article

This article is about the American musical instrument manufacturer. For other uses see Gibson (disambiguation).

Gibson Guitar Corporation is one of the world's best-known manufacturers of acoustic and electric guitars.

History

Orville Gibson (born 1856, Chateaugay, N.Y.) started making mandolins in 1894 in Kalamazoo, Michigan USA. The mandolins were distinctive in that they featured a carved, arched solid wood top and back and bent wood sides. Prior to this mandolins had a flat solid wood top and a bowl-like back (similar to a Lute) made of multiple strips of wood. These bowl-back mandolins were very fragile and unstable. Gibson, described them as, "looking like potato bugs." Gibson's innovation made a better-sounding mandolin that was immensely easier to manufacture. The popularity of the mandolin in these days led to a demand for Gibson's mandolins.

In 1902, the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Mfg. Co, Ltd. was founded to market the instruments. Within a short period after the company was started, the board passed a motion that "Orville H. Gibson be paid only for the actual time he works for the Company." After that time, there is no clear indication whether he worked there full-time, or as a consultant. Gibson was considered a bit eccentric and there has been some question over the years as to whether or not he suffered from some sort of mental illness.

Starting in 1908, Orville was paid a salary of $500 by Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Co., Limited (equivalent to $20,000 a year in modern terms). He had a number of stays in hospitals between 1907 and 1911. In 1916, he was again hospitalized, and died on August 21 1918 in St. Lawrence State Hospital, a psychiatric center in Ogdensburg, N.Y.

During the 1920s and 1930s, the Gibson company was responsible for many innovations in guitar design, and became the leading manufacturer of arch-top guitars, particularly the Gibson L5 model. In 1936 they introduced their first "Electric Spanish" model, the ES-150, generally recognized as the first commercially successful electric guitar.

In 1952, Gibson launched a solid-bodied guitar designed in collaboration with the popular guitarist Les Paul. The late 1950s saw a number of innovative new designs including the eccentrically-shaped Gibson Explorer and Flying V and the semi-acoustic ES-335, and the introduction of the "humbucker" pickup. The Les Paul was offered in several models, including the Custom, the Standard, the Special and the Junior. In 1961, the body design of the Les Paul was changed, due to the high cost of making the elaborate maple/mahogany body. Les Paul did not care for the new body style and let his endorsement lapse, and the new body design then became known as the Gibson SG. The Les Paul returned to the Gibson catalogue in 1968 due to the influence of players such as Eric Clapton and Peter Green. Both the Les Paul and the SG later became very popular with hard rock and heavy metal guitarists; Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin and Dickey Betts of The Allman Brothers Band are known for their preference for a Les Paul Standard, and Angus Young of AC/DC and Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath are some of the more well-known SG players.

Between 1974 and 1984, production of Gibson guitars was shifted from Kalamazoo to Nashville, Tennessee. Further production plants were also opened in Memphis, Tennessee as well as Bozeman, Montana. The Memphis facility is used for semi-hollow and custom shop instruments, while the Bozeman facility is dedicated to acoustic instruments.

Following financial troubles, the Gibson Guitar Corp. was bought by Henry E. Juszkiewicz, David H. Berryman and Gary A. Zebrowski in early 1986. The survival and success of Gibson today is largely attributed to this change in ownership. Currently, Juszkiewicz stands as CEO and Berryman as president of the company.

Authorized Copies

Gibson is well-known for making top quality guitars, but at a quite hefty price. Therefore over the years several manufacturers, including their current subsidiary company, Epiphone, have built less expensive variations of their best-selling guitars. These are often made overseas in Japan, South Korea or China.

Prior to Gibson's decision to do all of their more inexpensive versions through Epiphone, another Japanese Gibson subsidiary called Orville By Gibson (after Mr. Gibson himself) did many such copies. These are widely acclaimed to be of a much higher quality than the current Epiphone output. Indeed the better, older Orville copies are now collector pieces in their own right. More mature guitarists will recall Epiphone only took on exclusivity over the cheaper end of the official Gibson copy market relatively recently in the early 1990's. Orville are rumoured to be still going, but only doing higher quality Gibson copies, much like fellow Japanese Gibson copiers, Tokai Guitars, also widely acclaimed for the quality of their instruments.

Unauthorized Copies

Gibson has come under fire from many in the music industry as being too defensive of their Les Paul body style. On multiple occasions, they have sought legal action against other guitar manufacturers who implement similar body styles in their designs. The first such action was against Ibanez, which had fabricated a near-identical copy of the Les Paul. This 1977 lawsuit was not over Ibanez's copy of the Les Paul's body shape, but instead for their use of Gibson's 'open book' headstock shape (even though Ibanez had redesigned the headstock of their Les Paul copies in 1976). More recently, Gibson sued PRS Guitars, forcing them to stop making their Single Cut Trem, which is much less similar to the Les Paul in both appearance and playability than the earlier Ibanez models. The ruling was later overturned and PRS has resumed production of the Single Cut line.

Subsidiary Companies

Many other instrument manufacturers are owned by Gibson including Kramer and Steinberger guitars, as well as Tobias which specializes in bass guitars, Baldwin which makes pianos, Oberheim which makes effects processors and MIDI gear, and Slingerland drums. The Gibson company also makes Gibson-branded amplifiers. The Maestro brand was used in the '60s and '70 for Gibson-produced stompboxes, the most famous of which was the Maestro Fuzz-Tone, an early distortion pedal (immortalized by The Rolling Stones on their 1965 hit "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction". Another related company is the Heritage Guitars company -- an independent guitar company founded by former Gibson employees during Gibson's move to Nashville.

Gibson Bass Guitars

Despite being such a revered six-string guitar manufacturer, Gibson, unlike Fender, has never quite earned the same level of "respect" from their line of basses. Although there are a few notable models such the Thunderbird (based on the Firebird), the EB series (based on the SG), the Ripper, and the Grabber, both first manufactured in the 1970s.

Gibson Bluegrass Showcase

Many of Gibson's bluegrass instruments (such as the banjo and violin) are assembled at the "Gibson Bluegrass Showcase" at Opry Mills Mall in Nashville. The mini-factory is open to the public and also houses a store selling the full line of Gibson products and a small concert venue which doubles as a restaurant.

Artists who use Gibson Instruments

Gibson Electric Guitars

Gibson Acoustic Guitars

Gibson Bass Guitars

See also

External Links

Electric guitars | Guitar manufacturers | Banjo manufacturers | Companies based in Tennessee | Businesses in Nashville

Gibson | Gibson Guitar Corporation | Gibson Guitar Corporation | Gibson | Gibson | גיבסון (חברת גיטרות) | Gibson | ギブソン社 | Gibson | Gibson | Gibson | Gibson

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Gibson Guitar Corporation".

Home Page • arts • business • computers • games • health • hospitals • home • kids & teens • news • physicians • recreation• reference • regional • science • shopping • society • sports • world