Gibson ES165 Herb Ellis Made in USA 1991 Serial Number 92881442 A very early, first year of production, ES165 featuring some lovely figured​/​flame maple. The guitar has been sympathetically restored by us prior to marketing. The frets have been dress (levelled & re-crowned) so play out perfectly across the whole fretboard, plenty of crown height left for many more years of play. The finish has been finely buffed and polished removing a lot of surface scratches as well as all the gold hardware polished. There are some deeper scratches, a little bit of buckle rash on the back, nothing that jumps out now and the gold hardware has some nice patina. The original 490 Pickup sounds surprisingly good! Lovely big jazz and blues tones, clean and driven. Rosewood fretboard, medium C profile neck. Completely original including the ES175 Tailpiece, a common feature on the very early ES165’s, the “fancy” tailpiece of later models albeit more associated with the Herb Ellis were introduced shortly after… Original brown and pink Gibson hard case. Great to have another of these Herb Ellis ES’s, a genuine favourite of ours and rare in this beautiful cherry red finish.

Verification report

The guitar has been sympathetically restored by us prior to marketing. The frets have been dress (levelled & re-crowned) so play out perfectly across the whole fretboard, plenty of crown height left for many more years of play. The finish has been finely buffed and polished removing a lot of surface scratches as well as all the gold hardware polished. There are some deeper scratches, a little bit of buckle rash on the back, nothing that jumps out now and the gold hardware has some nice patina.