The World of Gibson Guitars. Information for Guitar Addicts.

by Terry Booth

Gibson Guitars are a big force in the Guitar World. Gibson Guitars was originally formed by Orville Gibson who began his career making carved archtop mandolins in Kalamazoo, Michigan in the 1890s. Gibson transferred the same skills to making the first of the carved archtop acoustic guitars of the early 20th century. Gibson Guitars have now been a major producer of electric guitars and acoustic guitars for over 50 years.

An early innovation of Gibson Guitars was developing the steel truss rod that runs through the guitar neck to give it support. Still a part of both acoustic and electric guitars today, the truss trod is able to be adjusted which alters the straightness of the neck.

Another development of Gibson Guitars is the original shape “f” holes that we still see today in semi-acoustic guitars. Gibson also began using the floating pick guard. These two items gave a definite look to the first, (and following), big bodied archtop guitars.

After doing much experimenting with the amplification of the sound from the guitar in the 1930s, Gibson released the ES range of semi-acoustic guitars. The ES initials stands for “Electric Spanish”. This is not a reference to the nylon string classical guitars that we know today. The term Spanish is used to separate the guitar from the Hawaiian guitars that were lap style guitars.

The cut-away shape in the guitar body was also introduced by Gibson Guitars. With the work being done at the time on the amplification of the guitar sound, this enabled the guitarist to utilize the upper end of the fretboard and still be heard. This also facilitated the advent of the lead guitarist.

Gibson Guitars had a good deal of success with the ES 175, electric guitar although it was still a hollow bodied archtop. The market however was excited about Fender’s 1950 Telecaster guitar so Gibson had to start some more development work of their own. In 1950 they released their first solid body in the form of the Gibson Les Paul Standard electric guitar.

In the early 1950s, it was not only Fender and Gibson Guitars who were putting research into the concept of the solid body guitar. Bibsby guitars were also carrying out some work as were Rickenbacker and National.

Les Paul was one of the foremost guitarists of the time. His real first name was Lester. Paul had himself been tinkering with the idea of solid body guitars. His first concept model was referred to as the log guitar. He approached Gibson Guitars with his ideas in the 1940s but was rejected outright. Once Fender released the Telecaster, Gibson went back to Les Paul and asked him to work with them.

Gibson and the other guitar companies wanted to pursue the solid body concept because it provided some unique benefits. The hollow bodied guitars had suffered from feedback when under amplification and this was certainly a sticking point. The solid bodies did not suffer as much from this. The solid body guitars also provided wonderful sustain of the pure natural sound from the strings. The solid bodies were lastly much easier to produce.

The first Les Paul Standard guitar was released in 1952. Les Paul received an endorsement contract for a 5 year period which was worth 5% of retail sales. The first Gibson Les Paul cost $210 and was referred to as the Gold Top.

1958 was a big year for Gibson Guitars. In this year they gave the Les Paul a new cherry sunburst finish which is extremely popular among collectors today. Gibson changed the shape of the Les Paul Junior and Les Paul Special to now have a double cut away. The new style later became the SG which stands simply for Solid Guitar.

1958 was the year that also saw Gibson Guitars respond to the guitar world’s growing interest with the look of guitars where previously they had been more interested in how it sounded and what it was like to play. Gibson introduced the radical shaped Flying V and the Gibson Explorer. Gibson Guitars have enabled themselves to remain a player in the music industry over many years and many of its models are now regarded as Classics.

About the Author:

Author: Terry Booth has an interest in Gibson Guitars since buying his first electric guitar, (a Japanese Les Paul copy) as a 10 year old. Visit Terry’s website GuitarPlayersWorld.com