1956ish ES-175 custom basketcase

[Mustache Guitar Repairs]

Some recent posts about the kind of odd and seemingly one-off Gibsons that have been popping up lately, so I dug up the pictures I had of this one to add to the mix.

 

One of my co-workers brought this in a few months ago after they picked it up super cheap from a gentleman selling several '50s Gibson archtops. Now from the story I was told about it, and as you can see in the pictures this thing has literally been to hell and back. It was purchased from the original owner in the 80's and survived a house fire sometime in the late 90's and shortly after came apart (probably due to the fire loosening every glue joint on the thing) and lived in a box until it was sold. Needless to say I was pretty curious when I saw this thing and started taking measurements and doing some research.

 

From what I've gathered it's a custom order ES-175, black finish (not sure if factory original), 16" wide at the lower bout, but with a scale length of 24.5" as opposed to 24.75" (which is what the Gibson spec is for a 175), a single bound ebony board with block inlays (the binding was lost somewhere over the years), and a bar-magnet soapbar (not sure the exact name for these pickups)

 

It had about 99% of the pieces including the original wiring harness (which still worked when we plugged it in and tested it), but was missing the smaller piece of side that would be in the cutaway and some binding. There's a matching serial number on the inside of the back, and on the inside of the neck heel along with the word "special" written twice so maybe it was extra special.

 

So take a look at the pics and enjoy, if anybody can figure out anything more on it I'd love to know. This is one I wish I'd had the dough to buy when it came in, but unfortunately had to sit back while it went into somebody else's hands.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[tvguit]

Wow that thing is COOL. My gut tells me this is a factory black finish. It all fits together with the "custom" style appointments including that pickup (which I think is referred to as just an "Alnico V").

 

If you look at the F hole on the underside of the top you can see some paint drip. It matches the top and I don't see any gold drip. All signs point to factory.

 

One thing that is bothering me is that the truss rod cover overlapped the custom logo. I can't account for that.

 

I googled searched for a vintage 175 custom and came up with this: 175 custom

[retrorod]

VERY interesting find, tvguit...! It looks to be the same as MZRepairs (in pieces) eaxample! Very cool! The alnico V pickup on Zoo's example is very cool.

[Mustache Guitar Repairs]

Wow that thing is COOL. My gut tells me this is a factory black finish. It all fits together with the "custom" style appointments including that pickup (which I think is referred to as just an "Alnico V").

 

If you look at the F hole on the underside of the top you can see some paint drip. It matches the top and I don't see any gold drip. All signs point to factory.

 

One thing that is bothering me is that the truss rod cover overlapped the custom logo. I can't account for that.

 

I googled searched for a vintage 175 custom and came up with this: 175 custom

 

Hot damn that's almost the same guitar and was made within a year of this one. Now I'm extra curious and kind of want to see if Gibson can tell me anything about it. I too couldn't account for the overlapping truss rod cover and was reason enough for me to doubt the originality of the neck until I found the matching serial # on the heel so I'll have to just chalk that one up to being one of Gibson's "**** it, send it out anyway" moments.

 

My only doubt on the finish was the fact that the owner had a few that had been refinished in black to suit his liking, but since it has an ebony board as opposed to the usual rosewood on a 175 my guess would be that it came out of the factory with that finish.

 

Thanks for the link and the info, was definitely a good read,

Travis