Gibson Guitars

 selected Gibson Guitars

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 $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, and Trace Elliot amplifiers, as well as many accessory items. Company namesake Orville Gibson began making 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 popularise 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. Gibson Guitar is a privately held corporation (its stock is not publicly traded on a stock exchange), owned by chief executive officer Henry Juszkiewicz and president David H. (Dave) Berryman. Its chief operating officer is Charles E. Cuneo.

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 without any 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 tailpiece be changed, which was his only contribution. (Ironically, this tailpiece was changed in 1954.) 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. 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 , Duane Allman of The Allman Brothers Band, Joe Perry of Aerosmith, 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.

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.

More recently, Epiphone has evolved into a brand for offshore manufacturing. By satisfying demand for copy instruments with official "Epiphone" instruments, Gibson can satsify 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. Epiphone produces inexpensive versions of most of Gibson's famous solid-body electrics, including the Les Paul, SG, Firebird, and Gibson acoustic models.

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. At the time many Japanese manufacturers blatantly copied American guitars with little R&D investment in their own designs. Ironically as a result of the suit, Ibanez developed thier own original and respected designs.

Today's Gibson electric guitars represent their history as well as the future of the electric guitar. The models whose designs have become classics-the ES-175, ES-335, Flying V, Explorer, Firebird, SGs and Les Pauls -are a testament to Gibson's wide appeal, spanning more than four decades of music styles. Gibson's close relationship with musicians is manifest in endorsement models from King, Atkins and jazz greats Howard Roberts and Herb Ellis, plus new Les Pauls made to the personal specifications of rock stars Jimmy Page and Joe Perry. In 1994, Gibson's Centennial year, the new Nighthawk model won an industry award for design, setting the stage for another hundred years of Gibson quality and innovation.

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Gibson Guitars