Gibson ES-150

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Gibson ES-150
Gibson ES-150.png
General
Type Jazz guitar / archtop
Manufacturer Gibson ; United States
production 1936-1956
Construction and materials
Scale length 24.75 inches (628 mm)
Body Sound box with f-holes , sides and back made of maple , top made of spruce
neck Set-in neck made of mahogany
Fingerboard Rosewood , 19  frets
Mechanics 3 × left, 3 × right; capsuled
Footbridge / bridge Two-piece: full-length rosewood bridge without saddles and metal tailpiece
Pickups and Electronics
Pickups
  • 1 × "Charlie-Christian" - single coil
  • 1 × P-90 single coil (since 1946)
Tone control passive

The Gibson ES-150 is a guitar model by the American manufacturer Gibson Guitar Corporation , which was produced from 1936 to 1956. When it was launched, it was one of the first striking guitars to be equipped with an electromagnetic pickup - for sound amplification via an electric guitar amplifier . Due to the higher playing volumes that can be achieved, the ES-150 played a pioneering role in the change in the importance of guitars in music groups and orchestras - from a pure accompanying instrument to a fully-fledged solo instrument. This equipment and the sales figures made the ES-150 (as Electric Spanish Guitar ) the first successfully industrially mass-produced instrument of the genre known today as the electric guitar .

Construction way

The ES-150 model is based on the Gibson L-50 acoustic guitar and its construction is largely similar to a conventional acoustic percussion guitar with a hollow 16-1 / 4-inch full resonance body ( hollow body , 16.25 ″). The first copies had a solid spruce wood hand-carved vaulted ceiling ( archtop or Carved Top ) with F-sound holes and a flat body floor and sides made of solid maple . The top of the carcass was painted in a two-tone color gradient ( sunburst ) ; The floor and ceiling were provided with a simple cream-colored binding . From 1940 instruments of this type were equipped with a domed bottom. However, the ES-150 does not yet have the body cut ( cutaway ) at the foot of the instrument neck, which is characteristic of the following Gibson archtop guitar models . The neck of the guitar is made of mahogany - with a glued fingerboard from rosewood with dot inlays (Dot marker) from mother of pearl ; The carved, height-adjustable bridge is also made of rosewood . The steel strings of the instrument are at Korpusfuß on a simple trapezoidal tailpiece (Trapeze tailpiece) of nickel attached metal.

The specialty of the model was at the time of its introduction in the electrical system, especially in its permanently mounted electromagnetic pickup. It is a Einzelspuler ( single coil ) with a single, lying transversely under the strings, the plate shaped pole piece (Bar Pickup) . The pole head, equipped with a characteristic hexagonal black and white cap made of Bakelite , is fastened with three large screws in a recess in the top just before the fingerboard of the instrument. These screws can also be used to adjust the distance between the pole head and the strings. The largest part of the pickup, its two 11 cm long bar magnets and their wiring, is mounted inside the body under the ceiling. Thanks to its magnetic field, which is weak compared to modern pickups, and a low electrical resistance of between 2.5 and 3.7 kiloohms , the ES-150 pickup has sound properties that are described as "warm and voluminous, but at the same time clear and assertive".

The sound and volume of the electrically amplified sound can be adjusted using two rotary controls ( potentiometers ) with knobs made of Bakelite , which are also installed in the ceiling . The connection to the amplifier is made via a cable with jack plugs; On the guitar, the dedicated socket is integrated into the foot of the tailpiece in the frame.

History and meaning

At least since the advent of jazz - big bands in the twenties of the 20th century guitarist expected in such orchestras of their instruments mainly volume. Their acoustic guitars could hardly hold their own against the much louder wind instruments or a piano in the orchestral sound image due to their limited volume potential, and were therefore committed to a role purely as an accompanying instrument. Some manufacturers, including Gibson, tried to meet the needs of musicians for more volume with their guitar models, initially with increasingly voluminous bodies. At the forefront of this development were very large instruments such as the Gibson L-5 and the Gibson Super 400 until the mid-1930s , but their body dimensions reached the limits of ergonomic playability.

