Thank you Gahr. If I am not mistaken, George plays Es 125's with P90's.
Here is Geo himself.
You also had a distinctive low-down guitar tone, right out of the box.
"Nobody else wanted to play that cheap guitar. It’s not like a Les Paul. I didn’t have any money when we started the band. I had to buy an ES-125. Plus I was a thumb and finger picker who played acoustic guitar first, and the arched top made the ES-125 feel like an acoustic. It was what they called a semi-electric in those days — almost like an acoustic guitar with pickups. And I had my pick of them because nobody else wanted them. It was a dirty, gruff sound. I figured when people listened to it they would know it was me, at least by the tone if not the phrasing of the guitar."
When George Thorogood picks up his ES-125 and starts playing, it’s obvious the sound is coming from George Thorogood. He champions a thick, low-down guitar tone that simply has a great vibe.
“Over my career, two people have come up to me to talk to me about the tone of my guitar,” he told Gibson.com. “One was actually the guitarist for Paul McCartney, and they said they were knocked out by the tone of my guitar, and the other was once the guitar player of Muddy Waters, who was extremely interested in how I got my tone.”
You're known for having a long history with the ES-125. Tell me the story of how you fell in love with the ES-125.
It’s a very good story, and I'm glad you asked. If you have the time, I’ll try to consolidate it into 1,000 words or less. (Laughs). I was playing primarily acoustic guitars, and I needed an electric, and this was a guitar that everybody wanted. It was at a shop, way up at the top of the shelf– that’s where they put the good stuff so nobody steals it. When I got back into town after traveling a lot and needed a guitar, I went to the shop and looked up, and the guitar was still there. I sat there for years. I said, “I’d like to try that guitar,” and they wouldn’t even let me touch it. They said that to play it, I would have to buy it. So, it was just kind of blind faith. It’s a semi-hollow body, and the strings were elevated off the body, and it had a very nice sound with the P90s, so when you put it in open tuning, there was a very, very full sound. When I played it, 1,000 ideas popped into my head. This was just the guitar for me. I've tried a ton of other guitars, and none of them work for me, so that's the only guitar I want to play.
