I don’t know about you, but for years I coveted a candy apple red Gibson ES-175 down at my local guitar shop, but you know what? I never did put away enough money to buy one (though I did end up with an ES335 many years later.)
Well, you don’t have to sell the farm anymore to get your hands on a nice archtop ES-175, because at last month’s Winter NAMM Conference Epiphone introduced it’s new ES-175 reissue, and if it’s anything like their other great hollowbodies, this one’s going to be a no-brainer.
Seriously – when I was growing up we considered Epiphone a poor man’s Gibson, but I have to tell you that Epiphone’s instruments (made by Gibson, of course,) really are top-quality these days, and they come at really great prices. Take a look at this–
The Epiphone ES-175 Reissue Features–
- Laminated Maple Top
- Mahogany Back & Sides
- Maple Neck
- Rosewood Fingerboard
- Dual Alnico Classic Humbucker Pickups
- Two Volume & Two Tone Controls
- 3-Way Pickup Switching
- Grover Machine Heads
- Chrome Hardware
Since these were just introduced I can’t tell you the exact price, but I guarantee they’ll be a lot more affordable than their top-dollar Gibson counterparts. I’m guessing somewhere in the $500 to $800 range. You can’t really beat that!
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October 12th, 2006 at 8:07 pm
I bought an Epiphone es-175 in September 2006 in a Canadian store for 840$ brand new. It is true that this guitar has a “dark” tone, full, soft and round, but despite its unnoticeable little craftmanship flaws here and there it plays very well, stays in tune and looks awesome, plus the pickups have a great output, don’t let the name “vintage” fool you.
I bought this guitar and could not put it down for a whole month; when I did and strapped on my flat thin necked floydrosed electric, it was like dancing with a gorgeous rubenesque woman then changing partner with an anorexic mannequin with pointy hipbones, and you say: geez, where the Hell is the rest of you??!!”
The price/quality ratio is excellent, is it as much with the Gibson? After all, expensive guitars don’t make your playing any better and for an all around jazz box, I would recommend the es-175. After ten years of insane shredding I am starting to abandon picks ‘cause I got bit by the fingerpicking-whole-chords bug, thanks to the ES-175 and the influence of a certain Joe Pass.
October 12th, 2006 at 9:52 pm
Hey Jonathan, thanks for the input––I’m with you all the way on this one. When I was in the market for a new solid-body guitar a few months back I skipped the insanely expensive Gibson Les Paul and went with a $600 ESP EC400 archtop instead. The price/quality ratio is truly incredible, and it’s true, at a certain point you start to run up against the law of diminishing returns.
At some point the extras you get with a much more expensive instrument do very little for producing a better sound, or even creating a nicer feel.
Glad you’re liking your es-175, hey, and don’t feel bad about moving away from the shredding––I grew up playing old school punk (Subhumans, Minutemen, Meat Puppets) and last year I started playing Flamenco!
; )