Predecessor: electrically amplified Hawaii guitars

Lap steel prototype: Rickenbacker Frying Pan (1931)

Gibson, along with other manufacturers, had been experimenting with electromagnetic pickups since the 1920s. These were first used in series in the lap steel guitars ( Hawaiian guitars ) that were widespread in the USA at that time . As early as 1931, competitor Rickenbacker , trading under the name Ro-Pat-In until 1934 and later as the Electro String Instrument Corporation , was the first to offer a lap steel with an electromagnetic pickup, the Rickenbacker Frying Pan named after its characteristic shape ("Rickenbacker frying pan ") in program. The pickup of this model developed by George Beauchamp consisted of two horseshoe magnets that formed a kind of bridge over the strings on the bridge of the instrument ("Horseshoe Pickup") . The Frying Pan became a market success for the Rickenbacker company; by 1937 2700 copies of the model were sold.

At Gibson at that time, under the management of General Manager Guy Hart, the general skepticism towards electrically amplified instruments still prevailed . It was not until October 1, 1935, that Gibson followed with a Lap Steel , which, like the Frying Pan, had a metal body and whose pickup had been developed by Gibson engineer Walter Fuller and patented by Gibson since 1933. Since Gibson's customers did not want to make friends with a metal guitar, Gibson was only able to sell 98 pieces in the first half of the year after the model was introduced. Therefore, the company changed the concept and introduced a version of the instrument with a wooden body on January 1, 1936 - the Gibson EH-150 . The production of the lap steel with a metal body was stopped on March 9, 1936.

Predecessor: electrically amplified strike guitars

At about the same time as his lap steel , Rickenbacker brought a strike guitar onto the market that had the same pickup as the "Frying Pan" - the Electro Spanish . Like the ES-150, the instrument had a hollow body without a cutaway , a vaulted top and f- shape sound holes . The model's market success, however, remained marginal: in 1932 the company was able to sell just four copies of the Electro Spanish .

Another of the first strike guitars with electromagnetic pickups came from a former Gibson employee: Lloyd Loar , acoustic engineer and head of Gibson's development department, had experimented with electrical amplification there between 1919 and 1924. Since his designs were rejected by Gibson, he left the company and improved his designs together with other former Gibson employees until they were ready for production. The result of his work, the electrically amplified Vivi-Tone strike guitar, was not a commercial success when it was launched in 1932 due to a lack of buyer acceptance, and production had to be discontinued in the same year.

The manufacturer National also presented its first electrically amplified strike guitar as early as 1935, but it was not until around 1938, after several modernizations of the model and after the market success of the Gibson competitor product, that it was able to achieve significant production figures.

Black painted prototype of the ES-150 (1936)

Market launch and equipment of the ES-150

In May 1936, Gibson introduced in addition to the already introduced in the previous lap steel model EH-150 ( "EH" as an abbreviation for Electric-Hawaiian ) electrically amplifiable Mandolin EM-150 and the electric Tenorbanjo ETB 150 for the first time the impact Guitar ES 150 ("ES" - Electric-Spanish ). All four instruments were offered in combination with the 15-watt tube -type guitar amplifier, also known as the EH-150 or ES-150 . Gibson had the amplifier built by Lyon & Healy due to a lack of own capacities . However, both guitar models were also available without this amplifier. The combination of electric guitar, amplifier and cable was offered at a price of US $ 150 in the launch year (hence the number in the model names), guitar and amplifier each cost around half of that. However, due to delays in adjusting the pickup, the first ES-150s were only available from 1937. Due to the sales success of the ES-150, Gibson also introduced a smaller and more simply equipped version of the model in 1938, the ES-100 at a price of US $ 100, which was produced from 1941 in a further developed version under the model designation ES-125.

