It experienced immediate success and became one of Gibson's most popular guitar designs.

[3] The 175 was designed as a hollowbody electric archtop featuring a single florentine cutaway.

[1] The guitar had a maple laminated top, back and sides, with a set-neck made of mahogany.

[4] The cutaway and the amplification of a jazz guitar allowed players to use the uppermost frets on the neck during performances.

[6] The first versions had one single-coil P-90 pickup which was set close to the neck: there were two controls for volume and tone.