1940s/1950s Gibson "Banner" ES-125 Hollowbody Electric Guitar

This guitar is a true oddball and, yep, is another one of Mike's collection aimed at gigging use. He has a duo project where both players are using all Gibson "Banner" instruments and this hodgepodge electric guitar fits that bill through a bit of rules-lawyering. It's a '40s Gibson "Banner" neck (I'm guessing off a Hawaiian guitar of some sort -- it's a multi-piece maple neck with a gum fretboard) that someone mated to a 1950s Gibson ES-125 body. Why was this done? We don't know! How was it done? Poorly!

So, yes, this required a bit to get it going again. The neck joint was reset (well, fit, rather) with too shallow an angle and the neck had been set into the joint with copious amounts of epoxy... so quirky workarounds were required to get a bridge that was at least functionally tall on it. Fortunately, I got it stabilized and in additon I reinforced the instrument with a dowel that runs through from the endblock to the neckblock.

The rest was easy stuff -- fitting new tuners (with vintage buttons), making a new cover for the original P90 (it had a weird homemade wood one on it because it needed a shallow cover but now I have a flat plastic cover that's the right shape and "look" at a glance, fitting a replacement bridge, a fret level/dress, side dots (for lefty), and setup work. I also moved the jack from the side to the endpin area.

So how'd it turn out? Great! You can't really argue too much with the sound of an ES-125 body with an original pickup and harness installed. The Banner neck is pretty dang big and clunky -- as you'd expect -- but it's an instant vibe machine. All it needs is a true vintage tailpiece to bring the "look" all together, but the one on it right now isn't too shabby.