This is a weird one.

I stopped off at Guitar Center on the way home and felt a hankering to play a Gibson hollow-body. Unfortunately, they had sold their last Gibson L-4 about a month ago, so I looked around and found a Gibson Herb Ellis signature model. Now, here's the weird one: the sales guy assured me that this was a Gibson ES-165 Herb Ellis, the headstock had the Herb Ellis nameplate on it, and it didn't quite feel like my own '67 ES-175 (see my review), but... this baby has two humbucker pickups and two volume and two tone controls, unlike the 165, which only has one pick up and one volume control.

No matter. This is a wonderful jazz and rhythm guitar. Don't play rock with it, unless you're Steve Howe.

For a little introduction, the Gibson ES175 was introduced around 1950 as a bargain version of its bigger brothers, the ES-5 and the enormous (and expensive, at $400) Super 400. It quickly became a standard elecric jazz guitar, played by countless jazz guitarists, and its popularity has continued to the present day.

The Herb Ellis signature (named after the Texas guitar legend) was released in 1991 and comes in four colors: vintage sunburst, wine red, light burst and ebony. It doesn't seem to weigh more than 7 lbs or so. The body is maple/poplar laminate, 16" by 20.5" x 3.5". The neck is a standard 175 mahagony, joined at the 14th fret. Fingerboard is rosewood, 24 3/4", 20 frets, with a 1 11/16" nut. All hardware is gold plated. The tailpiece is the oldstyle (kind of crooked) 175. Tuners are Grover Keystones. The pickups were standard 490R Alnico magnet humbuckers. There is a switch that allows you to use the bridge, neck, or both pickups.

As far as playing goes, this instrument is an absolute dream. Truthfully, I like it more than my own 175. The neck feels a little faster, smoother, and thinner (maybe my imagination). The action was a little high for my taste but that didn't get in the way of being able to play either chords or scale runs. Frets are maybe just a tad high but still, no problem from the play angle.

As far as tone goes, acoustically this sounds just like a 175: bright and airy, full but not overpowering. Plugged in, this is classic Gibson jazz tone. You can coax a multitude of sweet lead sounds and powerful,deep rhythm tone as well. At max volume, there's even a splash of distortion on the neck pick up.

A workhorse jazz instrument, this guitar would also be useful in some country bands and, of course, would be a mainstay rhythm instrument in any society dance orchestra, and has some blues applications as well. You can use it for rock, if you're so inclined, and have the right amp simulators and effects, but what's the point--there are better guitars for that. It's also limited a bit by the fact that there are only 20 frets, so you're giving up some highs.

No matter: jazz players need go no further. The Herb Ellis is a beautifully made, beautifully sounding piece of artwork.

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