Take Off Guitar: Herb Ellis

Herb Ellis

Mitchell Herbert "Herb" Ellis was born August 4 1921 in Farmersville, Texas and raised outside of Dallas Texas. Ellis went to North Texas State University as a music major but studied upright bass because the collage did not have a guitar program yet. He was forced to drop his studies because of lack of funds and he dropped out in 1941. After collage he toured with a band for about six months with musicians from University of Kansas. In 1943 Herb Joined Glen Gray's Casa Lomba Orchestra and started to receive Recognition for his talents. Soon after Ellis moved on to Jimmy Dorsey's band and he recorded some of his first Solos. Herb toured and recorded extensively with Dorsey until 1947.

Herb With Jimmy Dorsey Band 1946

Dorsey took six months off in 1947 and Ellis along with pianist John Frigo and bassist Lou Carter formed Soft winds and stayed at the Peter Stuyvesent Hotel in Buffalo New York. They wrote the song Detour Ahead during this time.

Ellis left John Frigo center and Lou Carter right

An Older Ellis Preforming Detour Ahead

Herb Stayed with Soft Winds until 1952 and in 1953 he joined The Oscar Peterson trio with Ray Brown on upright bass. This group is considered one of the best jazz Trios to ever exist. The trio was the house backing band for verve Records backing Stan Getz, Roy Eldridge and Dizzy Gillespie and with drummer Buddy Rich they were the backing band for Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong duets.

Ellis in Studio

With Peterson Trio 1950s

Trio Live in Amsterdam 1958

With the Oscar Peterson trio 1950s

Ellis Left the Oscar Peterson Trio in November of 1958 and Peterson did not replace him with another guitar player but a drummer Ed Thingpen. From 1958 to 1960 Ellis tour and recorded with Ella Fitzgerald

Herb Ellis & Ray Brown or bass Backing Ella Fitzgerald in 1957

Herb Ellis and Barney Kessel Playing the George and Ira Gershwin standard Lady Be Good

Gibson ES-165 Herb Ellis

Gibson gave Ellis a signature guitar in 1991 the guitar is essentially a ES-175 with one pickup. It had a gibson 490r pickup in the neck position, in 2004 the 490r was replaced by a floating BRB hum bucking pickup and the tone control was removed. The scale length is 24 and three quarter inch with a 20 fret neck the width a the nut is 1 11/16 inch. the fingerboard is bound and is rosewood with parallelogram inlays. The pre 2004 ES-165s had a rounded jazz profile neck but after 2004 the profile was changed to a standard gibson profile. The body of the guitar is fully hollow with two internal lateral braces. The Dimensions are the same as a Gibson ES-175 16 inches at the bout and 3.3 inches deep.

after November 1991 the ES-165 started silkscreening Ellis's signature on the headstock

2004 model with floating pickup and no tone control

Ellis used a Van Eps String Damper on his guitar the device attached at the trusrod cover and dampened the strings so fretted and open strings sounded the same.