Gibson ES-175D Sunburst (1958)

We've had enough great old ES-175s to know when one really stands out, and this old '58 got our knees shakin' a bit.

Brought right through the front door of our shop by the son of the original owner, this uncirculated (and pretty much unplayed) 1958 Gibson ES-175D is a true marvel of a guitar. Its condition, features, playability, and heck, even the case it came in with, just rockets this guitar right to the top of the vintage hollowbody electric heap.

Gibson built quite a number of ES-175s throughout the years, and for good reason. It has been and still remains one of the most popular electrics in their entire catalogue. For the most part the model didn't see a lot of change throughout the years beyond the general transitions made company-wide, like moving from P90s to humbuckers, nickel to chrome hardware, wide nut to skinny nut, etc. But there's a little bit of a model-specific ripple that happened in 1958.

Following their acquisition of the Epiphone brand in 1957, Gibson began to woodshed some new ideas for their sister company. A new product line built in Kalamazoo under the Epiphone name would show off interesting "hybrid" acoustic and electric models that would combine parts acquired from Epiphone with new or existing Gibson parts. This was a relatively short period of time, as Gibson essentially used up those Epi parts until they were gone, and then continued with their own parts.

This ES-175, however, is like the photo negative version of that Epiphone recipe. During a small stretch of time in 1958, Gibson began to use the fancy Epiphone sealed tuners they'd acquired on a few select models. Originally stamped on the casing with the epsilon logo, Gibson's savvy business team though to alter that stamp with a single line to close the E into a G - genius! They started to use these slightly modified tuners on the likes of ES-175s, J-200s, and even the occasional Les Paul. This ES-175 is an example of that ripple, and such a cool feature to showcase!