The Gibson Guitar Corporation, of Nashville, Tennessee, manufactures guitars and other instruments which sell under a variety of brand names.

Gibson became the world's best known and most respected maker of fretted instruments. The traditional motto "Quality, Prestige & Innovation" now applies to a large family of companies that make and sell the world's finest guitars, basses, banjos, mandolins, drums, keyboards, amplifiers, strings and accessories.

The home of Gibson electric guitars today is "Gibson USA," built in 1974 in Nashville specifically for the production of Gibson's Les Paul guitars. Although the entire guitar industry went through a slump in the late '70s, the spirit of innovation remained strong at Gibson. In response to a growing demand for vintage stylings, Gibson tapped its rich history and reissued the dot-neck version of the ES-335 in 1981 and the flametop sunburst Les Paul in 1982. At the same time, two legendary guitarists joined Gibson- B.B. King in 1980 with the Lucille model and Chet Atkins in 1982 with his new concept of a solidbody acoustic guitar.

Gibson world headquarters moved to Nashville in 1984 with the closing of the Kalamazoo plant. The financially troubled company was rescued in January 1986 by Henry Juszkiewicz and David Berryman, and the new owners quickly restored Gibson's reputation for quality as well as its profitability.

Today's Gibson electric guitars represent the 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 a second hundred years of Gibson quality and innovation.

Gibson had introduced an electric guitar in 1935, the aluminum-bodied Electric Hawaiian Guitar. The large, hollow-body guitar used a magnetic pickup that needed thousands of wire windings. However, when Grammy&ndashard winning guitarist and inventor Les Paul, who had been endorsing Gibson guitars since 1928, approached the company with a solid-body electric guitar in 1941, Gibson rejected the idea outright. Paul continued to try to convince Gibson throughout the 1940s but met with little success until McCarty was at the helm. By that time, Leo Fender had developed his own highly successful solid-body electric guitar, the Fender Telecaster.
Although Gibson had missed the chance to take the pioneering role in electric guitars, McCarty made sure they did not lag in subsequent improvements to the design. The Les Paul model debuted in 1952, and Gibson continued to refine the design for decades. Also under McCarty's leadership, Gibson designers introduced the humbucking pickup, the first semi-solid guitar, and the distinctive reverse-body Firebirds. McCarty personally contributed several groundbreaking changes, including the stop tailpiece and the Tune-O-Matic bridge. Other important models were introduced during this period, such as the first thinline archtop, the Byrdland, and the commercially unsuccessful but subsequently influential solidbodies the Flying V, Explorer, and Moderne.
Although electric guitars played an increasing role in Gibson's sales in the 1960s, the company continued to introduce new acoustic models as well. The Hummingbird, Dove, and Everly Brothers models debuted at that time, as did several artist models, including the Johnny Smith and Trini Lopez. However, after McCarty left in 1966 the company released few new models, either acoustic or electric, and suffered from the loss of McCarty's perceptive assessments of the market.
Declining Sales
In 1969 CMI merged with ECL, an Ecuadoran brewery, and the following year the two companies formed Norlin. Norlin combined Gibson guitars with Moog synthesizers and Lowrey organs and pianos to form a music division. Gibson suffered under the new management. Although a few new models were introduced in the 1970s they were not successful, such as the short-lived Mark series acoustics and the Marauder, S-1, and RD electrics. The company managed to maintain sales through most of the 1970s, but the long-term effects of absentee corporate management could be seen when sales steadily declined in the 1980s.
Although the guitar market in general suffered during the 1980s, Gibson exacerbated the problem by allowing its quality to slip and by abandoning their popular guitar models in favor of poorly conceived new models. "Corporate bean counters from thousands of miles away started dictating to the sales department that the old stuff was stale, and that what they needed was new, new, new," Matt Umanov, a New York guitar retailer, told The New York Times in 1994. "That led to all kinds of stupid design changes."
In 1983 Norlin was taken over by Rooney Pace and Piezo Electric Product, Inc., and the new owners promptly put the Gibson music division up for sale. New owners did not materialize, and Gibson's bad times continued. In 1984 the company closed its Kalamazoo factory. Several new models were introduced and met with such a terrible response that they were discontinued almost immediately. Severe cuts in staff and the closing of all divisions but one line of guitars did not stem Gibson's losses. At last, enthusiastic new owners took over in 1986, Henry Juszkiewicz and David Berryman, who bought the company for $5 million.
Turnaround under New Owners
Juszkiewicz, who took over as company chairman, was eminently suitable to reverse the company's fortunes. A long-time Gibson guitar enthusiast, he had played guitar professionally in high school and college. In addition to a musical sensibility and an appreciation for the company's products, Juszkiewicz brought an MBA from Harvard and some tough business experience to bear on Gibson's problems.
Juszkiewicz and Berryman began by firing 30 of Gibson's 250 employees, including all of the company's top management. They then began a series of acquisitions, including the purchase of Steinberger, a manufacturer of high-tech electric guitars, in 1987; Oberheim Corporation, a synthesizer manufacturer, in 1990; and Tobias, maker of handtooled professional quality basses, in 1990. When the company bought the Flatiron Mandolin Company in 1987, Juszkiewicz used the newly acquired factory in Bozeman, Montana, to establish a flat-top acoustic division, which soon won acclaim for its high-quality instruments. Mandolin production inherited from Flatiron also continued, reviving a division of Gibson that had long been closed. By the mid-1990s the Gibson and Flatiron mandolin lines included the Gibson F-5, based on a Lloyd Loar design from 1922, and Flatiron mandolins, mandolas, and octave mandolins in a wide range of styles.
Reissues of classic guitar models played an important role in refreshing the company's reputation. To re-create popular models, such as the Advanced Jumbo and the J-200, the company retooled its factories and dismantled old sound pickups to study their design. The popularity of these reissues encouraged Gibson to offer a special commemorative line of guitars for its 100th anniversary in 1994. In each month of 1994 Gibson released a different electric and acoustic model in limited runs of 100. In addition to reviving the classic Gibson acoustic and electric guitar models, the partners reestablished the company's amplifier division and expanded its line of accessories to include strings, picks, straps, pickups, and the Gibson Tourwear clothing line.
Since taking over the company the partners have made strong efforts to win back the loyalty of successful musicians. Much of the old Gibson aura could be attributed to famous musicians playing their guitars, such as Chuck Berry and his Gibson ES-350T. The company created a new operation to custom craft and hand tool instruments for celebrities. In addition, Gibson began wooing endorsements from well-known musicians by providing their guitars. Famous musicians who renewed or began endorsing Gibson included Chet Atkins, Steve Miller, and B. B. King. Many other musicians have joined the ranks of Gibson guitar users, such as Emmylou Harris, Pete Townshend, Travis Tritt, Johnny Cash, Neil Young, Peter Frampton, and Paul McCartney.
The changes instituted by Juszkiewicz and Berryman turned the company around. Juszkiewicz told The New York Times in 1994 that since 1986 Gibson has achieved a compound annual growth rate in sales of 30 percent. Starting with annual sales below $10 million in 1986, the company reached an estimated $70 million in sales by 1993, up from $50 million in 1992.
Gibson celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1994. Although the company proper was founded in 1902, Gibson Guitar has long cited 1894 as the earliest confirmable date of a Gibson instrument. An engraving on a mandolin states, "Made by O. H. Gibson, 1894," although Orville Gibson clearly made instruments before that date. The company used the anniversary as the theme of a major international promotion. A concert in Tokyo by the heavy-metal group the Scorpions launched a series of national and international concerts and exhibits. A White House salute to Gibson, hosted by President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, highlighted the year's activities.
Juszkiewicz's expansion plans proceeded steadily through the early and mid-1990s. To cover the lower end of the market Juszkiewicz and Berryman revived the lower-priced Epiphone line of guitars. Epiphone production had been moved to Asia in the 1970s, and the line had lost much of its distinction. In late 1995 Gibson returned Epiphone to the United States, moving it into its own facility in Nashville. Gibson's acquisition plans continued as well. The company purchased the Original Musical Instrument Company (O.M.I.) in 1993. Originator of the Dobro resonator guitar, O.M.I. continued to offer a full line of woodbody and metalbody resonator guitars and basses under the leadership of Gibson. In 1995 Gibson bought the Slingerland Drum Company. Slingerland adds its rich history to Gibson; founded in 1928, Slingerland was the choice of such famous drummers as Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich. When Gibson acquired the company, it had evolved into mainly an import company. With plans to revive its reputation, Gibson returned Slingerland production to the United States.
With Gibson exhibiting serious expansion goals, there was some speculation that the company might make a public offering of stock to gain additional cash for acquisitions. "On the one hand it's appealing because it would be a quick way to do it," Juszkiewicz reflected in an interview with The New York Times in 1994. "But then I don't know if I could operate the way I want having to answer to other people."
Principal Subsidiaries: The Original Musical Instrument; Epiphone; Oberheim Electronics; Steinberger; Slingerland; Tobias.
Principal Divisions: Gibson Nashville; Gibson Montana; Gibson Custom, Art, Historic; Gibson Strings & Accessories; Gibson World Net Services; Flatiron; G-Wiz; Pro Sound.

