1957 Gibson ES-175D
The twin pickup version of the ES-175D was introduced in 1951, two years after its single pickup sister debuted. (The D in the name stands for Double Pickup.) The first version of the ES-175D featured single coil P-90 pickups but in 1957 Gibson swapped those out for their new-fangled humbucking pickups. The pickups in this guitar were among the first humbuckers made and unlike the pickups that Gibson made a year or two later, these don’t have a Patent Applied For sticker, which was common on the examples from 1957. This particular example has the blonde finish, or natural finish as Gibson called it, which is generally scarcer, and more valuable, than the sunburst finish. Gibson tended to use their best looking wood on the blonde guitars, and used the sunburst to cover cosmetic flaws. In 1957 Gibson shipped 175 natural ES-175Ds as compared to 271 sunburst models.
Unlike the more expensive L-5, ES-175s were made of laminated rather than solid wood, which actually offered a few benefits despite the bad sonic reputation laminates have in the flattop world. The first is laminate archtops aren’t as prone to feedback as solid wood guitars, a handy attribute for a gigging musician. Also, laminates are less likely to crack or split, another good thing for a working musician. And of course laminate guitars were less expensive than solid wood ones. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the combination of great tone and reliable construction made the ES-175 one of the most popular guitars for jazz musicians. Over the years players such as Joe Pass, Herb Ellis, Jimmy Raney, Howard Roberts and Pat Metheny all gigged and recorded with ES-175s. This particular example is in great, almost all original condition. The tuning machines were replaced with new replicas at some point, probably because the original plastic buttons decomposed, a sadly common problem with old guitars. Oh, and did I mention it was left-handed? Gibson doesn’t say how many lefty ES-175s they made back in 1957, but I would be very surprised if it were more than a half dozen, making this a very rare guitar, indeed. If you’re a lefty and you’d like to get your hands on this lovely guitar, it will set you back $12,000 at Gryphon Stringed Instruments.
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