Can anyone tell me about my Miller es-175? (pics)

[park]

I've been wanting an es-175 style guitar for a while. I'd never shell out the cash for a Gibson, so I've been keeping my eye out for comparable Venturas, Ibanezes or Grecos. I saw a Miller es-175 pop up on Ebay a while ago. It seemed nice from the pics, though it had a sizable binding repair. While I was watching that auction, another one popped up with a Buy It Now price of $500. I bought it right away. I think the auction had only been active for a few minutes. I was a little trepidatious about it because the auction pics were not that good and the description was sketchy.

The guitar was delivered yesterday and I'm blown away by it. It's a solid 9 out of 10. No dings, dents or scratches. A little tarnish, but not much. 4 ply maple top and back and a mahogany neck. 3 ply neck binding and 7 ply on the body front. 4 ply pickguard. Parallelogram inlays and a nice solid (not stamped metal) tail. Beautiful tone, though I haven't played it all that much as yet. It looks and feels like a real quality build. Oh, and it smells great! I had my nose in the f-hole trying to find a label and the guitar smells like real wood. It smells just like by Guild X-175. All of my late model Korean or Chinese guitars smell like glue or chemicals.

But, there are no markings, numbers or labels. Just "Miller". The logo looks exactly like the Miller beer logo. My only clue is from the text of the other Ebay auction. It said that these guitars were imported from Japan in the 1970s by Don C. Miller in Burlington, North Carolina. I haven't been able to find any information to verify that claim. It could be old or it could be new. I can't find any other Miller guitars on the interwebs.

Does anyone have any other info on these guitars? Thanks in advance. Here are some pictures.

[VintAxe]

Hi park.

To me, your guitar looks comparable to an Ibanez 2355 from the mid 1970's. The 2355 has a headstock inlay and metal saddle but in most other respects your guitar looks similar.

I don't know anything about Miller since the only Miller I'm familiar with was jazzbox made by Egmond. Your guitar has nothing in common with the Egmond Miller.



My best guess at the moment is that you have a mid 1970's MIJ that may be from the same factory that was producing Ibanez instruments. It looks like a quality build in the pictures and I think you did well on the price.

[park]