The ES-175 without "Electrics"

This 16 1/4-inch-wide acoustic archtop guitar weighs just 5.20 lbs. and has a nice, fat nut width of 1 11/16 inches and a standard Gibson scale length of 24 3/4 inches. Two-piece carved spruce top, three-ply laminated maple back and sides, Honduras mahogany neck, and rosewood fretboard with 20 frets and inlaid pearl split-parallelogram markers. Headstock with inlaid pearl "Gibson" logo and pearl crown inlay. Individual "No-name" Kluson Deluxe tuners with single-ring tulip-shaped Keystone plastic buttons. Five-layer (black/white/black/white/black) plastic pickguard. Rosewood bridge with pre-set compensating saddle and trapeze tailpiece with pointed ends and three small raised parallelograms. The body is triple-bound on the top and single-bound on the back. A minimal amount of body checking, a few minuscule scratches on the top and the back, and a few tiny marks on the back of the neck are all that prevent this guitar from being near mint. Housed in its original Gibson brown hardshell case with pink plush lining (9.25).

In 1949, only two guitars in the Gibson range had a pointed (Florentine) cutaway. One was the ES-175, the other was the acoustic L-4C. So closely did this instrument resemble the ES-175 that it could well have been the same guitar without "electrics." In fact, the only difference in construction was that the L-4C had a two-piece carved spruce top rather than a laminated maple top. Otherwise the L-4C's laminated back and sides, hardware, ornamentation, dimensions, and finish were exactly the same as the ES-175.