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ES175 Bridge issue


dvd5300

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I just looked at a 1974 Gibson ES175. Beautiful. Sounds great. Nice straight neck. The only issue is the arched top seems to have sunk. The bridge has been adjusted very high to compensate. To the point that the threaded screws are leaning slightly toward the PU. I'm not aware of any remedy. Is this a concern? Does it devalue the guitar? Is the top going to sink further? I might be able to buy this guitar for $2200. Is that too much money? Thanks. BTW. I love the ES 175. I'm seriously trying to own one.

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I own an ES-175 from the same era - great guitar. I’m not sure how the top would sink. I would hope the parallel braces would prevent that. Maybe it can happen. Assuming the string height is appropriate, in my experience, strings too high would indicate a neck angle problem. I had a Gretsch 6120 that had a neck problem going the other way. It wasn’t too bad. But the bass strings would hit the neck pickup screws once in a while and you can’t lower Filtertrons without cutting into to the wood pickup mounts (which I believe are the parallel braces as well). The neck was set at the wrong angle at the factory.

 

It’s not uncommon to have older flat-top acoustic guitar’s neck re-set to put back the proper neck angle and get back good action. I haven’t heard about having to do that on an archtop. But I certainly haven’t heard everything. If you really like it, I’d suggest having a guitar tech look at it before a purchase.

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Archtop guitars will sink over time if the braces are loose, or if their grain is improperly orientated relative to the string pressure. In my experience, guitars with sinking tops are at least as, if not more common than those whose neck blocks have moved.

 

Whether the problem is the neck or the top, IMO the price is too high. For 2 Gs, you should be able to score a 175 with no major structural issues. Let a real luthier have a look and advise you.

 

My $0.02/YMMV

J/W

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IF... the top has sunk, there will be other visible structural anomalies, such as loose or broken bracing or binding, distortion to the sides of the guitar. An archtop top can not just sink.

 

That said, there are other factors to look at the evaluate your perception of a problem. First, the strings on an archtop SHOULD be about 1" off the top at the bridge. This may seem like miles to someone not familiar with archtops.

 

Truss rod adjustments have a great affect on the height of the bridge. If the neck is too straight, or back-bowed, the bridge would have to be raised to compensate.

 

A "floating bridge" is a very hard thing to locate and set correctly. The simple action of tightening the string around the tuning peg CAN tilt the bridge forward.

 

In other words, what I'm trying to say is that there could possibly be nothing wrong with this guitar that a "professional" setup couldn't cure. Depending on where you're located, finding a tech experienced (and QUALIFIED) to work on this guitar (even a proper setup) may be tough.

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Archtop guitars will sink over time if the braces are loose, or if their grain is improperly orientated relative to the string pressure. In my experience, guitars with sinking tops are at least as, if not more common than those whose neck blocks have moved.

 

Whether the problem is the neck or the top, IMO the price is too high. For 2 Gs, you should be able to score a 175 with no major structural issues. Let a real luthier have a look and advise you.

 

My $0.02/YMMV

J/W

I agree. 175's are all over the place. Shop around.

 

there could possibly be nothing wrong with this guitar that a "professional" setup couldn't cure.

I agree with this also.

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