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Gibson Guitar Corporation
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The Gibson Guitar Corporation, of Nashville, Tennessee, USA, is a manufacturer of acoustic and electric guitars. Gibson also owns and makes guitars under such brands as Epiphone, Kramer, Valley Arts, Tobias, Steinberger, and Kalamazoo. In addition to guitars, the company makes pianos through its Baldwin unit, Slingerland drums, as well as many accessory items. Company founder Orville Gibson made mandolins in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in the late 1890s. He invented archtop guitars by using the same type of carved, arched tops in guitars.
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Encyclopedia
The Gibson Guitar Corporation, of Nashville, Tennessee, USA, is a manufacturer of acoustic and electric guitars. Gibson also owns and makes guitars under such brands as Epiphone, Kramer, Valley Arts, Tobias, Steinberger, and Kalamazoo. In addition to guitars, the company makes pianos through its Baldwin unit, Slingerland drums, as well as many accessory items. Company founder Orville Gibson made mandolins in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in the late 1890s. He invented archtop guitars by using the same type of carved, arched tops in guitars. By the 1930s, the company was also making flattop acoustic guitars, as well as the first commercially available hollow-body electric guitars, which were used and popularized by Charlie Christian. In the early 1950s, Gibson introduced its first solid-body electric guitar and its most popular guitar to date—the Les Paul. After being bought by the Norlin corporation in the late 1960s Gibson's quality and fortunes took a steep decline until early 1986, when the company was rescued by its present owners. Gibson Guitar is a privately held corporation (company stock is not publicly traded on a stock exchange), owned by chief executive officer Henry Juszkiewicz and president David H. (Dave) Berryman.
History
Orville Gibson (born 1856, Chateaugay, New York) started making mandolins in Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States. 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. Disdainful of the shape, Orville Gibson characterized them as "potato bugs". Gibson's innovation made a better-sounding mandolin that was immensely easier to manufacture. Orville Gibson's mandolin design, with its single-pieced carved sides and a single-pieced neck, was patented in 1898; it would be the only innovation he patented. Orville Gibson died in 1918
1902–1948
In 1902, the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Mfg. Co, Ltd. was incorporated to market the instruments. Initially, the company produced only Orville Gibson's original designs. Aware of changing trends, the company hired designer Lloyd Loar in 1919 to create newer instruments.
During the 1920s Gibson was responsible for many innovations in guitar and mandolin design. In 1922, the Gibson F5 mandolin model was introduced. That particular model later became known as the ultimate bluegrass mandolin. Gibson soon became the leading manufacturer of archtop guitars, particularly the L-5 model, also a Loar design. Loar left the company in 1924.
In the 1930s, Gibson began exploring the concept of an electric guitar. In 1936 they introduced their first "Electric Spanish" model, the ES-150. Other companies were producing electric guitars but the Gibson is generally recognized as the first commercially successful electric guitar. Other instruments were also "electrified"; such as steel guitars, banjos and mandolins.
During World War II, instrument manufacturing all but ceased at Gibson due to shortages of wood and metal. Gibson did war production instead, making wood parts for various military needs. Such shortages continued for a few years after the war and the only notable change occured in 1946 when the Gibson name on the instrument headstock changed from a cursive script to the block style used to this day. This is seen at the head of the information block at top.
In 1950, music industry veteran, Ted McCarty, was promoted to company president. During his tenure (1950–1966), Gibson greatly expanded and diversified its line of instruments. The first notable addition was the Les Paul guitar. McCarty was
well aware of the strong sales of the Fender Telecaster. In 1950, Gibson decided to make a solid-body guitar of its own according to its own design philosophy . This, despite the fact many other guitar manufacturers were contemptuous of the concept of a solid-body guitar. Although guitarist Les Paul was one of the pioneers of solid-body electric guitar technology, the guitar that became known as the "Les Paul" was developed with very little input from its namesake. After the guitar was designed, Les Paul was asked to sign a contract to endorse the guitar to be named after him. At that point he asked that the tail piece be changed, and that was his only contribution. The "Les Paul" was released in 1952. (Ironically, this tailpiece was changed in 1954.) The "Les Paul" was offered in several models, including the Custom, the Standard, the Studio, the Supreme, the Special and the Junior.
