❌SOLD❌ Gibson ES-125TDC Thinline Sunburst, 1965

Here’s an always-fun guitar – a 1965 Gibson ES-125TDC thinline cutaway archtop electric guitar with a pair of P-90’s and several upgrades! This guitar plays very well, and like the double-cutaway ES-330 or Epiphone Casino, is very light and very versatile.

As stock, the Gibson ES-125TDC – ES stands for Electric Spanish (as opposed to Hawaiian) and the TDC initials expand to Thinline, Double Pickup and with a Cutaway has a pair of P-90 pickups with ‘Dog Ear’ covers, indicating the screw tabs used to mount the cover and pickup to the guitar top. Like most other Gibson archtop electrics, the body is Laminate Maple, with a Mahogany neck and Rosewood fingerboard and bridge. In 1965, the Rosewood was sourced from Central South America.

Here, the plastic covers have been replaced with plated metal covers – as used on the Casino and ES-330, to increase shielding and reduce hum. An ABR style ‘Tune-O-Matic’ bridge has also been added in place of the original floating Rosewood part. The trapeze tailpiece looks like it was replaced, not recently, and the control knobs are not original. The tuners are newer, drop-in reproductions of the original Kluson Deluxe strip tuners, and the originals are in the case. The faux-tortoise pickguard is original.

The nitrocellulose lacquer finish is in good shape, with an amount of natural lacquer checking but minimal wear otherwise. There are some signs of buffing to improve the surface gloss, and the neck has received some sort of ‘satin’ treatment.
Gibson introduced the ES-125 during 1941 as an entry level, non-cutaway, full body archtop with one or two P-90 pickups. By 1956, the ES-125T Thinline model appeared, still in non-cutaway form. For 1961, the cutaway was added and the model was available as the single pickup TC or the double pickup TDC, sometimes called the TDC with the same meaning. The model was discontinued in 1971.

Many non-professional Jazz and Blues players have used the various ES-125 models, and some professionals – George Thorogood, for example, is closely associated with the Gibson ES-125TDC.

This 1965 Gibson ES-125TDC is in good playing condition, and has a great feel and sound. Gibson’s of this era have somewhat narrower fingerboards, particularly compared to current models. The fully hollow body is quite light and is surprisingly loud acoustically.

This Gibson ES-125TDC is sold with a later hard shell case. Originally, this model would likely have sold with a ‘fiber’ or card board case, and these often have not survived the ravages of time.