I've never seen this Vintage Gibson

[Larry Mal]

Yeah, it looked about like this one:

https://reverb.com/p/gibson-es-325-waln ... id=3552497

Pretty nice guitar. I would probably have to be rich beyond belief to get one, there's a lot of things I'd like a lot more than that, but if they price was right I could see being happy with it. It had a nice sound, the playability was better than I would have thought it would be.

I have to be a little careful. I feel that I have such a partiality to Gibson's ES instruments that I could go pretty nuts if I opened that door all the way. I just love how they feel against my body.

As far as the differences between Firebird pickups and mini-humbuckers are, I might have been the person who posted that but it would have just been me copying and pasting since I can never remember the differences offhand.

Jason Lollar can, though:

"A Mini-humbucker is made like a miniature PAF pickup, with one bar magnet positioned under each coil with adjustable pole pieces made out of a ferrous alloy and the other coil containing a ferrous metal bar that is not adjustable. This corresponds to a PAF with adjustable poles in one coil and a series of metal slugs in the other coil."

https://www.lollarguitars.com/blog/2012 ... g-in-tone/

"A Firebird on the other hand, has a bar magnet in each coil. Each coil is wound around the bar magnet, one coil is south up and the other is north up.

Also the magnetic field shape and strength are different between the Mini-Humbucker and the Firebird which gives them different characteristics.
Steel cores tend to have a higher inductance- you get more bass and more output verses an alnico magnet core. That gives Mini-Humbucker a smoother attack with more sustain and you’ll get more of a grind to the tone when you push your amp into distortion. Traditional Firebird pickups have a tighter, “spankier” tone that stays more defined when you really crank up your amp."

I'm not at all knowledgeable about mini-humbuckers, but I did trouble myself to put in vintage spec'd Firebird pickups in my Firebird. I have no idea how these pickups didn't catch on any more than they did. I'd rival them against anything.

[Despot]

Minihums from the CBS years went through the same evolution as the larger humbuckers (in terms of PAF to Patent Number etc). They're similar in that the PAFs sound different to the Pat NOs when they started changing the wire type etc.

I think the only guitars with minihums before the Firebirds (and I know those were different) were the Epiphone models - I briefly had a Crestwood from 1962 with minihums (PAF sticker iirc) and they sounded fantastic, but were quite different to the minihums I had in a '70s LP Deluxe (part of my time trying to get on with Les Pauls that ultimately proved fruitless).

But I did play a Firebird that had Lollar firebird pickups in it and you're right ... they sound pretty good next to any other pickup.

Stay away from ES guitars Larry. You want no part of this!

[Larry Mal]

Correct, I believe the mini-humbucker was an Epiphone design that Gibson brought into the fold.

I would like a Les Paul Deluxe, actually.

I was watching a Yes video the other day, and that guy has the ES-175 if I recall correctly, and I would... really like one of those.

I might as well put it up, I can imagine the feelings about Yes around here, but they had good songs and this is one of them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93y9wfB ... 3y9wfB3EM8

It's not just the ES-330 I have that is making me feel that way, I also got a Rickenbacker 330 from DesmondWafers on here, and between the two I'm kind of questioning the whole solid-bodied electric guitar thing entirely. There's something just so nice about a vibrating and alive feeling big hollow or semi-hollow guitar tucked up next to you.

Like, if I was starting from scratch, I would have more ES type stuff.

[Larry Mal]

And actually the more I look at the guitar in the original post, the more I like it. It's really just the hideous Stratocaster bridge on there that is pissing me off.

[Embenny]

And actually the more I look at the guitar in the original post, the more I like it. It's really just the hideous Stratocaster bridge on there that is pissing me off.

I agree that the Strat bridge is out of place.

The more I look at this guitar, the more I want to adopt it. In some ways it was the Mustang of the ES series...but alas, no shipping to Canada, so I'm saved from myself.

[Larry Mal]

I don't know what the original bridge would have been yet, but I do see that the bridge had some kind of cover on it:

http://vintage-guitars.blogspot.com/200 ... s-320.html

So maybe it's not such a butcher job after all.

[Despot]

There's something just so nice about a vibrating and alive feeling big hollow or semi-hollow guitar tucked up next to you.

Like, if I was starting from scratch, I would have more ES type stuff.

I remember back in the days of old I bought an Epiphone Sheraton II with some money I'd managed to put away during a summer job. It was a Korean made one - and an awesome guitar - but that's another story.

A friend of mine was able to get us access to a large sports hall where we would practice for gigs. I was using a Vibrolux at the time (still have it) as I thought that gigging required a loud amp. I recall hitting an E chord while standing close to the amp and I could feel these waves of air coming out of the F holes .... sort of making a whamp-whamp sound as I played. It felt like the guitar was alive in a way that even the most vibrant solid body can't replicate. And it put a huge grin on my face.

That's pretty much my rule of thumb for guitars these days - carried forward from that day. If you play it and it puts a big stupid grin on your face then it is good.

That Sheraton was heavily modded by the time I sold it - all the pots had been changed, as had the switch and jack. The pickups were swapped out for a set of burstbuckers and it was a damn fine guitar. I sold it to a young guy who was a seriously good player (he tested it out playing Howlin' Wolf on it through my little AC4 and sounded superb) - I'm usually happy to know that a guitar I've sold is going to a good home, but from the way this guy was so chuffed with it I knew it was going to loved.

[Embenny]

I don't know what the original bridge would have been yet, but I do see that the bridge had some kind of cover on it:

http://vintage-guitars.blogspot.com/200 ... s-320.html

So maybe it's not such a butcher job after all.

The two holes far to each side of the bridge are from the removed cover.

This is what the stock bridge looked like though, it's basically a 70's SG bridge with an extra plate to hook the ends of the strings. You can see some telltale holes just under the sides of the Strat bridge on the guitar in the OP.

[Rob]

I was watching a Yes video the other day, and that guy has the ES-175 if I recall correctly, and I would... really like one of those.

I'm a huge Yes fan! Particularly the 70s stuff. Close to the Edge and Relayer are probably my favorite Yes records. Didn't discover them until I was well into my 20s, but I was fortunate enough to catch a show with the "classic lineup" (Anderson, Squire, Howe, Wakeman, White) before the original '64 ES-175D was retired to studio-only work.

Always wanted to do a Yes or a Rush tribute band, but there's really not a huge demand for prog rock here in Kentucky.. : \

[Larry Mal]

Well in all fairness, there wasn't huge demand for prog rock in other places than Kentucky back in the day either, but Yes didn't give a fuck, and did it anyway.

Now, you pick up the chalice.

[s_mcsleazy]

reminds me of the ES that jeff mueller uses. never learned the model of it.