Gibson ES-175SP
Since I*ve been posting about buying my guitars lately I might as well round it out with what has been my favorite guitar to date (although the Les Paul I bought last weekend is nipping at its heals for that title)
I wasn*t planning on buying a new guitar (I think all my guitar purchasing stories start that way). At the time I already had two guitars (a Gretsch 5120 and Rickenbacker 330) and as I*ve said before, one guitar is more than enough for a beginner, let a lone two# let alone three (and let alone four now)!
But, I love guitars and had recently heard about Rockers Guitar in San Francisco so I thought I*d check them out. It turns out they were having a really good sale because they are trying to get rid of all their inventory so they can focus on making guitars rather than selling other manufacturer*s guitars.
The list of guitars I want is endless and their stock seemed to be endless as well. But, the guitar I fell in love with was a Gibson ES-175SP.
However, before I would buy the guitar, I wanted to do some more research so I went home and did some Googling. I found plenty of information on the standard ES-175, but couldn*t find anything about an ES-175SP. The SP stands for Single Pickup. The standard ES-175 comes with two pickups (although the first models from 1949 to 1952 only had one pickup). The ES-175SP should not be confused with the ES-165 Herb Ellis, which is similar to the ES-175 and only has one pickup. In addition to only one pickup on the ES-175SP, the tailpiece is different than the normal ES-175 (but identical to the Herb Ellis ES-165, just to make things more confusing).
Since I couldn*t find any information about this model, I contacted Gibson and even they didn*t have the right information about the ES-175SP. Initially they said they were only made in 2006, had a single P-90 pickup and were only made for an international distributor. So I got the serial number of the ES-175SP at Rockers and sent it to Gibson. It turns out it was made in 2008, was a limited run guitar made by the Gibson Custom Shop and in fact did not have a P-90 pickup, but rather a single *57 Classic humbucker. In addition to it being a limited run guitar, the finish was a one-off finish and different than the normal vintage burst finish on an ES-175.
As if I needed any more reason to buy the guitar, once I heard that it was a limited run with limited finish guitar I knew I had to grab it. I figured if its this hard to find ANY information about it on the web (really, when was the last time you couldn*t find ANY information about something on the web?) it must be a hard to find guitar. So, I went back to Rockers and snatched it up.
I must have a penchant for for finding these hard to find guitars as I noted with the Les Paul Korina Goldtop I just bought# it too has no information to be found on the internet.
The ES-175SP is definitely my favorite guitar so far. The sound and feel is amazing. It can go from a clean rich Jazz sound to a grungy distorted Rock sound and even be used as an acoustic when necessary. If you*re looking for a guitar that will also give you a twangy or treble sound then this is not the guitar for you since it has no bridge pickup.
7 Responses to “Gibson ES-175SP”
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RT @never2l8guitar Gibson ES-175SP | Never Too Late To Learn Guitar http://bit.ly/8t9FE
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RT @never2l8guitar Gibson ES-175SP | Never Too Late To Learn Guitar http://bit.ly/8t9FE: RT @never2l8guitar Gibs.. http://bit.ly/2FfPiR
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
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RT @never2l8guitar Gibson ES-175SP | Never Too Late To Learn Guitar http://bit.ly/8t9FE: RT @never2l8guitar Gibs.. http://bit.ly/BUEOm
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
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Good luck on your research.,I hope you can be a professional guitarist.:)
Pauline Stacey´s last blog post ..Gain a Bigger and Harder Erection Naturally -
I think buying a guitar is not easy. It is important to purchase the best guitar so it is need that you know what guitar to choose.
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It always surprises me that Gibson has such poor records as to what guitars they have made over the years. It was not made only in 2006. As a senior in high school, I got this guitar in 1965. I had to order it and waited 9 months for it to be built. It was delivered in that summer. It was a catalog item. Sorry, I don*t have the catalog any longer. Everything is exactly the same as your guitar except it has the standard sunburst finish. Now, 47 years later, it*s still in perfect condition.
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[…] Here are some pictures of my Gibson Custom Shop ES-175SP. I wrote about the guitar previously and talked about how it*s a unique ES-175. Unlike most Gibson ES-175*s, this one only has one pickup. The finish on this model is a custom finish and not like other ES-175 sunbursts as well. You can read more about my ES-175 here. […]