1957 Gibson ES-125

S/N #U250711

1957 Gibson ES-125

This is a Gibson ES-125. The ES-125 is a sixteen inch archtop guitar with a laminate maple top and back with laminate mahogany sides. The neck is one-piece mahogany and the fingerboard is unbound Brazilian rosewood. There are nineteen frets with pearloid dot markers at the third, fifth, seventh, ninth, twelfth, and fifteenth frets. The neck is a comfortable “C” shape with a 1 11/16” nut width, a neck depth at the first fret of 15/16” and 1” at the ninth. The headstock features an adjustable truss rod, three-on-a-plate Kluson tuners, a bell flower shaped truss rod cover and a silkscreened modern Gibson logo.

The bridge, made of Brazilian rosewood, is floating, adjustable and original to the guitar. The trapeze tailpiece is also the original nickel plated part.  The tuners are the original three-on-a-plate Klusons complete with their original . It is mounted with a floating tortoise pickguard and the original nickel plated pickguard bracket. The frets are the original small wire with some divoting in the lower frets. The first three frets are particularly worn along with the fingerboard. These can be remedied upon the buyer’s request. The finish is original with no signs of touchup or overspray. It exhibits checking throughout though it is remarkably clean. The finish is worn through on the back and treble side of the neck, in the area of the first three frets. There is a chip of wood missing from the treble side of the headstock at the outer point of the “open book” profile above the logo. 

The electronics consist of a P-90 pickup in the neck position, a volume and tone knob still mounted with the original reverse painted gold hat knobs above the treble side f-hole and a jack mounted in the treble side rim; all of which show only light signs of wear and work flawlessly. 

The factory order number (FON) indicates a build date of 1957. Oftentimes, the FON indicates an early stage in the production for the guitar, so it is likely that this guitar didn’t actually ship until the following year, 1958. This particular instrument was sold in April of 1959, as a new guitar, through Baileys Music Room of Burlington Vermont.   

The Body depth is 3 ¼” the upper bout is 12 ½, the lower bout is 16” and the overall length is 40.” As a bonus, the original hang tag, stamped for an ES-125 and the original Gibson Sonomatic Strings hang tag are included. Also included are a selection of Gibson and Gretsch string packs. Overall, it is a great playing and fine sounding example of what was originally a student-grade instrument. 

Includes original brown snakeskin cardboard case.