The ES-150, Charlie Christian and Eddie Durham

Charlie Christian with the larger model ES-250 (1939)

The ES-150 was best known in August 1939 from the young US jazz guitarist Charlie Christian , who from then on used it together with the Gibson amplifier in the big band and ensembles of Benny Goodman . Christian first met the ES-150 in 1937 in Oklahoma City at a jam session with Count Basie's big band . Whose guitarist Eddie Durham , of which the first gramophone recordings with electric guitar comes, instructed the young Christian not only in playing melodies on the instrument; Durham also influenced his younger colleague to switch from the acoustic to the electrically amplified guitar. Quote from Durham:

“That was at the end of 1937, and I'll never forget the old, pissed-off [sic!] Five-dollar guitar [...] he had with him. [...] I can't imagine that Charlie had ever seen a guitar with an amplifier before he met me. That was the year before they hit the market, and then he got one himself. "

Since both the sound of an electrically amplified guitar and the melody play of individual notes instead of chords (such as guitar solos in a big band) made possible by the amplification even in loud orchestras was new and unfamiliar to most listeners at this time, the tone became The ES-150 is often confused with that of a wind instrument such as the tenor saxophone . Even other guitarists were initially fooled by the first hearing impression. For example, jazz guitarist Mary Osborne , whose guitar playing was influenced by Charlie Christian, reports on her colleague's first listening experience:

“She remembers that when she entered the club she heard a sound that looked like that of a tenor sax strangely distorted by an amplification system. When she saw Charlie, she realized that what she was hearing was an electric guitar that played single-line solos and fitted into the ensemble like a horn that played with tenor sax and trumpet in the ensemble. "

It was largely Christian who, through his solo playing and the use of melody lines, revolutionized the role of the guitar in the orchestral structure to a full-fledged solo instrument. From him the call has been handed down: “Guitarists, wake up and play! Wire up the sound so they can hear you play! ”Because of Charlie Christian's popularity and importance for the history of jazz and popular guitar music, the type of pickup built into the Gibson ES-150 is now generally known in professional circles as a“ Charlie Christian pickup ”.

Tiny Grimes with Gibson EST-150 tenor guitar, circa 1947. Photograph by William P. Gottlieb
Two copies of the larger model ES-250, in the background the combo amplifier ES-150

Further development and discontinuation of production

The "Charlie Christian" pickup was also used in an expanded model of the ES-150 - the ES-250, which was only produced from 1939 to 1940 and is identical except for the body diameter that has been enlarged to 17 inches .

At the end of the 1930s, Gibson introduced the EST-150, a four-string tenor guitar variant of the ES-150. The design and technical equipment were largely the same as the six-string model. From 1946 this tenor guitar was renamed ETG-150 (Electric Tenor Guitar) and, like the ES-150, was equipped with a P-90 single coil pickup; a partial edition of the ETG-150 was offered with two pickups of this type.

The first model generation of the ES-150 was manufactured until 1942, when Gibson, like other manufacturers, had to stop the production of musical instruments in favor of war-essential goods due to the entry of the USA into World War II . By then, Gibson had sold around 375 ES-150s. In 1946, after the end of the war, production was resumed and the ES-150 was offered in a slightly modernized version with a different cartridge. The characteristic "Christian" pickup has been replaced by a further developed model, the P-90 single spooler, which Gibson has used in various electric guitar models up to the present day.

Due to increasing competition from guitar models from other manufacturers, production of the ES-150 was discontinued around 1956 due to falling sales in favor of other, more elaborately built and further developed instruments by the company (such as the Gibson ES-175, which was introduced in 1949 ). In 1946 Gibson was able to sell 555 ES-150s, in 1956 there were only 6. The only exception to production was the ETG-150, which was manufactured until 1971. In the course of the following decades, well-preserved instruments of the type ES-150 became rarities, which are now sold by collectors at high prices.