In the mid-50s, the Thinline series was produced. Many guitarists did not like the bulk of a full size archtop and wanted a thinner guitar. The first to be produced was the Byrdland. The first Byrdlands were slim, custom built, L-5 models for guitarists Billy Byrd and Hank Garland. Later, a shorter neck was added. Other guitarists who tried Gibson samples liked the idea and the model went into production. Other models such as the ES-350T and the ES-225T were introduced as less costly alternatives.
In 1958, Gibson introduced the ES-335T model. Similar in size to the hollow-body Thinlines, the ES-335 family had a solid center giving the string tone a longer sustain.
In the late 50s, McCarty was aware the Gibson was perceived as a "conservative" company. He decided to change that. The late 1950s saw the introduction of the "humbucker" pickup, as well as a number of innovative new designs, including the eccentrically-shaped Explorer and Flying V. Suprisingly, these "modernistic" guitars did not sell. It was only in the late 60s and early 70s were the two guitars reintroduced to the market where they sold very well. The Firebird, in the early 60s, was a reprise of the modernistic idea; though less extreme.
In 1961, the body design of the Les Paul was changed, due to the demand for a double-cutaway body design. 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 SG (for "solid guitar"). The "Les Paul" returned to the Gibson catalogue in 1968 due to the influence of players such as Keith Richards, 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, the twin-lead line-up of Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson of Thin Lizzy, Duane Allman, Slash of Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver, and Ace Frehley of Kiss are known for their preference for a Les Paul. Pete Townshend of The Who, Angus Young of AC/DC, Frank Zappa of Mothers of Invention and Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath are some of the more well-known SG players.
The 70s to today
Between 1974 and 1984 production of Gibson guitars was shifted from Kalamazoo to Nashville, Tennessee. The Gibson Guitar Corp. was within three weeks of going out of business before it was bought by Henry E. Juszkiewicz, David H. Berryman, and Gary A. Zebrowski in January 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. More recently new production plants have been opened in Southern and rural areas, such as 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.
In 1994, Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz first heard about the SmartWood program while attending the Rainforest Alliance’s annual gala concert. He reasoned that, by establishing relationships with environmentally farsighted operations, Gibson could secure a sustainable timber supply, thereby ensuring its guitar building future.
Four years later (1998), Gibson had revealed the fruits of those relationships with the . The new line consisted of six guitars featuring tops fashioned from unusual, "smartly" harvested tropical woods. Each guitar listed for $1299 new, and in the spirit of philanthropy, Gibson donated a portion of the profits from the SmartWood guitar sales to the Rainforest Alliance.
Today, one model of Gibson guitars (Robot Guitar) can tune itself in less than 10 seconds using robotic technology developed by Gibson and Tronical Gmbh. While the product was advertised in the American—United States—popular press as a "world's first" similar—some external—systems have been in use for decades for example to tune guitars made by Fender Musical Instruments Corporation and Washburn Guitars.
Subsidiary companies
Many other instrument manufacturers are owned by Gibson including Kramer, Steinberger, Tobias and Valley Arts Guitar. It is now a brand used by Gibson-Baldwin Musical Education, which sells various student guitars under different brand names.
Most recently Gibson has purchased Canadian guitar manufacturer Garrison Guitars, at this time it is unclear what Gibson's plans are for this brand.
Heritage Guitars
Another related company is Heritage Guitars—an independent guitar company founded by former Gibson employees after Gibson's relocation from Kalamazoo to Nashville. The company set up their factory in Gibson's former Kalamazoo premises, and manufactures handmade guitars that are very similar to the Gibson originals.
