1998 Gibson Custom Shop ES-295 Reissue ONE OFF CUSTOM ORDERED Candy Apple Red! SOLD!
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One of the grand daddies of the electric guitar! The ES-295 was introduced at the same time as the Les Paul goldtop and in many ways could be considered a hollowbody version of Les' solid body broomstick. The 1952 Les Paul had a similar tailpiece as well as the trademark gold finish and cream plastic. In fact, early ES-295's had "Les Paul" engraved on the tailpieces as Les himself invented the contraption. The 295 became associated with rockabilly thanks to Scotty Moore playing guitar for some guy from Tupelo. The rest is history as they say. You can hear Scotty's 295 all over the early Sun sides. Other famous 295 slingers include Geordie Walker from Killing Joke and NYC's rockabilly deconstructionists Heavy Trash.
The ES-295 could be called a fancy ES-175. Indeed they do share the same construction. The hollow body is laminated maple for good tone and resistance to feedback. The 24.75 inch scale mahogany neck features a bound rosewood fingerboard with parallelogram inlays. Dual P-90 pickups deliver P-90 soapbar tone with reduced hum. A wraparound tailpiece and Kluson style tuners keep this one rock solid. This example was special ordered in a gorgeous candy apple red lacquer finish. The original cert even notes that it was a one off order. Incredibly rare!
This ES-295 plays great and has nice feel and sound. The neck is straight, the action is good and the frets are fine. The pickups deliver great tone for blues, rock, jazz, classic country and rockabilly. Everything works as it should. This is a nice used guitar showing some normal wear. The finish shows some checking as is common on Gibson's metallic finishes. There's some on the body but the most pronounced is on the neck, mainly near the heel and on the headstock rear. There's spots on either side of the headstock that look to be hanger rash from the finish reacting to a stand. They could be touched up easily I'll assume. The hardware shows some corrosion. The tailpiece shows more of it than the rest. I suspect that since Gibson no longer made these tailpieces that they reused a vintage one. i pulled it and there is no evidence it ever had anything else. The finish shows light pick and clearcoat scratches, moderate belt scratches and a few indents. It still looks great and shines like a Christmas ornament. Comes in original hardshell case with cert.
The ES-295 is one of the most distinctive looking instruments out there. Killer vibe and a variety of tones. If you're tired of boring pipe smoking jazz guitars, the ES-295 may add some fire to your act. Gibson hasn't offered a 295 in several years and the reissues have been fairly hard to find. With vintage 295s bringing $6-10K, this reissue is about your only choice without selling a kidney. Plus, you're almost sure to never see another candy apple red one.
ST#SG7X8/USA91508014XXXX112411
