Gibson ES-150 - History

History

The ES-150 was developed and released in association with two US retailers, Montgomery Ward and Spiegel. It was preceded by Gibson adding ancillary piezo pickups to its regular acoustic guitars. The company had developed an electromagnetic pickup in 1935 (the now-famous "bar pickup", named for its shape), which was initially factory-installed only on lap steel guitar (EH) models, then offered as an accessory and finally installed on acoustic guitars (the L-00 and L-1 models).

Those elecrified guitars proved so successful that soon two retailers, Montgomery Ward and Spiegel May Stern, suggested Gibson build the ES model, in the summer of 1936. Montgomery Ward was the first to offer them for sale, as the 1270 model. It had Gibson's bar pickup (though with rounded bobbins, as opposed to the hexagonal pickup Gibson later installed on its own factory models), a volume control (no tone); like Spiegel's 34-S model (fist advertised in 1937) it lacked any Gibson identification. Spiegel received 42 of those instruments between January and August 1937 before it cut them from the catalog. The contract with Montgomery Ward ran until 1940; an estimated 900 instruments with the 1270 designation were made.

Gibson's "own" ES-150 was first announced in December 1936. It had minor changes from the contract models, such as a solid spruce top, maple back and sides, and an adjustable truss-rod. The instrument sold for $155 including cord, six-tube amplifier, and case. The pickup placement, closer to the instrument's neck than on Gibson's EH steel guitars and on guitars made by other manufacturers, produced a warmer, less "trebly" tone which suited the instrument well for jazz and blues. The first guitar was delivered on December 3, 1936, and in 1937, the model's peak year, an average of forty guitars a month were shipped. In early 1937 Gibson also began shipping two other versions: a tenor guitar (the EST-150, with four strings and a 23" scale, renamed the ETG-150 in 1940) and a plectrum version (the EPG-150, with a 27" scale). Early players were Eddie Durham, Floyd Smith and the most famous of them, Charlie Christian.