History of the Gibson Guitar Company
Written by vintage on January 28, 2009 – 6:24 pm -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.
In 1902, the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Mfg. Co, Ltd. was founded to market the instruments.
During the 1920s the Gibson company 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. In 1936 they introduced their first "Electric Spanish" model, the ES-150, generally recognized as the first commercially successful electric guitar.
1996 Gibson Les Paul Studio Limited Edition Gem Series TopazAs a result of the strong sales of the Fender Telecaster in 1950, Gibson decided to make a solid-body guitar. This was despite the fact that Gibson, like most other guitar manufacturers, was 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. (Ironically, this tailpiece was changed in 1954.) The Les Paul was released in 1952. 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 and the semi-hollowbody ES-335. The Les Paul was offered in several models, including the Custom, the Standard, the Studio, the Supreme, the Special and the Junior. 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.
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 Les Paul SmartWood Exotics. 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.
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