Waaay back in 2001, my professional tech writing career took off while working in Silicon Valley and living in San Francisco. It had been a good 8 years or so of not touching my old guitars, which consisted of a Westbury Standard and an Ovation acoustic-electric. They had been in storage at my folks place back on the east coast while I did my navy tour from '90-'94.
Finally having a bit of cash to squander and having just enjoyed watching the entire Ken Burn's Jazz documentary, I thought, why not get a proper jazz box type of guitar and get me some jazz guitar lessons? I was so focused on the Jazz sound that I lasered in on wanting, nay needing, a Gibson. Keep in mind, I had absolutely no clue as to what kind of Gibson, but it needed to be a hollow body or semi-hollow body guitar.
I headed over to Haight-Ashbury Music Center. I asked the shop clerk what did he have in the way of a decent Gibson hollow body or semi-hollow body guitar. He recommended an ES-135 LE model, a semi-hollow body with Classic '57 humbuckers. It was a '99. SN# was 93389316.
It was a semi-hollow body in natural finish without being too boxy and it came with a spiffy case but with a really hot pink lining interior. I looked at him and said seriously? Hot pink? He assured me, that it looked red under stage lights. I was dumb enough to go with it.
It was a beautiful guitar and played fantastically. Here are some photos, starting with what I shelled out on this guitar as I left the price tag on the back of the headstock, to remind me to take good care of this guitar:
The model was mis-labeled as an ES-175...
Having no clue as to what type of amp to get, I went with a solid state Fender Princeton Chorus, which was actually a decent little amp. I believe, again in my youthful ignorance, that I didn't want to deal with amp that required tubes. If I could go back and smack my young self upside the head....(wouldn't be the first time that would be needed, heh).
I ended up not taking jazz guitar lessons as I also bought that day a Selmer Clarinet. Instead, I took some clarinet lessons for a few months. I really enjoyed that for a while but I hardly touched the guitar - I think because to me at the time, it was a lot of money and I was nervous about playing it. Then I met someone in 2001, eventually got married, life got busy, and the Gibson was put in storage.
Four years later and an amicable divorce, I moved back to the east coast. I pulled the Gibson out of it's case for the first time in a long while, strummed it, and that's all it took to feel like I regained a part of my soul.
Some of you probably assume (and you'd be right) that I have a bit of a guitar addiction. Once back on the east coast, I went on a bit of a costly educational journey of finding guitars that I felt were right for me. More focused at this point on playing alternative, rockabilly, punk, new wave, British Invasion, then I became smitten with surf/instrumental. I was all over the map in buying and selling guitars.
The biggest casualty in all of this was my Gibson ES-135. It was always the "jazz guitar" in my narrow mindset, and I wasn't interested in jazz at that point. I ended up trading it in at my local guitar shop for something I don't even remember and probably sold that eventually, too. I've had a lot of guitars come and go over the years.
Eventually, I figured out Gretsch and Fender guitars were "IT" for me. Currently, I have more than covered my bases for Gretsch and Fender goodness.
I have a rotation of my guitar photos displayed on my computer going back to when I first moved back here to the east coast. One night a couple of months ago, the old ES-135 showed up on my desktop. Now slightly more mature, I realized I really didn't give that guitar its fair due and did not appreciate what I had.
I then went down the guitar research rabbit hole (as you do) looking at what's on Reverb, eBay, and YouTube. I learned all I could about the reintroduced '91 - '04 Gibson ES-135 and how prior to the Classic '57 humbuckers, the P100 (double-stacked humbucker) were the original pickups.
From the wiki - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibson_ES-135:
Anyhoo, after listening (with headphones, of course) to many YouTube videos, I realized I really, really liked the P100s. I also liked the Classic '57s, but I've got my humbucker needs covered with my Gretsch VS '59 Country Club and its TV Jones Classics. More importantly, I learned a lesson so late in the game. This guitar can play pretty much any style and sound amazing.With a florentine cutaway, a trapeze tailpiece, two P-100 pickups (stacked humbuckers with P-90 covers) with two tone and volume controls and a three-way switch. It had looks and tone reminiscent of the old ES-125 TDC, but was not a fully hollow thinline guitar, having a feedback-suppressing sustain block running under the pickups and bridge from the neck/body joint to the base of the body like the ES-335 instead, but here not made of maple but of balsa wood. The body itself and neck were again of similar construction to the ES-335, being built from laminated maple but with an unbound rosewood fingerboard with dot-style fret position markers. The metal fittings were chrome-plated, and the p-100s had black plastic "soapbar" style covers. The guitar, when launched, was the most basic and lowest-priced in the Gibson ES range, but had the same fittings, wiring and construction quality as more expensive models. At launch, Gibson claimed it was the first semi-solid electric guitar with a Florentine-style single cutaway in the world.
The ES-135 went through several changes during its production life. The P100 pickups, intended to have the tone and output of the P-90 but without the single-coil P-90's tendency to hum, did not meet with universal approval, having a slightly less biting tone and at times an equal tendency to squeal at high volumes. The use of P-100s was therefore discontinued and conventional Gibson covered humbuckers substituted. The original trapeze tailpiece gave the guitar a distinctive tone and an aggressive "bark" when played with vigour, but again was not entirely popular. The trapeze makes re-stringing a slow operation and the very long string length needed to reach from the tailpiece to the tuners meant some brands of strings did not fit.
There are still some ES-135s out there. I found a '98 ES-135 on eBay that I felt suited me best, and an auction was won at the end of May. Well, I was the only bidder, but still, it was touch and go! Fortunately, the seller is fairly local to me and an outstanding guy.
Photos!
Love the interior lining!
I know, realistically, that I will eventually have to thin the herd over time. The Gibson ES-135, however, will be one of my most cherished guitars that will absolutely remain.