse of many fine jazz guitarists such as Kenny BURRELL, Jim HALL or Herb ELLIS to name just a few" (A.R. Duchossoir, Gibson Electrics -- The Classic Years, p. 55).

"The ES175 is Gibson's most successful electro-acoustic guitar. An estimated 37,000 were sold between 1949 and 1990 and it continues to sell in healthy numbers, despite unprecedented Japanese competition. Dozens of look-alikes and near copies provide testimony to the instrument's dependability, tonal responsiveness and aesthetic quality. From the hundreds of electric guitars which have come and gone over the last fifty years, only a handful have survived with little deviation from their original form...Steve Howe, King Sunny Ade, B.B. King, Mel Brown and Derek Bailey have used the 175 to good effect in other genres. However, it is jazz guitarists who have been seen using the 175 consistently for more than four decades and it is they who provide the instrument's strongest cultural association. Forty [now fifty] years of record sleeves, magazine articles, TV appearances and gigs by eminent jazz guitarists have established the 175 as the pre-eminent jazz guitar. The shape, design and construction of the 175 have changed little in more than forty [now fifty] years of continuous production, affirming its tradition of dependability whilst reaffirming its status as a design classic" (Adrian Ingram, The Gibson ES175: Its History and Players, p. xi).