The Gibson ES-5 is a hollow-body electric guitar produced by the
Gibson Guitar Corporation
Gibson, Inc. (formerly Gibson Guitar Corporation and Gibson Brands Inc.) is an American manufacturer of Guitar manufacturing, guitars, other musical instruments, and professional audio equipment from Kalamazoo, Michigan, and now based in Nashvi ...
as part of the ES, or "Electric Spanish" series of guitars.
History
The ES-5 was intended to be an electric version of their popular
Gibson L-5
The Gibson L-5 is a hollow body guitar first produced in 1923 by the Gibson Guitar Corporation, then of Kalamazoo, Michigan. One of the first guitars to feature F-holes, the L-5 was designed under the direction of acoustical engineer and desi ...
acoustic jazz model. The ES-5 was introduced in 1949, and offered several innovative features which have become standard within the industry. The ES-5 was the first model of the ES-series to offer three pickups. Unlike other multiple-pickup models of its era, the ES-5 used three different volume knobs (one for each pickup and one master tone) rather than a selector switch, to offer players improved control over their tone. The model was not as popular as other models of the ES-series, nor as popular as similar models by other manufacturers, such as the
Epiphone
Epiphone () is an American musical instrument brand that traces its roots to a musical instrument manufacturing business founded in 1873 by Anastasios Stathopoulos in İzmir, Ottoman Empire, and moved to New York City in 1908. After taking over ...
Zephyr Emperor. In 1955 the model became the ES-5 Switchmaster, which incorporated a four-position selector switch, along with a new six-knob configuration, incorporating a volume and a tone knob for each pickup. The ES-5 Switchmaster was produced until 1962. It remained out of production until a 1995 reissue from the Gibson Custom division. New models of the reissue are still available today. The original models used
P-90
The P-90 (sometimes written P90) is a single coil electric guitar pickup produced by Gibson Guitar Corporation since 1946, as well as other vendors. Compared to other single coil designs, such as the Fender single coil, the bobbin for a P-90 ...
single coil
A single-coil pickup is a type of magnetic transducer, or pickup, for the electric guitar and the electric bass. It electromagnetically converts the vibration of the strings to an electric signal. Single-coil pickups are one of the two most po ...
humbucker
A humbucker, humbucking pickup, or double coil, is a guitar pickup that uses two wire coils to cancel out noisy interference from Single coil guitar pickup, coil pickups. Humbucking coils are also used in Microphone, dynamic microphones to can ...
pickups.
Notable users
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T-Bone Walker
Aaron Thibeaux "T-Bone" Walker (May 28, 1910 – March 16, 1975) was an American blues musician, composer, songwriter and bandleader, who was a pioneer and innovator of the jump blues, West Coast blues, and electric blues sounds. In 2018 ''R ...
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Lowell Fulson
Lowell Fulson (March 31, 1921March 7, 1999) was an American blues guitarist and songwriter, in the West Coast blues tradition. He also recorded for contractual reasons as Lowell Fullsom and Lowell Fulsom. After T-Bone Walker, he was the most i ...
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Roy Gaines
Roy James Gaines (August 12, 1937 – August 11, 2021) was an American Texas blues and electric blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He wrote and recorded the song "A Hell of a Night", which was first issued on his 1982 album ''Gainelining''. ...
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J. Geils
John Warren Geils Jr. () (February 20, 1946 – April 11, 2017), known professionally as J. Geils or Jay Geils, was an American guitarist. He was known as the leader of the J. Geils Band.
Growing up in New York City, Geils became interested in ...
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Wes Montgomery
John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery (March 6, 1923 – June 15, 1968) was an American jazz guitarist. Montgomery was known for his unusual technique of plucking the strings with the side of his thumb and for his extensive use of octaves, which gave him a ...
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Carl Perkins
Carl Lee Perkins (April 9, 1932 – January 19, 1998)#nytimesobit, Pareles. was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. A rockabilly great and pioneer of rock and roll, he began his recording career at the Sun Studio, in Memphis, Tennes ...
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B.B. King
Riley B. King (September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015), known professionally as B.B. King, was an American blues guitarist, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending, sh ...
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Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American guitarist, composer, and bandleader. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed Rock music, rock, Pop music, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestra ...
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Steve Howe
Stephen James Howe (born 8 April 1947) is an English musician, best known as the guitarist and backing vocalist in the progressive rock band Yes (band), Yes across three stints since 1970. Born in Holloway, London, Holloway, North London, Howe d ...
Kid Ramos
Kid Ramos (born January 13, 1959) is an American electric blues and blues rock guitarist, singer and songwriter. Ramos has released four solo albums since 1995 on Black Top and Evidence Records. He has worked with James Harman, Roomful of ...
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Junior Watson
Junior Watson is an American jump blues guitarist and singer.
Career
Watson is a West Coast blues guitarist. He was a founding member of the blues band The Mighty Flyers and, starting in the early 1980s, he performed with the band for a decade. ...
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Dave Edmunds
David William Edmunds (born 15 April 1944) is a Welsh retired singer, songwriter, guitarist and record producer. Although he is mainly associated with Pub rock (United Kingdom), pub rock and New wave music, new wave, having many hit record, h ...
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Mark Knopfler
Mark Freuder Knopfler OBE (born 12 August 1949) is a British musician. He was the lead guitarist, singer and songwriter of the rock band Dire Straits from 1977 to 1995, and he is the one of the two members who stayed during the band's existence ...
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Jimmy Page
James Patrick Page (born 9 January 1944) is an English musician and producer who achieved international success as the guitarist and founder of the Rock music, rock band Led Zeppelin.
Page began his career as a studio session musician in Lo ...
* Howard Gordon, guitarist of
The Chuck Wagon Gang
The Chuck Wagon Gang is a Country gospel musical group, formed in 1935 by David P. ("Dad") Carter, oldest son Ernest ("Jim") along with daughters Lola ("Rose") and Effie ("Anna").Bob Terrell ''The Chuck Wagon Gang: A Legend Lives On'' 1990 The g ...
during the 1950s and 60s
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Jimmy Nolen
Jimmy Nolen (April 3, 1934 – December 18, 1983) - accessed November 13, 2011 was an American
* Jimmy Pruett, country musician who played guitar and piano and was blind"Jimmy Pruett," Hillbilly-Music.com. Retrieved August 3, 2024.