'9858 28' factory order number visible inside the treble F-hole. Excellent + Condition.Body Details: Maple top, back, and sides. Overall this is one of the nicest early ES-175s we have had a delightful-playing and sounding guitar complete in its original brown Gibson HSC. The owner of this guitar must have been a very fastidious person! It has also been refretted with correct period style wire, again an exceptionally clean and accurate job. Internally the P-90 pickup is original but the pots and jack have been nearly replaced.perhaps the originals were judged too noisy. The external hardware is all original and also amazingly clean the tuners, knobs and tailpiece are so unworn they looked like re-issues at first glance but all are original. The front treble side corner of the headstock has a chip off the edge, and the back edge is a bit worn down. The back of the neck is quite clean with a couple of worn through spots right down near the nut. There is some scuffing and one small round spot of missing finish on the back, which actually looks more like some sort of chemical contact than a wear spot. The dark sunburst finish is all original and shows very little play wear overall, with an amazingly clean and only lightly checked patina for a mid-1950s guitar.

This is a superbly clean and original guitar overall, with some light wear and a few typical player maintenance tweaks. (8.6 cm.) in depth at side, taken at the end block. (41 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 3 3/8 in. This particular style of ES-175 was used by far too many jazz guitar greats to count in the 1950s and '60s Herb Ellis especially is often pictured with a guitar virtually identical to this one. The Gibson label under the bass f-hole bears an 'Artist' serial number which indicates the guitar was shipped out around October 1955. The standard Gibson rosewood adjustable bridge is fitted along with the earlier cast L-7 style tailpiece.

The original hardware includes the single P-90 pickup with a black plastic cover and numbered 'hatbox' knobs. The headstock carries the pearl Gibson logo and crown inlay and Kluson Deluxe tuners with 'keystone' buttons. The sunburst laminated body is triple-bound on the front and single bound on the back, the neck is single bound with split parallelogram fingerboard inlays. This one was built in late 1955 when the 175 was already a very successful design, having found immediate acceptance with players for its combination of great sound and playability at a moderate price. This is a truly superb example of the 1950s ES-175, Gibson's classic 'Working Man's' Jazz guitar introduced in 1949. Gibson ES-175 Model Arch Top Hollow Body Electric Guitar (1955), made in Kalamazoo, Michigan, serial # A-21381, sunburst lacquer finish, laminated maple body, mahogany neck with rosewood fingerboard, original brown hard shell case.

Gibson es 175 serial numbers