The Gibson for Your Jazz Jones!
Sure, every headbanger can pound out power chords and riff off your basic pentatonic scale (but pretty fast, we might add). On the other hand, precious few guitar players ever have the drive and determination to truly master the music style that's called jazz. Of course, that label covers a lot of sonic territory, but so has Herb Ellis's career. He first came into the limelight when he replaced Barney Kessel in the Oscar Peterson Trio, where he stayed from 1953 until 1958 (longer than The Beatles were together). For most of that time, he played a Gibson ES-165. Now the company has released a Herb Ellis Signature ES-165, and darned if it isn't a little bit of that 1950s magic at work. With its maple top, curly maple back and sides and its authentic BJB Floating pickup, it's easy to see why jazz musicians find this type of guitar irresistible. True, it has only that one pickup and one volume control. The Vintage Sunburst is nice, but it's all in the fingers, folks. All in the fingers!
Gibson Herb Ellis ES-165 at a Glance:- Hollow-body design with maple laminated top, curly maple laminated back and sides in Vintage Sunburst finish with multi-ply-ply binding
- One-piece mahogany neck with rosewood fingerboard and split parallelogram inlays
- Specially designed BJB Floating pickup
Simple, Tasteful, Sophisticated
Where rock is concerned, there's no such thing as too much of... well, anything! The more outrageous, the better. Jazz is a totally different animal, and it requires - demands - musicians that are willing to learn to play in any scale in any key. And they must play with fluidity and grace, for that's what jazz is all about. If you're putting together your Thin Lizzy tribute band, odds are good you can stop reading now (if you haven't already). If you're ready to reach deep down into your soul and commit to thousands of hours of practice, and if you're willing to spend the few thousand hours required to solo over an improvised set of nearly incomprehensible (for the rest of us) chords. Have a look at the Herb Ellis ES-165 in Vintage Sunburst with multi-ply binding.
A Neck Built for Jazz
In jazz circles, there's no trendy "wide and fat" or "slim-taper '60s" necks. You go out and find the guitar that sounds the best, then you learn to play on the neck and fingerboard that's attached. The Herb Ellis ES-165's one-piece mahogany neck doesn't lend itself to labels. It is what it is. If you're looking for what other people think of as "cool," you'd best look elsewhere. The traditional rosewood fingerboard has classy split parallelogram inlays and single-ply binding.
A Specially Designed BJB "Floating" Pickup Where is it floating? Why over the guitar's body, of course. It's attached to the pickguard so it responds more to the vibrations of the strings than a combination of string and guitar body resonance. Does it sound great? In the right hands and the right musical setting, it's simply without equal. Think it's for you? Grab it now, because Gibson doesn't build many of these beauties!
Gibson Herb Ellis ES-165 Features:- Color: Ebony
- Top: Maple laminated
- Back: Curly maple laminated
- Sides: Curly maple laminated
- Neck: One-piece mahogany neck with ES-175-style profile
- Fingerboard: Rosewood with pearloid parallelogram inlays
- Number of frets: 20
- Pickup: BJB Floating
- Controls: One pickguard-mounted volume
- Machine heads: Grover Keystone
- Hardware: Gold plated
- Case: Black "alligator" hardshell
Gibson: Don't Mess with a Good Thing
Gibson guitars have been around for well over a century. When guitarists are looking for an outstanding combination of superb tone and playability along with great looks and gorgeous finishes, the choice for most of those 100 plus years has been Gibson. From their amazing collection of fine acoustics to the electric guitars that literally rewrote music history, Gibson guitars have been on almost every chart-topping album from artists like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Cream and Led Zeppelin. These "first call" instruments also cross an enormous array of diverse styles, from folk and country to blues and hard rock. With that resume, it's not surprising that so many of Gibson's best-selling instruments have changed little over the decades. Because there's just no sense in messing with a good thing!
