The text and video footage below are adapted from Interactive Gibson Bible, published August 2008 on Jaw Bone Press and distributed by Hal Leonard.
Having returned to the market with the ES-300, ES-125, ES-150, and ES-350 following the cessation of production for the war effort during WWII, Gibson was already envisioning a future that took the electrified instrument a step further away from the constructional standards for quality acoustic archtop guitars, which was where it had all started in the 1930s. All of these models were still being made with carved solid-spruce tops. Gibson soon deduced, however, that once a guitar is amplified past its acoustic volume, considerations of acoustic tone take a back seat to amplified performance, and that amplified performance could be improved—arguably—with the use of a stiffer laminated top. Using laminated wood would also ease production and reduce expense, since the top could be pressed into its arched shape, rather than painstakingly carved by hand. The result was the ES-175, released in 1949, Gibson’s first archtop with a laminated maple top, and also the first with a pointed cutaway. The fancier ES-295, a rockabilly favorite in Goldtop finish, followed in 1952.
The ES-175 was born with a single P-90 pickup in the neck position, single volume and tone controls, and a body that was 16 1/4-inches wide and 3 1/4-inches deep. Two pickups were available from 1951. Gibson’s hopes for the instrument bore fruit: the ES-175 was a little punchier and more cutting than traditional electric archtops, and also somewhat (if only slightly) more resistant to feedback. It quickly became a standard for many jazz players, and kicked off a line of laminated-wood electric archtops that remains popular to this day.
Not that Gibson was giving up on the carved-top archtop electric. In 1949 the company also introduced the ES-5, and upmarket model with 17-inch-wide body with rounded cutaway and three P-90 pickups (the model was modified into the ES-5 Switchmaster in 1955 to improve the selection facilities for these pickups). Gibson further reaffirmed its commitment to upscale archtop electrics with the introduction of the L-5CES and Super 400CES in 1951, but in the years to follow the laminated models would prove to be the greater popular success across the full range of electric guitar genres.
Next week: Dave and Carl demonstrate original vintage 1952 and 1954 Les Paul Goldtops.
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The Interactive Gibson Bible package includes a DVD with more than 80 minutes of demonstration of rare and vintage Gibsons, presented by author/guitarist Dave Hunter and first-call L.A. session musician Carl Verheyen. The book, written by Hunter and Walter Carter, includes a chronological listing of the specs of every Gibson electric guitar ever made, along with brief histories detailing seminal moments in the Gibson story.