Gibson 125's....

[Hipster Dofus]

Any one like these...Thick, or thin versions..
50's to 70's...?

Blues machine, or old cheap crap?

[Jim Soloway]

My guitar for my teen years was an early 50's ES125, full size no cutaway. Good guitars and you can pick them up for about $650 in good shape. If you get loud they'll feed back like crazy, so you make the call on blues, but I've heard some world class jazz played on them.

[LittleC]

Beautiful player guitar! The necks and fretboards on these are wonderful (IMHO). The P90s are beautiful pick-ups. My very first guitar was a late 60s TDC. I would love to pick up a full-size with double Ps. Don't see them too often. Lots of single P90s to go around and lots of doubles on the thin bodies. Also, most of these on the used market have been abused for some reason. Maybe because, like my first statement, they are player guitars. I'll let you know when I get that full-size 125D.

[smiert spionam]

Yup, great guitars -- especially '50s fat ones, which also have great necks. Also consider a Guild X-50, which is pretty much the same configuration, but often cheaper. I managed to pull together a deal on a '55 ES-175D, so I sold my Guild a few months ago -- but for fat and rich one of the lower end models will get you right there.

[trisonic]

Good slide guitars.
I think Jeremy Spencer used one - my memory getting hazy, though.....

Best, Pete.

[Hipster Dofus]

How loud before the feedback...?
I use an 18 W Maz 2x10, mostly clean, turned up 1/2 way.

Are the frets super small?

I like the thick 50's version..

[Jim Soloway]

Originally posted by Luke Landis
How loud before the feedback...?
I use an 18 W Maz 2x10, mostly clean, turned up 1/2 way.

Are the frets super small?

I like the thick 50's version..

Loud enough to drive my father crazy in 1967. :p

As for the frets, my recollection is that they were quite small but anything you find now is likely to have had the frets redone more than once so the original shape is probably not relevent.

[george4908]

Oh man, I love ES-125s, especially the thin cutaways. I borrowed a friend's for nearly a year and hated having to give it back. As with all older "student priced" guitars, many have been beat up and are desperately in need of a setup, so they may sound pretty dead in a shop. And some of those may sound dead even after a setup, they're not all fabulous. But when you find a good one, they are positively alive and sparkly.

[jackaroo]

Here's mine...I'm told a '59. Alive and kickin, but prone to feedback. Great neck! And damn beautiful too! Full depth body BTW.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v234/jack_devine/59%20ES-125/IMG_1648.jpg

[saros141]

Originally posted by trisonic
Good slide guitars.
I think Jeremy Spencer used one - my memory getting hazy, though.....

Best, Pete.

I think you can still count on your memory:

http://www.fmlegacy.com/Graphics/JS%20Photos/Jeremy%20Spencer%2008.jpg

...looks like it's had a different pickguard put on there...

[george4908]

Saros wrote:
>>http://www.fmlegacy.com/Graphics/JS...pencer%2008.jpg
>>...looks like it's had a different pickguard put on there...

Technically, that's a different model, an ES-120, with the skinny single coil built-in to the pickguard. I'm guessing construction was otherwise the same as on the ES-125, though.

[TravisE]

Originally posted by george4908
Saros wrote:
>>http://www.fmlegacy.com/Graphics/JS...pencer%2008.jpg
>>...looks like it's had a different pickguard put on there...

Technically, that's a different model, an ES-120, with the skinny single coil built-in to the pickguard. I'm guessing construction was otherwise the same as on the ES-125, though.

Yeah, the ES-120T (the one in the pic) is cut out under the guard and has a melody maker pickup. These are still very cool guitars and can be had for under $1k...usually well under.

[trisonic]

I guess the "proof is in the pudding" - Jerry sounded rather good!

Best, Pete.

[dudeunitx5000]

Yup, great guitars -- especially '50s fat ones, which also have great necks. Also consider a Guild X-50, which is pretty much the same configuration, but often cheaper. I managed to pull together a deal on a '55 ES-175D, so I sold my Guild a few months ago -- but for fat and rich one of the lower end models will get you right there.

There are actually at least three folks on these boards with fifties ES-175Ds with P90s. Dave Orban has a 1953 and I have a 1956.

[MrMunky]

I have a thinline, and its one of the few guitars I've never considered selling, even though it's gone up in value more than any other I've owned.

I haven't heard another guitar that approaches it's tone or capacity for dynamics. I don't know if its the thin rim, the age of the wood or what, but even very expensive, very well made contemporary archtops just don't sound close.

[Crazyquilt]

I love my 125.

http://www.crazyquiltarts.com/images/remote/125-5.jpg

As near as I've been able to date it, it's late '40's to very early '50's. I've had it about 15 years, and it's one of the very few guitars that my wife has explicitly forbidden me to sell. And I've never been tempted. I usually use it for slide, although if I had any facility for jazz, it might be good for that too. But, well, I suck at jazz, so that's not much help. :D

But that guitar, through an old Super Reverb, feedback and all, is yea & verily, the Voice of God.

[ES350]

I've played a number of 50's 125's for a long time and notice that you need to have either a very clean or a fairly dirty tone to get something out of them...that middle ground can get a little clanky sounding. Great guitar for the money, but I've gravitated to the larger archtops for something a little more versatile...

[scottlr]

My cousin had a thin cutaway 2 pup ES125 back in the mid 60s, and that was a sweet player. Not too long ago, we went to the Brian Setzer Orchestra Christmas show in Chicago and the warm up band, who I can't recall the name of, had a guitar player using one with a 65 Deluxe Reverb and it must have been a hot rodded amp, cuz that thing was LOUD! He got no feedback, and it sounded ultra cool!

[musicofanatic5]

Anyone hear of a ZES-125? What is it? Google comes up empty just about. I'm glad to see that google doesn't provide info about things that don't exsist. There's no such thing.

[musicofanatic5]

I love my 125.

http://www.crazyquiltarts.com/images/remote/125-5.jpg

As near as I've been able to date it, it's late '40's to very early '50's. I've had it about 15 years, and it's one of the very few guitars that my wife has explicitly forbidden me to sell. And I've never been tempted. I usually use it for slide, although if I had any facility for jazz, it might be good for that too. But, well, I suck at jazz, so that's not much help. :D

But that guitar, through an old Super Reverb, feedback and all, is yea & verily, the Voice of God.
I like these early ones, with those tall, clear knobs like that. Some of the earliest ones are all mahogany, with a coupla primitive variations on the P-90: some with no polepieces visible, and some with nonadjustable poles.

[Crazyquilt]

I like these early ones, with those tall, clear knobs like that. Some of the earliest ones are all mahogany, with a coupla primitive variations on the P-90: some with no polepieces visible, and some with nonadjustable poles.

Yeah. Mine's got the non-adjustable poles. It's a clearer, brighter tone than most any P-90 I've played.

[JimmyR]

I had an old 125TDC - about '60 I believe. It sounded amazing and was good to play, but I eventually had to sell it because playing it for more than about a 1/2 hour gave me a headache. The smell was the thing - that acrid acidic nitro thing just killed me! It wasn't the musty smell - I can handle that.

[smiert spionam]

Don't see too many 125's like CQ's -- a very nice look.