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Gibson Guitar Corporation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2007) |
| Gibson Guitar Corporation | |
|---|---|
| Type | Private |
| Founded | 1902 |
| Founder | Orville Gibson |
| Headquarters | Nashville, Tennessee, United States |
| Area served | Global |
| Key people | Orville Gibson, Ted McCarty, Les Paul |
| Industry | Musical instruments (guitars) |
| Subsidiaries | Epiphone, Baldwin, Maestro, Wurlitzer, Tobias, Valley Arts Guitar, Slingerland, Media-Accelerated Global Information Carrier |
| Slogan | "Only Gibson Is Good Enough." |
| Website | Gibson.com |
The Gibson Guitar Corporation, of Nashville, Tennessee, USA, is one of the world's best-known manufacturers of acoustic and electric guitars. The company's most popular guitar, the Les Paul Standard, a solid-body electric, sells for about $US 2,300. Gibson also 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 namesake Orville Gibson made mandolins in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in the late 1890s. Gibson used the same type of carved, arched tops in archtop acoustic guitars, and by the 1930s was also making flattop acoustic guitars and electric guitars. Charlie Christian, the first well-known electric guitarist, helped to popularize Gibson's electric guitars with his use of the ES-150 and ES-200. After being bought by the Norlin corporation in the late 1960s Gibson's quality and fortunes took a steep decline; by 1985 it was within three weeks of going out of business before it was bought by its present owners.[1] 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.
Today, some models of Gibson guitars can tune themselves in about 10 seconds using robotic technology developed by Gibson and Tronical Gmbh.[2] 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.[citation needed]
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Orville Gibson (born 1856, Chateaugay, New York) started making mandolins 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. 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.[3]
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 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.
As 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, 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 would be changed, and that was his only contribution. (Ironically, this tailpiece was changed in 1954.)[4] The Les Paul was released in 1952. 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 demand for a double-cutaway body design[5]. 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, the twin-lead line-up of Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson of Thin Lizzy, Duane AllmanSlash (musician)|Slash of Velvet Revolver (formerly of Guns N' Roses) and Ace Frehley of Kiss are known for their preference for a Les Paul Standard. 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, in a move that is still controversial to this day, production of Gibson guitars was shifted from Kalamazoo to Nashville, Tennessee in an effort to reduce the costs associated with high-wage, unionized workers in the Industrialized North. Norlin continued to struggle with cost and quality issues. In early 1986 the Gibson Guitar Corp. was bought by Henry E. Juszkiewicz, David H. Berryman and Gary A. Zebrowski. 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, with foreman Jeff Orlick, is dedicated to acoustic instruments. The quality of current instruments from these facilities has played a major role in the resurgence of the brand.
Many other instrument manufacturers are owned by Gibson including Kramer and Steinberger guitars. It is now a brand used by Gibson-Baldwin Musical Education, which sells various student guitars under different brand names. Another related company is the Heritage Guitars company—an independent guitar company founded by former Gibson employees after Gibson's move to Nashville. Most recently Gibson has purchased Canadian guitar manufacturer Garrison guitars, at this time it is unclear what Gibson's plans are for this brand.
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.
Gibson is well-known for making top quality guitars, priced at the upper end of the market. On May 10, 1957 Gibson purchased the Epiphone guitar company, one of their competitors. The original plan was to continue selling Epiphone's successful upright bass; soon they realized they could satisfy requests from new stores to be dealers of this new brand. [6]
More recently, Epiphone has evolved into a brand for offshore manufacturing. By satisfying demand for copy instruments with official "Epiphone" instruments, Gibson can satisfy the entry level buyer. By producing these instruments themselves they prevent the damage to the brand's quality reputation that is often inflicted by substandard, unauthorized copies. The least expensive Gibson copies are offered through the Baldwin Piano company. These copies are marketed to students, and priced from $99 to $600.
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. 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.
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.
In the 1970s, Gibson standardized the serial number system that is still in use today. The typically eight-digit serial numbers on Gibson guitars are stamped on the backside of the headstock. The first and the fifth number combined show the year that the instrument was made. The second, third, and fourth numbers show on which day of that year the instrument was made. The sixth number represents the location where the instrument was made, and the last two digits show the "production run" number.
For example, the serial number 90992487, shows that this guitar was made on the 99th day of 1992 in Nashville, TN, and that it was the 87th guitar they finished at that facility on that day. A '7' in the location spot means Memphis, while a '4' means Nashville. All electric and semi-electric guitars are built in Memphis and Nashville. Gibson also has an acoustic guitar facility in Bozeman, MT.
- For an attempt at a complete list of Gibson electric guitars: Gibson Guitar Corporation product list
Gibson is especially well known for their electric guitars, especially the Gibson Les Paul. The Gibson SG (See below) was made famous by AC/DC guitarist Angus Young.
- For an attempt at a complete list of Gibson acoustic guitars, see: Gibson Guitar Corporation product list
Gibson's acoustic guitars are widely celebrated and used by many professional rock and country musicians.
- For an attempt at a complete list of Gibson bass guitars, see: Gibson Guitar Corporation product list
Despite being such a revered six-string guitar manufacturer, Gibson has had much less success from their line of bass models such the Thunderbird (based on the Firebird), the EB-3 (based on the SG), the Ripper, and the Grabber, both first manufactured in the 1970s.
- For an attempt at a complete list of Gibson bluegrass instruments, see: Gibson Guitar Corporation product list
- ^ Hembry, Gil;Gibson Guitars: Ted McCarty's Golden Era 1948-1966; GH Books; Austin, TX; 2007. p 306.
- ^ Yuri Kageyama (The Associated Press). "World's first robot guitar takes care of the tuning", Seattle Times, December 3, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-12-04.
- ^ Electric Guitars, An Illustrated Encyclopedia. London, Backbeat Books, 2000.
- ^ Hembry, Gil;Gibson Guitars: Ted McCarty's Golden Era 1948-1966; GH Books; Austin, TX; 2007. p 74-85.
- ^ Hembry, Gil;Gibson Guitars: Ted McCarty's Golden Era 1948-1966; GH Books; Austin, TX; 2007. p 110.
- ^ Gibson Guitars 100 years of an American Icon, Walter Carter
- Official website, Gibson Guitar Company
- Official web page, Gibson Acoustic Guitars
- Official website, Gibson Custom Shop
- Gibson Serial Numbers]
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