Gibson Guitar Corporation
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.
Orville Gibson (born 1856,
Chateaugay, New York) 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, New York 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.
Gibson is well-known for making top quality guitars, but at a price beyond the reach of much of the public. 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.
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.
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". It is now a brand used by Gibson-Baldwin Musical Education, which sells various student guitars under diffrent brand names. Another related company is the
Heritage Guitars company -- an independent guitar company founded by former Gibson employees during Gibson's move to Nashville.
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.
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.
*
Gibson Blueshawk*
Gibson Chet Atkins SST*
Gibson Corvus*
Gibson Digital*
Gibson ES-120*
Gibson ES-125*
Gibson ES-135*
Gibson ES-137*
Gibson ES-150*
Gibson ES-165*
Gibson ES-175*
Gibson ES-225*
Gibson ES-330*
Gibson ES-335*
Gibson ES-345*
Gibson ES-347*
Gibson ES-355*
Gibson EDS-1275*
Gibson Explorer, also
X-plorer*
Gibson Firebird*
Gibson Flying V, also
Flying V *
Gibson Futura*
Gibson Howard Roberts Fusion*
Gibson L4-CES*
Gibson L5*
Gibson L5S*
Gibson L6-S*
Gibson Les Paul*
Gibson Les Paul Junior*
Gibson Les Paul Studio*
Gibson Les Paul 23*
Gibson The Paul 432*
Gibson The Paul Deluxe (Has a cutaway SG body)
*
Gibson The Paul Deluxe Firebrand (Has a cutaway SG body with firebranded Gibson logo)
*
Gibson Marauder*
Gibson Melody Maker*
Gibson Moderne*
Gibson Nighthawk*
Gibson RD*
Gibson S-1*
Gibson SG*
Gibson Sonex*
Gibson MIII*
Gibson Advanced Jumbo*
Gibson Blues King*
Gibson B12-45 12 string*
Gibson C-165 Maple*
Gibson C-165 Rosewood*
Gibson Hummingbird*
Gibson J-160 E VS Std*
Gibson J-185*
Gibson J-185 EC*
Gibson J-185 EC Rosewood*
Gibson J-45*
Gibson J-45 Deluxe*
Gibson J-45 Rosewood*
Gibson J-50*
Gibson LC-1 Cascade*
Gibson LC-2 Sonoma*
Gibson J-100*
Gibson J-150 Maple*
Gibson J-200*
Gibson J-200 EC*
Gibson SJ-300 Rosewood*
Gibson Songwriter Deluxe (The Songwriter series was originally released in 1999 as the Songbird, but Gibson found out there was another guitar manufacturer using that name so they changed it to Songwriter)
*
Gibson Songwriter Deluxe Cutaway*
Gibson Songwriter Deluxe 12 String*
Gibson Southern Jumbo*
Gibson Traveling Songwriter*
Gibson EB-0 (A bass version of the SG)
*
GIbson EB-1 (It is shaped like a violin, hence the nickname "Violin bass". The Hofner version is more popular and expensive.)
*
Gibson EB-2 (A bass version of the ES-335)
*
Gibson EB-3 (A two-pickup version of the EB-0)
*Gibson EB-6 (Initially a six-string bass version of the ES-335, later adopted the SG body design; string gauge and spacing is similar to that on the
Fender VI and Danelectro six-string basses)
*
Gibson RD bass*
Gibson Thunderbird (A bass version of the Firebird)
*
Gibson Ripper*
Gibson Grabber*
Gibson G3 (same as the grabber but with three single coil pickup configuration.)
*
Gibson Victory Standard bass*
Fender Musical Instruments*
Rivalry between Fender and Gibson*
Prewar Gibson banjo*
Epiphone*
Kramer Guitars*
Gibson Musical Instruments*
Gibson Acoustic Guitars*
Gibson Bass Guitars*
Gibson Custom Guitars*
Gibson Serial Numbers
