"Bad to the Bone"

This forty-five year old thinline venetian cutaway guitar weighs just 5.60 lbs. and has a nice, fat nut width of slightly over 1 11/16 inches, a medium neck profile and a standard Gibson scale length of 24 3/4 inches. Single-bound laminated maple body, one-piece mahogany neck, and rosewood fretboard with 20 jumbo frets and inlaid pearl dot position markers. Headstock with gold silk-screened "Gibson" logo. Closed-back single-line Kluson Deluxe strip tuners with white plastic oval buttons. Two very hot black P-90 pickups with outputs of 8.10k and 7.98k. Tortoiseshell pickguard. Four controls (two volume, two tone) on lower treble bout plus three-way pickup selector switch on upper bass bout. Gold plastic bell-shaped "Bell" knobs with metal tops. Rosewood bridge with pre-set compensating saddle and nickel trapeze tailpiece with raised diamond on cross-bar. This guitar has had a professional neck re-set and is in excellent plus (8.75) condition There are a few tiny marks on the body and some very minor finish checking on the top. The back and sides are a lovely rich Cherry color. Housed in the original Gibson black hardshell case with yellow plush lining (8.00).

"The ES-125TCD is the dual pickup version of the ES-125TC [which is essentially a thin-bodied 125 built with a pointed Florentine cutaway] and like the ES-125TD it is equipped with a pair of P-90 pickups, four controls and a 3-way toggle switch for pickup selection. By mid-61 the designation was changed from TCD to TDC in Gibson catalogs. At first the two pickups cutaway model proved less popular than the single pickup 125TC, but beginning in 1965 this trend was reversed and the TDC outsold the TC. Eventually, the model was phased out in 1970" (A.R. Duchossoir, Gibson Electrics -- The Classic Years, p. 227).

"The budget-priced 330s instantly proved good sellers and their shipments in 1960 significantly exceeded those of the combined 335-345-355 models...But the alleged 330/225 substitution did not hold water for long and a new single cutaway thinline guitar was soon marketed as a direct successor to the 225. The ES-125TC and ES-125TCD first appeared in the November 1, 1959 price list but were not shipped in quantities until 1960. Respectively retailing for $189.50 and $225.00, the two models were priced below their 330 counterparts. In essence, the thin cutaway 125 was the same instrument as the 225 but for a conventional trapeze tailpiece, a separate rosewood bridge, an unbound fingerboard, a tortoise-like pickguard and a Gibson decal instead of a pearl-inlaid logo. On the 125TC, the single P-90 was also repositioned at the end of the fingerboard. At first the new 125TC/TCD were offered in regular brown sunburst finish, but a brighter cherry sunburst became the norm after late 1960" (A.R. Duchossoir, Gibson Electrics -- The Classic Years, p. 82).