In 1949, two years after Gibson added a cutaway to it’s 17-inch ES-300, making it the ES-350, Gibson did the same with it’s 16-inch ES-125.

For the cutaway version, Gibson once again added 50 “points” to the model number and called the new guitar the ES-175. The model’s pointed “Florentine” cutaway made it unique among Gibson’s electric archtop models of the 1950s.

Continuing to follow the ES-350’s example, Gibson introduced a two-pickup version of the ES-175 in 1951, and this comfortable, 16-inch, laminated-maple electric hollowbody quickly became one of Gibson’s more successful electrics. The single-pickup ES-175 gained a reputation as the workhorse guitar of the jazz guitar world with such artists as Kenny Burrell and Jim Hall.

Herb Ellis was so closely identified with his single-pickup ES-175 that it became the ES-165 Herb Ellis signature model in 1991.