Authorized copies
On May 10, 1957 Gibson purchased the Epiphone guitar company which at the time was one of their main competitors. The original plan was to continue selling Epiphone's successful upright bass, but soon after Gibson realized they could satisfy requests from music stores by producing Epiphone branded guitars. From the early 1970s the Epiphone brand name has been increasingly used by Gibson for lower priced guitars manufactured in countries other than the United States. Epiphone guitars have been made in the US, Japan, Korea, Indonesia and China. Orville by Gibson was another Gibson authorized brand of guitars that were made and sold in Japan.
Unauthorized copies
On multiple occasions, Gibson has 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 near-identical (in looks) copies 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 their headstock to be a near-identical copy of a Guild headstock in 1976). More recently, Gibson sued PRS Guitars, forcing them to stop making their Singlecut model, which is much less similar to the Les Paul in appearance. The lawsuit against PRS was unsuccessful, however. In 2005, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed the lower court decision and ordered the dismissal of Gibson's suit against PRS. The decision also immediately vacated the injunction prohibiting the sale and production of PRS’s Singlecut Guitar. Paul Reed Smith Guitars announced that it would immediately resume production of its Singlecut guitars.
Aside from the above-mentioned companies, there have been countless others producing unofficial Les Paul copies, including among others Tokai, Stellar and new-comer Myaxe, a company based in Changle, China.
Manufacturers of the Les Paul clones refuse to call their guitars copies such as in the case of Myaxe , which says theirs were an innovation of the solid bodies.
Myaxe do not say what these innovations were.
Forgeries can generally be identified quite easily upon close inspection. The most prominent identifier pertaining to Chinese Gibson Les Paul forgeries is in the truss rod cover being affixed to the headstock of the forged guitar with three screws whereas an authentic Gibson guitar employs two.
Bluegrass
Many of Gibson's bluegrass instruments (such as the banjo, mandolin and the Dobro) are assembled at the "Gibson 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.
Gibson serial numbers
In 1975, Gibson standardized the serial number system that is still in use today. An eight digit (or 9 digit after July 2005) number on the back shows the date on which the instrument was produced, where it was produced and its order of production that day (e.g. first instrument stamped that day, second, third, fourth etc). The serial numbers are deciphered using the following system:
YDDDYRRR
YY is the production year
DDD is the day of the year the guitar was stamped
RRR is the production order/plant designation number
Production order/plant designation numbers numbers are as follows:
001-499 Kalamazoo, Michigan(1975-1984)
500-999 Nashville, Tennessee (1975-1990)
001-299 Bozeman, Montana (after 1989)
300-999 Nashville, Tennessee (after 1990)
For example, the serial number 90992487 means that the instrument was produced on the 99th day of 1992 (Wednesday 8 April) in Nashville, TN and that it was the 487th instrument stamped that day.
In July 2005 Gibson introduced a 9 digit serial number system. The system is largely the same as the 8 digit system used before, however the 6th digit now represents the batch number. The first 5 and last 3 digits remain the same.
An exception is the year 1994, Gibson's Centennial Year: Many 1994 serial numbers start with "94," followed by a 6-digit production number.
Instruments
Electric guitars
Gibson is especially well known for their electric guitars—solidbody models like the Les Paul, the SG, the Flying V, the Explorer and the Firebird; hollowbody models like the ES-175 and the ES-335; as well as high-end archtops such as the L-5 and the Citation.
Acoustic guitars
Gibson's acoustic guitars are widely celebrated in Japan and used by many professional rock and opera musicians; among them are the J-200, the J-45, the Hummingbird, and the Dove.
Bass guitars
Despite being such a revered six-string guitar manufacturer, Gibson has had much success from their line of bass models such the Thunderbird (based on the Firebird), the EB-0 and EB-3 (based on the SG), the Ripper, and the Grabber, both first manufactured in the 1970s.
Bluegrass instruments
Artists who use Gibson instruments
See also
External links
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