Antoria ES-175D

Cherry sunburst finish under deep gloss lacquer.
Big archtop body with soundpost inside. Florentine cutaway.
The bridge is a floating Tune-o-Matic with a trapeze tailpiece.
The tuners are unbranded tulip-buttoned chrome, that worked well when new but are a little worn now.
The neck is round and very thin, with low frets of indifferent quality set into a rosewood fingerboard, along with very badly fitted celluloid inlays.It plays outrageously fast, though .
It came with a poor quality case that looked good but fell to bits after a few months, and a combination Allen key/Phillips screwdriver for adjusting setup.
It was made, probably in 1974 (purchased early'75) in Japan
It has 20 frets and a 24 3/4 "scale
The top is laminated and fairly stiff, so it is not particularly loud as an acoustic, but has a fairly high feedback threshold.
It has tone and volume for each pickup and a 3-way selector switch
The pickups are presumably Fuji-Gen. They are lidded humbuckers with a modest output and a lovely tone resembling a Gibson P-90 single coil. They are genuine Humbuckers, though, you can feel the pull of the magnets with a tuning fork
The electronics are passive.
The body is a light wood, probably maple, for the laminated top while the back, sides and neck are all mahogany.

At the time of purchase I was very much into classic rock'n'roll, but I found the guitar adequate for a move towards heavy rock in the following years. I have also used it for solo acoustic performances, but the lightness of the tone is ill-matched to my coarse baritone voice.
A 15w Peavey Companion Studio amp, or I have gigged it with a 50w Marshall Artiste.
It is far and away the least noisy guitar I have ever tried.
The neck pickup can be warm and jazzy clean and makes a nice singing melodic rock sound dirty. The combination is lean and funky, while the bridge pickup alone is a shrill rockabilly sound, also good for getting heard in jam sessions with people who can't sort the overall sound out.
If the tone controls on the amp are sensibly set you can't get a bad sound out of this guitar.

The setup on purchase was poor.
The body still contains enough polishing dust to sometimes clog the electrics, the fingerboard inlays are very badly fitted. Although the neck is stable the sections of the 3-piece construction are not centrally aligned.

It has stood gigging and busking as both an elactric and an acoustic.
The tuners are not as good as they once were. The lacquer is very thick and tough and has collected only a few minor scuffs in 32 years.
The one strap button supplied was good enough,but I had to get an upper bout button custom fitted.
I have depended on it, although the selector switch gets fouled with dust sometimes, so I never use it mid-song in case it does not work first time.
Before I had other guitars, always, and even since, sometimes.

No problems

33 years playing. These days this guitar is no.3 behind a magnificent Zemaitis and a humble but useful Squier Strat.
If it were lost that would be that - I don't think I could get another hard rock players' semi-acoustic for a price that the use would justify.
I chose it because I wanted a twangy but gutsy rockabilly sound. By the time I was good enough to play that kind of stuff I no longer wanted to, but it has still been good for heavy stuff

This guitar is an early to mid seventies Japanese Antoria copy of a Gibson ES175D which was made by the same manafacturer as Ibanez guitars of the same period. It is a two humbucker, deep bodied, single cutaway jazz guitar. It has two volume and two tone controls and a tune-o-matic floating bridge. I have no idea what the original pick ups or machine heads were and I have replaced both items. The body is laminated and is finished in sunburst. The fixed neck is three piece maple (I think) stained to look like mahogony with a bound rosewood fingerboard.No accessories included.

The sound of this guitar is exactly what you would expect from its look. The pickups have been replaced with a Seymour Duncan PAF in the bridge position and an ESP in the neck position. I use this guitar with a small Peavey amp live or a Behringer V-AMP for recording. The bridge pick up is a little redundant as for jazz I only use the neck pick up but, if you back off the tone control a little, the bridge position is good for blues. Both together have quite a funky sound.

I got this guitar secondhand as a straight swap for a (dog of a) seventies Epiphone. When I got it, it was a bit sick but very sound. I replaced most of the electrics, put a set of Gotoh pearl tulip tuning heads on and replaced the tune-o-matic with a Gibson one. Some of the detailing is a bit rough but only cosmetically. The action is the lowest I have ever managed or seen on any guitar and it must have had professional attention at some time. The neck is just perfect.

I`ve used it loads of times live and nothing bothers it. I had to fit the original covers to the replacement pickups and they have pitted a bit over the years but the rest of the fittings are still OK. The finish has got a few scratches and dings over the years but nothing to worry about. It`s never let me down. As I only use it for jazz gigs I never take a backup as probably the worst that`s going to happen is a broken string or two.

No idea

I`ve been playing for forty years and own quite a few other guitars including a real, early sixties Gibson ES175D. I actually prefer playing this copy to the Gibson as the neck and action really is excellent. In fairness the Gibson has the edge in the sound department but only just. If it were lost or stolen I don`t think it would be replaceable. I`ve tried same period Ibanez models and they were good, but not as good as this.