I fixed the photos that went sideways when Reverb made some changes on their site. Take another look at them, and the owner has dropped the price to it's final resting place.

Here at Gordy's Music in Ferndale, Michigan, we are so proud, happy, and grateful, to have gotten this certificate and been picked as one of Reverb's TOP 300 SELLERS 2 years in a row! What an honor! We want to start by thanking all of you, our customers, my partner wife Marcia, my top notch crew, and Reverb.com. Together we have quite a team and will strive to get this certificate year after year.***

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Here we have a 1955 Gibson ES-175 D Blonde archtop guitar in amazing condition. The guitar looks and basically is original except it was restored by it's only owner Johnny Bassett 30 years ago. By the way, Johnny was a good customer for over 3 decades as we would repair his amps and do a set up or a guitar a repair here and there for him. As a matter of fact I did a written appraisal for him on his ES-175 back in the year 2000.

The guitar was refinished it's original color natural blonde and re-fretted at almost the same time by Pyramid Guitars here in Redford Michigan. Pyramid was the best place to go back in the day for any kind of major guitar repair work. I just spoke to the luthier who did the work back then and he recalls Johnny bringing it in after he played allover everywhere for 40 years I guess it was time for a fresh finish and a fret job.

Today, the frets are still like new and the finish work fooled me as I thought the 30 year old refinish job was the original Gibson finish!, except for the back of the neck where you can see the overspray of laquer over the light wear marks. There is some checking marks in the finish on the top upper part of the body as seen in the 1 closeup picture. There are no cracks or repairs on this guitar except for the refinish and new frets. A very structurally solid instrument.

When I turned over the P-90 pickups to verify them I noticed the black 5 layer pickguard was custom made for Johnny, dated, and signed back in 1996 by my neighbor still, Mike Koontz of Koontz Guitar Repair who you need to google, as he is very well known all over the country especially in the music industry big leagues.

Now the time has come to sell the guitar so I cleaned then seasoned the rosewood fretboard and bridge, installed a fresh set of D'Addario Chrome Flatwound strings gaged .12-.52, tuned her right up, made a few slight adjustments, and man what a guitar!

**Check out the included video for some samples of how great this thing sounds!**

Guitar comes with the hardshell non original fully functional case is lightly worn shape. Also comes with a picture or 2 of Johnny with the guitar.

Guitar weighs 5 lbs. 15 oz.

Shipping box is 50"x8"x20"

Shipping weight is 23 lbs.

Serial# A-21706 makes it an earlier 1955.

'Did you know that 1955 was the first year Gibson used orange labels after previously using white?'

Shop at our Reverb Store for a bunch of vintage and other products at:

https://reverb.com/shop/gordys-music

IN BUSINESS for 40 YEARS!!
50 YEARS of VINTAGE EXPERIENCE!
MICHIGAN GUITAR SHOW PROMOTORS Since 1989!
Brick and mortar to the end!

About Johnny Bassett:

This guitar was owned by Johnny and was used on all of the early Fortune Music R & B hits in the 50's and early 60's. Joe Weaver and his Blue Note Orchestra were the house band at the Fortune label and played on all of their releases. I've posted a photo of their album cover with a young Johnny Bassett playing this guitar when it was new. Johnny played this guitar on many of his solo recordings and it can be heard on some of his recordings for the Mack Avenue label.

After returning to Detroit, he found work as a session guitarist for Fortune Records by day and in nightclubs at night. In the studios, he played backup to musicians and groups like Nolan Strong & the Diablos, Andre Williams & the Don Juans, and the Five Dollars. He also played guitar on the first recording by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles while traveling to Chicago to record as a session man for the Chess Records label. During his Detroit days, he also accompanied John Lee Hooker, Eddie Burns, Alberta Adams, Lowell Fulson, and the T.J. Fowler Band at their live shows, as well as Dinah Washington.

In the 1960s, Bassett moved to Seattle, where he backed up Tina Turner, Little Willie John, and others. Jimi Hendrix was a frequent guest coming to listen at the bluesman's club gigs around Seattle. Before the decade ended, he moved back to Detroit, where he was based for the remainder of his life.