Gibson ES-150 Arch Top Hollow Body Electric Guitar (1947)
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Item # 13596
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Gibson ES-150 Model Arch Top Hollow Body Electric Guitar (1947), made in Kalamazoo, Michigan, sunburst top, dark stained back and sides finish, laminated maple body, mahogany neck with rosewood fingerboard, black hard shell case.
This is a very nice example of an early postwar Gibson ES-150, with typical features distinctive to that era. This is a 17" wide guitar (pre-war ES-150's are 16") with single binding on the body, dot inlay on the fingerboard, and the early narrower coil P-90 pickup. The headstock logo is still the earlier 1940's gold script, as used only up through 1948. There is no serial or factory order number (which is correct for this year) but the features date this guitar to pretty much exactly 1947. This postwar 1940s-50's Es-150 is not a flashy guitar but a solidly classy instrument.
This is the model where the Kalamazoo company's professional-grade line of electric guitars began. It would be upgraded to pearloid trapezoid inlays the next year, making this dot-market version a fairly rare guitar. This ES-150 is built on a full-depth 17" non-cutaway all-maple body with a dark sunburst top. Besides the inch-wider body, the long 25 1/2" scale fingerboard also sets it above the generally similar but "amateur" grade ES-125. The one-piece mahogany neck has the lovely round-backed profile typical of 1940-50's Gibsons, with a 1 11/16" wide nut. The single plastic covered P-90 pickup is wired to tone and volume controls topped by the tall, un-numbered gold-tinted clear knobs used before 1949. This combination offers that classic warm Gibson purr that made (and still makes) for a very fine electric archtop at a relatively moderate price.
The ES-150 is usually considered a "Jazz guitar" but can be more useful for a variety of musical styles than many people think. Full-body, non cutaway instruments lost favor in the increasingly loud 1960's but many modern players have rediscovered their charms in today's lower-volume playing environments. This early postwar ES-150 is a truly lovely instrument, with a dark rich look and clean classy lines redolent of the times. It looks really not too much used over the last 75 years, plays very well and has a great vibe.
Overall length is 42 in. (106.7 cm.), 17 in. (43.2 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 3 1/4 in. (8.2 cm.) in depth, measured at side of rim. Scale length is 25 1/2 in. (648 mm.). Width of nut is 1 11/16 in. (43 mm.).
This is a generally very well preserved guitar, showing some wear in places but looking pretty for dating to back before the dawn of the 1950s. The all-original finish is mostly quite clean, showing some typical minor checking and light general wear including very small dings, scrapes and dents. The heaviest wear is some dinks and dents to the back of the neck, with feelable marks to the wood behind the first, third and ninth frets.
There are no visible repairs on the instrument; a strap button was added to the heel. The hardware remains original except for the tuners, which are modern individual Kluson Deluxe machines and the pickguard, a nicely made Gibson style repro but more in the bound, tortoise celluloid pattern of an L-5 than an ES-150. The original thin frets have been taken down and recrowned a bit and show no subsequent wear. The instrument plays and sounds pretty much as it did in 1947, a lovely period piece and a great guitar of its type. It is housed in a nice period purple-flannel-lined HSC, not a standard Gibson style but likely original to the guitar. Overall Excellent - Condition.
This is a very nice example of an early postwar Gibson ES-150, with typical features distinctive to that era. This is a 17" wide guitar (pre-war ES-150's are 16") with single binding on the body, dot inlay on the fingerboard, and the early narrower coil P-90 pickup. The headstock logo is still the earlier 1940's gold script, as used only up through 1948. There is no serial or factory order number (which is correct for this year) but the features date this guitar to pretty much exactly 1947. This postwar 1940s-50's Es-150 is not a flashy guitar but a solidly classy instrument.
This is the model where the Kalamazoo company's professional-grade line of electric guitars began. It would be upgraded to pearloid trapezoid inlays the next year, making this dot-market version a fairly rare guitar. This ES-150 is built on a full-depth 17" non-cutaway all-maple body with a dark sunburst top. Besides the inch-wider body, the long 25 1/2" scale fingerboard also sets it above the generally similar but "amateur" grade ES-125. The one-piece mahogany neck has the lovely round-backed profile typical of 1940-50's Gibsons, with a 1 11/16" wide nut. The single plastic covered P-90 pickup is wired to tone and volume controls topped by the tall, un-numbered gold-tinted clear knobs used before 1949. This combination offers that classic warm Gibson purr that made (and still makes) for a very fine electric archtop at a relatively moderate price.
The ES-150 is usually considered a "Jazz guitar" but can be more useful for a variety of musical styles than many people think. Full-body, non cutaway instruments lost favor in the increasingly loud 1960's but many modern players have rediscovered their charms in today's lower-volume playing environments. This early postwar ES-150 is a truly lovely instrument, with a dark rich look and clean classy lines redolent of the times. It looks really not too much used over the last 75 years, plays very well and has a great vibe.
Overall length is 42 in. (106.7 cm.), 17 in. (43.2 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 3 1/4 in. (8.2 cm.) in depth, measured at side of rim. Scale length is 25 1/2 in. (648 mm.). Width of nut is 1 11/16 in. (43 mm.).
This is a generally very well preserved guitar, showing some wear in places but looking pretty for dating to back before the dawn of the 1950s. The all-original finish is mostly quite clean, showing some typical minor checking and light general wear including very small dings, scrapes and dents. The heaviest wear is some dinks and dents to the back of the neck, with feelable marks to the wood behind the first, third and ninth frets.
There are no visible repairs on the instrument; a strap button was added to the heel. The hardware remains original except for the tuners, which are modern individual Kluson Deluxe machines and the pickguard, a nicely made Gibson style repro but more in the bound, tortoise celluloid pattern of an L-5 than an ES-150. The original thin frets have been taken down and recrowned a bit and show no subsequent wear. The instrument plays and sounds pretty much as it did in 1947, a lovely period piece and a great guitar of its type. It is housed in a nice period purple-flannel-lined HSC, not a standard Gibson style but likely original to the guitar. Overall Excellent - Condition.