A solid player for jazz, swing or blues, the ES-125 remains by far the best value in a true vintage Gibson archtop. This example is in excellent original condition, without pick, buckle or thumbwear, right down to the original frets. It is to the ES-175 what the single-cutaway Les Paul Special is to a Standard namely a version that’s simpler to manufacture with no refinements and ‘lower-quality’ pickups. The laminated body offers superior feedback resistance, and the guitar produces a respectable acoustic tone for playing unplugged. Superficially, the ES-125TCD most closely resembles an ES-225, but it’s perhaps more accurate to think of it as Gibson’s attempt at an entry-level jazzbox. With its fat P-90 pickup and fast 24.9″ scale, the ES-125 offered true Gibson quality and playability at an affordable price. Notes: Introduced in 1938 as the ES-100, the ES-125 was renamed in 1941, and remained in continuous production for over 30 years. Vintage correct gold bonnet tone and volume knobs. Hardware: Original P-90 pickup and electronics original nickel trapeze tailpiece original tortoise pickguard original nickel-plated Kluson Deluxe tuners, original compensated rosewood bridge. Materials: Solid Honduras mahogany neck, arched maple back and sides, solid Brazilian rosewood fingerboard and bridge. Both the thinline and the regular models would be discontinued by the 1970s.
It would later add options for double P-90 pickups and a sharp cutaway, referred to as a florentine cutaway, similar to the ES-175.
In the mid-1950s, the ES-125T was introduced, which was an entry-level thinline archtop electric guitar based on the original ES-125. The unbound rosewood fingerboard initially sported pearl trapezoid inlays later, it would have dot inlays. When reintroduced in 1946 it had the larger 16.25″ wide body that the ES-150 had. The ES125C had a cutaway (a Florentine cutaway, the kind that culminates in a sharp. The Gibson TDC /TThinline, Ddouble, CCutaway) with 2-PUs and single-cutaway is the most desirable version of the ES-125 line, this is a nice and clean. The pre-war model, discontinued in 1942, had a smaller 14.5″ body. Gibsons ES-125 was an affordable guitar with a fully hollow body.
It had one P-90 single-coil pickup in the neck position, a single volume control and a single tone control. Introduced in 1941 as the successor to the ES-100, the ES-125 was an entry-level archtop electric guitar.