Guitar Aficionado: Steve Howe's Circa-1964 Gibson ES-175

Epic Ink recently unveiled The Guitar Collection, a lavishly over-sized tome showcasing the most culturally important, historically significant and visually stunning guitars ever made, from Billy Gibbons’ “Pearly Gates” 1959 Gibson Les Paul, to Stevie Ray Vaughan’s “Number One” 1962 Fender Stratocaster, to Eric Clapton’s “Crossroads” 1964 Gibson ES-335TDC.

Presented in a custom-made leather guitar-style case, this package is a superb collector’s limited edition that is a fitting homage to these instruments from the world’s most exclusive public and private collections.

Guitar Aficionado’s Nov/Dec issue, on stands soon, contains an in-depth story on the making of this ambitious new tome as well an excerpt of the guitars featured within. As an added bonus, we’ll be spotlighting one more legendary instrument from the Collection here every Wednesday.

Copies of the book are available at www.theguitarcollectionbook.com as well at select high-end retailers like John Varvatos.

In 1964, a seventeen-year-old guitarist named Steve Howe walked into the Selmer music store in London and special-ordered this Gibson ES-175. A hollowbody electric was an unusual choice for a future rock star, but one of Howe’s strongest influences was jazz player Barney Kessel, who played a Gibson Super 400CES hollowbody.

Head to guitaraficionado.com for the rest of this story.