Gibson ES-135 P100 Thinline Single Cut Cherry, 2001 ✓

Built from 1991 to 2003 in Memphis, the Gibson ES-135 P100 was a single Florentine cutaway, semi-hollow thinline with a pair of P100 hum-cancelling pickups.

From 1956 to 1958, the ES-135 existed as a renamed ES-130, a full-depth, single-cutaway archtop with one or two P-90 pickups. The ES-130 was introduced in 1954, renamed in 1956 to the ES-135, and discontinued in 1958. The model was aimed at advancing students and amateur players. In 1991, Gibson relaunched the name on a thinline, single-cut model with standard humbuckers, P90s or hum-cancelling P100 pickups. P90 and P100s share the same coil forms, covers, and routing dimensions, though the P100’s are a bit taller due to their stacked-coil design.

Most of these ES-135 versions combined a adjustable bridge mounted to the top and a trapeze tailpiece, though some received a stop tailpiece.

Here we’re looking at a Gibson ES-135 P100 dated to April 12 2001 at the Memphis plant. It is in very good, clean and original condition, with only very light wear to the gloss cherry finish; the frets have light wear – this guitar has actually been played!

Like other ES thinline models, the top, back and sides are laminate Maple, the linings and body blocks Mahogany, but the center block is ‘Chromite’, Gibson’s marketing term for Ochroma Lagopus, a light weight hardwood. This choice helps keep the instrument’s weight down . The neck is a three-piece Maple construction with a 14 degree headstock pitch, significantly less than Gibson’s now-standard 17 degree pitch.

For hardware, the Gibson ES-135 P100 features Gibson Deluxe ‘Kluson Style’ tuners with plastic Keystone buttons at the head, with a modern tune-o-matic bridge and trapeze tailpiece at the other end of the strings. The P100 pickups lead to a standard 3-way switch and individual volume and tone controls.

The original hard shell case is included.