2014 Epiphone ES-175 Premium

Epiphone ES-175 Premium, 2014, SN: 1405212877

The Epiphone ES-175 Premium has long been known as a great entry-level ticket to ES-175 tone. The laminate maple construction for the back, sides and top imparts a midrange focus, and a certain “thunk” to the sound that seems to not exist in any other guitar model. This example, made by Epiphone in Korea, retains several features from its more costly and now discontinued Gibson counterpart. 

The neck is mahogany with a slim taper “C” profile, less chunky than the Gibson ES-175 necks, and the fingerboard is rosewood with split parallelogram markers at the first, third, fifth, seventh, ninth, twelfth, fifteenth and seventeenth fret positions. There are twenty frets in total on the bound fingerboard. 

The headstock is mounted with Epiphone tulip button tuners and a truss rod cover indicating the ES-175 Premium model designation. There are a few differences between the Premium model and the regular Epiphone 175’s. The finish is in a natural satin nitrocellulose and the pickups are the Gibson Classic 57’s, with ALNICO Two magnets for a lower output and rich tone. The body has cream binding with black-white purfling and a Florentine cutaway. The pickguard and tailpiece are made in the standard laminate Gibson shape and the zig-zag pattern respectively. The bridge is in the standard Tune-O-Matic bridge on a rosewood base. A three way pickup selector and four vintage style knobs, volume, volume, tone and tone, complete the picture. 

The instrument is in very clean condition with some finish checking, most notably around the heel and neck. Otherwise, it looks great and plays beautifully.