Gibson es 125 tailpiece series#

Gibson es 125 tailpiece series#

The name alone served notice that this was not just another model in the same series as the 125, 150, 300, and 350. In вЂ™49, the year Epiphone introduced its first two-pickup guitar, Gibson left the field in its dust by introducing the ultimate electric guitar вЂ“ the ES-5. The control system featured individual pickup volume controls, with knobs in the usual place on the lower treble bout, and a master tone control on the upper treble bout. A year later, both got a second pickup вЂ“ a feature no other maker offered. In 1947, Gibson introduced a cutaway version of the ES-300 called the ES-350. The biggest improvement in the post-war models was a new pickup вЂ“ the P-90, which today remains an industry standard for single-coil pickups. A change to laminated maple bodies (pre-war models had solid spruce tops) was a bit of a downgrade, but it also indicated GibsonвЂ™s awareness that traditional acoustic construction was not critical to the performance of an electric guitar. Gibson began the post-war era by increasing the body sizes of the ES-125 to 16вЂі and the ES-150 to 17вЂі. When World War II stopped electric production in 1942, no Gibson electric was available with a cutaway, which seemed to make the statement that Gibson didnвЂ™t consider electric guitarists accomplished enough to need a cutaway guitar. In the meantime, however, Gibson had elevated the L-5 and Super 400 acoustics with cutaway versions in 1939. Gibson was also busy developing new pickups, and the unit on the ES-300 had six height-adjustable polepieces (a concept Gibson borrowed from Epiphone) housed in an attractive oval piece of tortoiseshell celluloid. Gibson upgraded its electric line in 1939 with the fancier 17вЂі-wide ES-250 and replaced it with the ES-300 in 1940. Granted, the essence of the ES-150 вЂ“ the вЂњCharlie ChristianвЂќ pickup вЂ“ was better than most of the competition, but the guitar itself was a tentative, low-risk entry into the market.

GibsonвЂ™s top acoustic archtops at the time were 17вЂі and 18вЂі wide and had fancier inlays than the ES-150вЂ™s pearl dots. From the back it looked cheaper вЂ“ like an outdated L-50 with a flat back. Without the pickup, it looked like it had started as an L-50, with a 16-inch body width and dot inlays. GibsonвЂ™s first standard-style or вЂњSpanishвЂќ electric, the ES-150 of 1936, was a plain and inexpensive instrument. Then, as now, the ES-5 is easily identifiable by its three pickups, but that is only one of many elements that, when taken together, made a statement to the guitar world that Gibson recognized the electric guitar as an established part of our musical culture and, moreover, that Gibson was fully committed to the electric guitar.

The culmination of this effort was the be-all, end-all of electric guitar design in 1949 вЂ“ the ES-5. But when production resumed in 1946, Gibson made up for the lost time with a flurry of innovations. Gibson, like all American guitarmakers, had to shut down electric guitar production for three years during World War II. Photo: Billy Mitchell, courtesy Gruhn Guitars.