Known players

literature

  • Tony Bacon: Guitar classics - all models and manufacturers . Premio-Verlag 2007, ISBN 978-3-86706-050-9
  • Tony Bacon, Dave Hunter: Totally Guitar - the Definitive Guide (guitar encyclopedia, English). Backbeat Books, London 2004. ISBN 1-871547-81-4
  • George Gruhn, Walter Carter: Electric Guitars & Basses . PPV Verlag, Bergkirchen 1999. ISBN 3-932275-04-7
  • Thomas Kosche: Charlie Christian & the Gibson ES-150 - two handicaps and no cutaway . Article in the magazine Guitar & Bass - Das Musik- Fachmagazin , Issue 12/2004, p. 76 ff. MM-Musik-Media-Verlag, Ulm. ISSN  0934-7674
  • Thomas Kosche: Wire up the sound so they can hear you playing! - Article in electric guitars , special issue of the magazine Guitar & Bass on the history of the electric guitar. MM-Musik-Media-Verlag, Ulm 2004. ISSN  0934-7674
  • Carlo May: Vintage guitars and their stories . Inside: Chapter Gibson's first electric guitar - The EH-150 model . MM-Musik-Media-Verlag, Ulm 1994, ISBN 3-927954-10-1 , p. 80 ff.
  • Alexander Schmitz: jazz guitarist . In it: Chapter Eddie Durham and Charlie Christian , pp. 60 ff. Published in the Collection Jazz series . Oreos Verlag, Schaftlach 1992. ISBN 3-923657-37-4

Web links

Commons : Gibson ES-150  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Bacon: Guitar Classics, p. 57
  2. ↑ Gruhn, Carter, p. 55 f.
  3. ↑ a b c Michael Simmons: Vintage - 1951 Gibson ES-150 in: Guitar & Bass - the musician specialist magazine, June 2010 issue, p. 230 f.
  4. ↑ a b c d Guitar & Bass , issue 12/2004, p. 76 ff.
  5. ↑ a b c d e May: Vintage guitars and their stories , p. 80 ff .: Gibson's first electric guitar - The EH-150 model
  6. ↑ Seymour Duncan, pickup manufacturer, on the technology and sound characteristics of the "Charlie Christian pickup". ( Memento from January 31, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) kokomomusic.com (English) accessed on June 22, 2010
  7. ^ Phil Emerson: Food for thought - Charlie Christian bar pickups . ( Memento of July 24, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) kokomomusic.com (English) accessed on June 22, 2010
  8. ^ Totally Guitar , p. 391
  9. ^ A b Gruhn, Carter: Electric guitars and basses . P. 10
  10. ↑ a b Bacon: Gitarrenklassiker, p. 54 f.
  11. ↑ a b Schmitz: Jazzgitarristen , p. 61
  12. ↑ a b Gruhn, Carter, p. 21 ff.
  13. ↑ Gruhn, Carter, p. 42 ff .: Spanish Necks: Vivi-Tone
  14. ↑ Gruhn, Carter, p. 54: Spanish Necks: Hollowbodies
  15. ↑ The ES-150 on the Gibson website ( Memento from March 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
  16. ↑ Helmuth Lemme: Electric guitars - technology and sound . Elektor-Verlag, Aachen 2003, ISBN 3-89576-111-7 , p. 16.
  17. ↑ Electric guitars , p. 43.
  18. ↑ Gruhn, Carter, p. 56 f.
  19. ^ Schmitz: Jazzgitarristen , p. 347
  20. ↑ Helmuth Lemme: Electric guitars - technology and sound . Elektor-Verlag, Aachen 2003, ISBN 3-89576-111-7 , p. 17
  21. ^ Eddie Durham, quoted from Leonard Feather , translated by Alexander Schmitz in: Jazzgitarristen , p. 65
  22. ↑ Al Avakian and Bob Prince, quoted from Bill Simon, translated by Alexander Schmitz in: Jazzgitarristen , p. 66. The outdated spelling of the German translation has been retained.
  23. ^ Charlie Christian, quoted from Helmuth Lemme, in: Electric guitars - technology and sound . Elektor-Verlag, Aachen 2003, ISBN 3-89576-111-7 , p. 17
  24. ↑ a b May: Vintage guitars and their stories , p. 88 f.
  25. ↑ Alvino Rey on the Gibson company website ( Memento from August 10, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on June 28, 2010 .