Gibson Guitar History #1
Orville Gibson (born 1856, Chateaugay, New York) started making mandolins in Kalamazoo, Michigan USA. The mandolins were distinctive in that they featured a carved, arched solid wood top and back and bent wood sides. Prior to this mandolins had a flat solid wood top and a bowl-like back (similar to a lute) made of multiple strips of wood. These bowl-back mandolins were very fragile and unstable. Disdainful of the shape, Orville Gibson characterized them as “potato bugs.” Gibson’s innovation made a better-sounding mandolin that was immensely easier to manufacture. Orville Gibson’s mandolin design, with its single-pieced carved sides and a single-pieced neck, was patented in 1898; it would be the only innovation he patented.
In 1902, the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Mfg. Co, Ltd. was founded to market the instruments.
During the 1920s the Gibson company was responsible for many innovations in guitar and mandolin design. In 1922, the Gibson F5 mandolin model was introduced. That particular model later became known as the ultimate bluegrass mandolin. Gibson soon became the leading manufacturer of arch-top guitars, particularly the Gibson L5 model. In 1936 they introduced their first “Electric Spanish” model, the ES-150, generally recognized as the first commercially successful electric guitar.
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