"A Very Rare 1967 Candy Red Sparkle ES 175"

This super rare 'custom color' 16 1/4-inch-wide guitar weighs just 6.80 lbs. Three-ply laminated maple body, triple-bound on the top and single-bound on the back. One-piece Honduras mahogany neck with a standard scale length of 24 3/4 inches, a nut width of 1 9/16 inches and very comfortable medium-to-thick profile. Rosewood fretboard with 20 original 'jumbo' frets and inlaid pearl split-parallelogram position markers. Headstock with inlaid pearl "Gibson" logo and pearl 'double' crown inlay. Single-layer black plastic sheet truss-rod cover with two screws. Individual two-line Kluson Deluxe tuners with double-ring Keystone plastic buttons (each one stamped on the underside "D-169400 / PATENT NO". Two 'Patent Number' Humbucker pickups with black plastic surrounds, each with a small rectangular label on the underside "" and with outputs of 7.37k and 7.26k. Five-layer (black/white/black/white/black) plastic pickguard. Four controls (two volume, two tone) plus three-way pickup selector switch on bass side. Black plastic ribbed-side conical-shape "Witch Hat" knobs. Rosewood bridge with pre-set compensating saddle on rosewood base and zig-zag tailpiece with central "T"-shaped design. Inside the bass f-hole is an orange label with the style "ES-175DC" and the serial number "370645" stamped in black. This guitar is in near mint (9.25) condition, with just one tiny surface chip on the lower edge of the back, some very light finish checking and just the very slightest hint of minimal fade in a couple of places - and of course this is the ONLY 'Candy Re Sparkle' ES-175 that we have ever seen. A previous owner has neatly engraved his social security number in two hidden places: on the back of the truss-rod cover and on the underside of the pickguard. Housed in its original Gibson four-latch black hardshell case with orange plush lining (9.00).

This actual guitar is pictured on page 57 of Adrian Ingram's book The Gibson ES 175 Its History and Players "A very rare 1967 Candy Red Sparkle ES 175, serial number 370645".

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).