If you are willing to bend...... one of the best guitars I have owned and played is a Gibson ES 137. Same body as a 575 but has a center block. Still tons of woody tones on this. And probably one of the easiest necks I have ever played.
They are not made anymore so used only. You can find them for around $1500 used. AWESOME boxes.
They are short scale. There are 2 models- one with varitone and without. The without model is about $1k cheaper.
The less expensive looks like this
https://reverb.com/item/3678146-gibs...urst-with-ohsc