Gibson ES-175D Sunburst (1954)

In true mid 50s fashion, this 175 sports a full but very comfortable C neck with a moderate taper and clean original vintage fretwire. The Brazilian Rosewood fingerboard shows almost no wear, which is a theme that seems to continue throughout the rest of the instrument. The original P90 pickups are very sweet sounding, with the perfectly amount of "chirp" in the treble response to cut through a mix. Overall, the tone is very nicely balanced and woody, which is a great extension of the guitars natural voice.

From what we can tell, the guitar spent most of its life in its original Lifton case. And judging by the case, it was stored cleanly as well. We'd like to think that the only reason the tuners were changed was due to the shrinking and degradation of the buttons on the originals. The reproductions are clean and functional, and dropped right in without further modification to the headstock, which we always like to see. There's evidence that a different tailpiece was temporarily installed at some point, but a proper shield style tailpiece is on the guitar as it would've been from the factory. A strap button was also added on the neck heel.

The finish is incredibly clean, with the only wear worth noting being a light surface scratch on the backside edge of the rim of lower bout and a couple of small nicks on the top down by the lower bout/forearm area. Otherwise, it's just remarkable how well preserved it is. What a guitar!