Gibson

Revision as of 19:27, 25 January 2008

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Gibson

Gibson is one of the most popular guitar manufacturers. The most seen guitar model is the Gibson Les Paul. There are several versions of the Les Paul like the studio, gold top or robot version.

A lot of companies make Gibson guitar copies. Of course, most do this with authorization. Example of these brands are Epiphone, Kramer, Valley arts, Tobias, Steinberger, and Kalamazoo. If you want to have a nice looking guitar, but you don't have money in your budget for a real Gibson, then one of these copies might be just what you are looking for.

History

Orville Gibson started making mandolins in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Orville made mandolins that were manufactured easier and that sounded better.

In 1902, the Gibson Mandolin - Guitar Mfg. Co. was founded to market instruments. His creative look was responsible for many innovations in design and manufacturing.

In 1936, the first good selling electric guitar came on the market: the ES-150. As result of strong sales of the company Fender, Gibson decided to make a solid-body guitar. The musician Les Paul was asked to sign a contract so they could use his name for a guitar.

In 1952 they could finally release the Les Paul. In the late fifties, a number of innovations came with the new designs, such as the Gibson Explorer and the Flying V. In this period they also introduced the "humbucker" pickup. The Les Paul went through some redesigning and they gave it a new look. Les Paul didn't care for the new body style and he made sure the Les Paul wasn't changed at all. Instead they named it Gibson SG. Nowadays, the SG is very much used in hard rock and metal bands such as AC/DC.

Between 1974 and 1984 the production of Gibson guitars moved from Kalamazoo to Nashville in an effort to reduce the costs associated with the high-wage, unionized workers in the North. Due some quality and money issues, things didn't go very well with Gibson, in 1986 the Gibson Guitar Corp. was bought by Sir Juszkiewicz, Sir Berryman, and Sir Zebrowski. The success and survival of Gibson today is largely attributed to this change in leaders. Currently Juszkiewecz and Berryman are still leading the company as the CEO and president.

Guitars

Gibson has made all kinds of guitars. There are so many that I can't even name them all, heres a link where you can see all the types: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibson_Guitar_Corporation_product_list

The most popular are the Firebird, Les Paul, Melody Maker, SG, V-Factor (Flying V) and the X-plorer

-Firebird: This guitar has different versions, where you can choose the color, but also the number of pickups and other hardware. The Firebird was invented in the 1950s, but new versions and reissues have been release plenty of times.

Les Paul: As mentioned before, this is the most used/bought guitar from Gibson, it was invented in 1952. This guitar has various versions:

"Goldtop" (1952-1957)
Custom (1954-1960)
Junior (1954-1960) and TV (1955-1960)
Special (1955-1960)
"Standard" (1958-1960)
1961 Les Paul SG

Renewed interest in the Les Paul models
Les Paul models in the Norlin era

Deluxe
Studio

Custom Shop models
Modern Les Pauls
Les Paul's guitar
Epiphone Les Pauls
Gibson Robot Guitar

Flying V or V-Factor:

The Flying V or V-factor was invented in the late fifties and used by players like Lonnie mack and Albert King. When it was first revealed, it struck musicians as a bit extreme and it didn't sell very well. It was discontinued. It wasn't until the sixties that it was reissued.

MCK

Robot

The Les Paul Robot is the latest model from Gibson. It uses revolutionary techniques in the tuning mechanism, The guitar can tune itself. To tune the guitar, what you do is to pull out the master control knob (MCK) and you strum the guitar. They tuning pegs will start moving, and when all the lights on the MCK are green, the guitar is in tune. Then the lights will turn blue and you click the MCK back in regular position and there you go! It's possible to turn the MCK in different directions, which will cause different tunings. The MCK can also help with changing of strings, or checking your bridge height for correcting intonation.

An instruction movie can be watched here: Robot video page

Robot Guitar:

Artists

Many, Many artists have and still play on a Gibson.
Eric Clapton, who used an ES-335.
BB King, with his own Lucile.
Bob Dylan, who used different types of Gibson's.
Jimmy Hendrix also used different models.
Bob Marley, Neil Young, Carlos Santana and loads more.

A complete list can be found here: full list

--Kaznie 16:57, 18 January 2008 (UTC)