Started as early as 1902 by Orville Gibson out of Nashville, TN, today it is one of the most classic acoustic guitar brands in the world. It has sub-brands like Les Pauls, Epiphone, Kramer etc. The Les Pauls standard has been the most popular brand of electric guitars selling for a minimum of $2300. Orville Gibson started out to carve history with a mandolin in Kalamazoo, Michigan and founded the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Mfg. Co, Ltd., in 1902.

Most of their guitar innovations took place in the 1920’s and slowly they became the leading manufacturer of arch-top guitars. One such model was the Gibson L5. Around 1936, Gibson introduced the first Spanish Electric model called the ES-150 and this is considered by historians to be the first commercially successful electric guitar.

Today the hometown for Gibson electric guitars is "Gibson USA," in Nashville and this was made just to manufacture and produce Gibson's Les Paul guitars in 1974. As a response to the growing popularity and demand for vintage style guitars, Gibson reissued in 1981 their dot-neck version of ES-335 and went on to re-issue the flame-top sunburst Les Paul in 1982. This was also the time when two old timers and legends of the guitar world joined Gibson. The legends were B.B. King who joined in 1980 and Chet Atkins in 1982 when he advertised his concept of a solid body acoustic guitar.

Two years later in 1984, Gibson moved their world headquarters to Nashville and closed the Kalamazoo plant. They went through financially troubling times and was rescued by David Berryman and Henry Juszkiewicz in January 1986.

Age of Innovation

From the 1940’s till the 1960’s; Gibson went through the golden age of innovation. They entered this era after the World War II when the electric guitar actually came of age. In 1946, Gibson introduced the P-90 pickup, which gave the guitarists versatility and raw power thus enhancing the performance by several degrees. In 1949, under the leadership of Ted McCarty, Gibson gave the world two more new concepts like the ES-5, which was the first three-pickup guitar of its kind and the ES-175.

In 1952, Gibson introduced the Les Paul Model and it caught on like a wild fire in the guitarist circuit. The Les Paul family consisted of four models at that point of time and they were Junior, Special, Standard and Custom and all of them went on to become Gibson classics. Some of the top models of Gibson guitars sported a McCarty tune-o-matic bridge that was first introduced in 1954 on the Les Paul Custom model.