MUSIC GEAR
AUGUST 4, 2021
The Story Of Gibson Guitar Company
Gibson Brands, Inc. (formerly Gibson Guitar Corporation) is an American manufacturer of guitars, musical instruments and audio equipment currently based in Nashville, Tennessee. The story of Gibson Guitar took place when Orville Gibson started making instruments in 1894 in his workshop in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
The former shoe clerk combined his love for woodworking and music into new designs for mandolins and guitars. Gibson invented arch top guitars and mandolins by constructing the same type of arched tops used on violins.
Soon after, a demand for Orville Gibson’s instruments quickly begins to overwhelm the talented craftsman. In 1902, with five financiers (music-store owners and lawyers) in Kalamazoo, Orville sells his name and forms an agreement to found the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Company. He remains with the company as a consultant up until 1904.
In 1918 Orville Gibson dies, then in 1921 a Gibson employee invents the adjustable truss rod and the height-adjustable bridge. The first Gibson electric is introduced in 1935 and by 1944, Chicago Musical Instrument Co. purchases Gibson.
In 1952 Gibson recruits recording artist, Les Paul to introduce its first solid-body electric guitar, the “Les Paul Model,” which became its most popular guitar to date. The model, designed by a team led by Ted McCarty, hits the electric guitar world to critical appraise and is widely renowned to this day. It is considered by many as the brand’s most popular guitar.
In 1957 Gibson acquired Epiphone and a whole new line was introduced in 1958. The company hit record production in 1965, shipping over 100,000 Gibson and Epiphone instruments. The 1960s were a period of incredible growth for the music business. The explosion of rock and roll, jazz, and folk music produced unprecedented demand for guitars.
From 1969 to 1986 Gibson was owned by the Ecuadorian Company Ltd, later known as Norlin and begins to move the company out of Kalamazoo, Michigan into Nashville, Tennessee. By 1984, production of Gibson instruments leaves Kalamazoo entirely.
However, the company starts to have difficulties and soon begins dying financially, so in 1986 the company was acquired by a group led by Henry Juszkiewicz and David H. Berryman.
In 1987, Gibson opens a new plant in Bozeman, Montana. The factory in Nashville is shifted exclusively to electric guitars while the Montana plant focuses on producing F-5 style mandolins.
Taking the Montana plant’s knack for acoustic instruments into account, Gibson begins moving flat-top production to Bozeman while Nashville is set to mandolin production. From 1989 to present day, the plant strives to create highest quality flat-top guitars.
On May 1, 2018, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and announced a restructuring plan to return to profitability. The company exited Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November 2018.
Chief executive Henry Juszkiewicz said the Chapter 11 filing would assure the company’s “long-term stability and financial health”.
In November 2018, the company was acquired by a group of investors led by private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. Later in January 2020, the company launched Gibson TV, an online television network with guitars and music culture content.
Some great guitarists have been using Gibson guitars for decades. Slash of Guns N’ Roses had used the Les Paul and later became an official ambassador for Gibson.
Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin switched from the Fender Telecaster to the Gibson Les Paul and modified his instruments to produce distinctive sound. While Bob Marley wrote his electric work involving a modified Gibson Les Paul Junior.
From the 1920s to the present, Gibson and its flat-tops have been synonymous with American music. Whether the music you listen to is from the North or the South, it is likely that a Gibson guitar was involved in creating it. Similarly, the Explorer, Flying V and Moderne are also among the most valuable of any Gibson production models today that builds the story of Gibson Guitar company.
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