Last but not least: I added a small bit of pickguard material between the end of the fretboard and the pickup.
With it turned-around this way the tension bears on the part that needs to be "kept down" and thus overall sound improvement and usefulness is guaranteed. I'm not a fan of this bridge style because if it's turned-around the other way (ie, normal), the tension from the strings is often not enough to keep the adjuster screws from rattling-around from time to time.
I've got the ABR bridge-topper/saddle turned-around from normal so that the set screws face the tailpiece. One strap button is new and one is a replacement. tuners, nut, frets, bridge and saddle, and tailpiece are all original. Mostly, though, it has tons of weather-check and weather-crackle - most of that's obvious on the back of the neck, headstock, and here and there on the body. has a couple bigger scratches on the back and then mild/light scratching and usewear throughout. It's not obvious from a small distance, though. It also has some filled/patched mounting-screw holes on the body and a mild "shadow" in the finish where the edges of that whole big pickup/guard unit was fit to the guitar. well, it's missing its original pickguard, pickup, and wiring harness. it worked! The neck now effectively plays "straight" and action is quick and easy. I ameliorated this by leveling and dressing the frets to work around it and. That's totally normal for almost all old Gibsons of this style. String gauges: 46w-10 w/unwound G nickelsĬondition notes: the neck came here with a mild "ski-jump" at the extension over the body and a mild "dip" just before it. Pickups: 1x 1970s US-made DiMarzio PAF-style humbuckerĪction height at 12th fret: hair-over 1/16" bass and 1/16" treble (fast, adjustable) Repairs included: fret level/dress, cleaning, replacement wiring harness, pickup install/reinstall, setup.īridge: rosewood base, ABR (original Gibson) bridge If the gauges were bumped-up to 11s with a wound G and the bridge saddle was replaced with rosewood or 1-piece aluminum (Bigsby!), I think it would sound quite nice as couch-rocker in "acoustic" mode. This currently has a heavier, metal, ABR-style adjustable bridge on it and unwound-G 10s for strings and it still sounds decent acoustically (for such a thin body). Clearly, though, I have no problem whipping-out lead work on this neck, too.Īs a bonus, the "acoustic" sound of these bodies is plenty good-enough to jam with a buddy or two or to practice your licks. The neck has the later, slim-nut Gibson feel but to me that's perfect if you're playing closed-position chords up and down the neck (jazz-comp-style, anyone?) all night long. It's terribly fun to play, has a look all its own, and a classic tone. It's clean and clear and articulate but has that velvety, crunchy, mwah-sound that you only get from a Gibson hollowbody with a nice old bucker in it. The result of all of this effort is a lightweight, fast-handling guitar that sounds a lot like a same-period ES-175. There was already a larger factory-fit hole in the top on the lower-bout that allowed the original pickguard/pickup unit to fit correctly, so I made a small control plate from pickguard material and fit the volume pot and new jack in that area.
On the wiring harness side, I added a ground to the tailpiece and made a simple volume + jack circuit. I used a "blank" cover to mount it, though, and so was able to cut it to allow access to the polepieces for string-to-string balancing. I "rightied" this again, did some fretwork that was needed, and then reinstalled the DiMarzio humbucker with a dogear P90 cover so that it'd look a little more old-fashioned and hide the original, oversized pickup rout (which had been expanded slightly by said owner to fit the bucker). Said original harness and parts are now long-missing, so when he brought this in for consignment I sized the project up and improved upon his idea. Its longtime-owner removed the original harness and pickguard unit (all surface-mount on these guys), converted it to lefty stringing, and fit a '70s US-made DiMarzio PAF-style humbucker in place of the original (almost-Stratty) single coil pickup. That means it's a stripped-down version of a thinline ES-125.
This pretty, iced-tea sunburst, thinline hollowbody guitar started life as a "normal" ES-120T.
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