Appearing only in 1970, the Gibson “The SG” was built much like an SG Standard, but using Walnut in place of Mahogany. In 1980 it was relaunched as the SG Firebrand.
The Gibson ES-339 Thinline Archtop has everything the classic and very successful ES-335 offers, but with a comfortable, slightly scaled down body.
Starting its life as the ES-100, the Gibson ES-125 was built as an affordable quality electrified archtop guitar for jazz and combo guitarists. It appeared as the ES-125 from 1941 to 1943, with wartime restrictions suspending production until 1946. The ES-125 stayed in production until 1970, but in the 1950’s thinline and cutaway versions appeared as the ES-1235T and ES-125TC, and an extra pickup at the bridge was available in the ES-125 TDC model.
The Gibson L-5CES is a big guitar, built for use on the largest bandstands. The 17 inch wide body features a carved Spruce top and a carved Flame Maple back. The sides are matching Flame Maple, and the neck is a five-piece design using three Flame Maple sections with a pair of Walnut strips between the joins. The bridge and bound fingerboard are Ebony.
Based on the larger classic archtop guitars, the Heritage Golden Eagle features a 17 inch wide body with carved Spruce top and carved Flame Maple back. The sides and neck are also Flame Maple, and the Ebony fingerboard is bound and has ‘cloud’ pattern mother of pearl position markers. The headstock carries a Mother of Pearl Eagle inlay, and the truss rod cover is the same material.
The Gibson ES-175D was the most common variant of this workhorse archtop, and first appeared in 1953. The D indicated Double Pickups, and the original single pickup version was made in smaller numbers until 1971. The ES-175 was produced from 1949 until 2017, and appeared on countless stages and recordings. Based on a single cutaway, 16.25 inch wide but full depth arched-top F hole body, the ES-175 uses Maple laminates for the body, which improves feedback rejection.
