Dating Grover tuners on an ES-125

[Matthias S.]

Hi everybody!

Let me introduce myself first. I'm a guitar lover from Switzerland, playing mostly Jazz and Fingerstyle guitar. I own several acoustics and a Gibson ES-335 which is my main electric guitar for Jazz.

Now I got interested in an ES-125 which is supposed to be built in 1955. I  got a little suspicious since it has block inlays and a different tailpiece and pickguard which maybe also might be like a custom shop thing. But what really raised my doubts were the tuners. They look rather modern to my eyes for a guitar from the 50s.

In all the other ES-125s I saw they looked like this:

On the ES-125 supposed to be from 1955 they looked like this:

Here's link to the guitar to see all the photos: https://reverb.com/item/38420864-gibson-es-125-1954-sunburst?review_page=2#reviews-section

Is it possible for the guitar to be from 1955? Did those tuners exist back then and could the guitar all in all just have been like an upgrade to the normal ES-125 since it has block inlays etc.? It also looks quite immaculate, having hardly any scratches. The lacquer does have many small cracks though as you can see it in all the old guitars with nitro-cellulose lacquer (correct me if I'm wrong). So it can't be that new I guess.

What do you think? Better keep the fingers from it?

Appreciate your advice very much, thanks!

Matthias

 

[Matthias S.]

I guess it must be an ES-150, that's why. 😅

[ksdaddy]

Yes, it's a 17" ES-150.  I think the tuners have been changed, because Grover didn't make anything like that back then. That was Kluson territory! But Grover (in it's present day Korean manufacture) does make a Kluson-like replacement tuner.

[Matthias S.]

Interesting, thanks for letting me know! So I'm not only learning a lot about guitars, but also about tuners! I realise, that's an interesting topic too!

Have a nice day?

Matthias