Quote:
Originally Posted by commonbird
Steve, how is that ES-135?
Is it a viable alternative if I can't afford a 175?
Edit: Looks like it's not an archtop?
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The '90s ES-135 - not to be confused with the '50s version, which resembled an electrified L-50 - was a semi-hollow styled along the lines of the ES-125TDC associated with George Thorogood, and equipped initially with the P-100 pickups I mentioned above (the final versions came with humbuckers). If you're looking for something that sounds like a 175
this isn't it (at least not my old P-100 version - never played one with humbuckers), as the balsa-wood (Gibson called it "Chromyte"
) center block, intended to lighten the weight
vis-a-vis a 335/345/355, also lightened as well as deadened the tone to my ears; lacking the impact of the 335, the clarity of the 125, or the smoothness of the 175 - it had an odd, electrified version of that "wet towel" tone than some players (myself included) find off-putting in many Gibson slope-shoulders - it was basically a one-trick pony for me, good for gritty high-gain hollowbody raunch tones (in its favor, it
did make feedback more controllable) but very little else. Tried it through a variety of high- and low-power tube and solid-state combos (even a first-gen Line 6 Flextone modeling amp) over the years I owned it - sometimes it just takes the right amp to bring out the best in some guitars - with little success; oh, well - there's some guy in a psychobilly band out there with a dead-mint jet-black dream machine...