In the years after World War II, the electric guitar came of age and Gibson entered a golden of age of innovation. The P-90 pickup, introduced in 1946, gave guitarists new power and versatility. Under the aggressive leadership of company president Ted McCarty, Gibson debuted two new concepts in 1949 with the ES-5, the first three-pickup guitar, and the ES-175, the first guitar with a sharply pointed cutaway bout.

The advent of the solidbody electric guitar posed a new challenge for Gibson. Like the ES-150 in 1936, Gibson's first solidbody electric had to uphold Gibson tradition while going a step beyond all other guitars of its kind. A carved contoured top harkened back to the very first Orville Gibson instruments of the late 1800s, and a gold finish signified a value above all others. With the endorsement of the most popular guitarist of the time, Gibson introduced the Les Paul Model in 1952. The Les Paul quickly grew into a family of four models-the Junior, Special, Standard and Custom - all of which would become Gibson classics. Gibson's top models sported McCarty's new tune-o-matic bridge, which was introduced on the Les Paul Custom in 1954 and is still the standard Gibson electric guitar bridge. In 1958 McCarty debuted not one, but two radical new ideas-a semi-hollowbody electric and a group of exotic, futuristic solidbodies. The ES-335 was an instant success, combining traditional archtop styling with modern, solidbody construction. The Flying V, Explorer and Moderne proved to be decades ahead of their time.

Gibson pushed on into the 1960s with two more bold, modern solidbody lines-the double-cutaway SG models of '61 and the reverse-body Firebirds of '63. By the time the McCarty era ended in 1965, a foundation of classic models had been laid that would carry Gibson through the rest of the century.

Statistics:
Private Company
Incorporated: 1902 as the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Company
Employees: 500
Sales: $70 million (1993 est.)
SICs: 3931 Musical Instruments

Address:
1818 Elm Hill Pike
Nashville, Tennessee 37210-5714
U.S.A.
 
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