QUESTION

I have what I believe is a white Gibson 1957 es-175 with pafs. according to all the information i can find they never made these . i bought it to a few people some said refinished but i know it is not my father has had it forever and it has never left the house. did they make such an instrument and if so how rare is it. I do not know who to trust when i am getting mixed answers and you can highly recommend and one person told me you actually had one .

REPLY

Well i am going to tell you you probably have one of the coolest guitars. I have personally sold 3 of these one was a Gibson  es-175d one was a Gibson  l-7 and one was a Gibson es-175 one pickup all were paf models and these i believe were a custom ordered or one run guitar. I know a famous collector in new york who has 6 of these  , i sold him 3 of the 6 and they are as real and as rare as it gets in the vintage market.

The first tome i saw one was in 1990 and i thought it was refinished because like yourself never saw one. Then i called my friend Perry Margoulef a vintage guitar expert and renowned burst dealer and he authenticated it and actually bought it. since then i had two others and have only seen 4 others in my life. i would guess they made about 12 of each model in white . that seems to be the consensus but no one knows. these are the coolest looking guitars ever i wish i never sold them.

the Gibson double neck in white was not uncommon although again only a few made but to see hollow body and arch tops in with  even spruce top ones in white is truly an exciting think for a vintage dealer or collector. i remember looking at this Gibson es-175 i had for hours on the shop thinking wow that  so hip at the time we had a burst and other goltops from the 1950,s but to me this was the cool one.

As far as value goes i would say they are worth about 3 times what a sunburst one is worth and maybe even 4 times as much . My favorite line is ok its too much, well find another !!!! Do not give that one away and if you want send me pictures and i can verify that one also if it is a real early 1957 Gibson it will have the no name paf ‘s which would  also add a rarity to it being some of the first paf guitars made. If you have any other  questions please feel free to contact me at  THE PARTSDRAWER i will be glad to appraise or authenticate it for free .

Great news for the vintage guitar community.  HISTORIC MAKEOVERS a  company specializing in vintage guitar restoration and aging has launched its new website and opened its new shop in Lake Mary  Florida this week to great reviews. The company located in Florida has now become the premier shop for your vintage guitar makeovers.

The company has set up a new shop with due to the back log created from his old shop and other craftsman. The new location feature state of the art shop and a staff of wood workers and painters that are even better than the old staff  in the old location. Basically they cleaned house got rid of the old staff and setup and have optimized the process and have found some amazing talent in Florida to due his makeovers.

The new estimated turn around time is 5 months . i was one of the old customers who waited 12 months for mine to get done and yes the  work was amazing and yes it looks real but 1 2 months killed me . i have two guitars in the system now at the new location and have been guaranteed a 5 month turn around. This new shop  uses the exact same techniques as teh old shop and offers the same attention to detail. Ever guitar is an individual and is delt with in a one on one basis no assembly line no mass production they are creating  a piece of art.

it really is worth taking a moment to checkout this website the work is truly amazing and Gibson guitars themselves has never made anything this good in my opinion . It is not cost effective for a big company to due and the cost of the guitar would it basically out of reach to the general public. We are talking about craftsmanship, a talent that is hard to come by these days . I do not know about you but that fact that these are hand  done one by one and gone over and over until they are perfect is a an art that is almost extinct today.

So if you really want to see the potential of your less paul come to life checkout this site and give them a call. I believe they also offer limited services if you do not want a full make over such as replacing the boards and inlays and such so if money is an object they will work with you . If you need any further info you can also contact me at the partsdrawer

Jim Pasch

QUESTION

I am doing a restoration and i see that you sell vintage guitar parts. I am looking to buy a jack plate for my guitar and I see there are many repros out there and I saw a few at a recent guitar show that were aged and look real how can I tell

REPLY

Thank you for e mail and yes that is a real problem these days there are companies making incredible repros and makes all our lives that much harder. I always say this but must repeat it buy from someone who will guarantee and stand behind what they sell you if they say no refunds as is run there is a problem.

Ok the first trick taught to me by the Jedi master uncle lou years ago was hold the jack plate up to the light and if you can see the shadow of your finer through the plastic its fake  real plates are not translucent . I have seen some of the best repros made by a company retrospec and they look to be the best and even they cannot pass this test . The ones from retrospec on a guitar are impossible to tell so be careful!!!!!

Real burst jack plates were stamped out not cut with router. some of the great repros you see today are cut with routers. The reason is because two years ago some original  rolled plastic was found in warehouse that was for making these jack plates out . i assume it was too brittle to stamp out so what they did was cut jack plates out with a router and did an excellent job i will say and so these were flooded onto the market and are really hard to tell because the plastic used was now old stock!!!!

The argument of thin verses thick is a useless one as far as i am concerned. the earlier ones were thinner yes   and the 1958 1959 were a hair thicker and i mean barley thicker. But i have seen mint 1958 goldtops with thinner jack plates let m tell you Gibson never threw anything out and once and  a while i am sure old stock was found and used. First worry about if it is real or not then if you cant sleep at night look for the thicker or thinner one you need.

I will be glad to look at an evalutate any you have for free or can give you a number of someone who swill for you if you are not sure. Just by following the few things i mentioned you shoudl be fairly safe. If you need more help contact me at  the parts drawer and i will answer all e mails within 48 hours

JIM PASCH

ji pasch