History Of The Gibson Guitar

gibson guitars

One of the most popular and loved guitars ever made is the Gibson guitar. Gibson guitar history spans over a century, from the dawn of the 1900s. A few years later in 1902, Orville started up the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Company.

Gibson sold mostly mandolins until the early 20’s when guitars started to gain in popularity. During these early stages of guitar production, Gibson came out with arch-top 6 strings guitar designs and truss rod neck construction.

In 1936, Gibson introduced the ES-150, an F-hole arch top model and ended up creating a sound that was never heard before.

The 50’s were a great time for Gibson. The company decided to start producing solid-body guitars and Les Paul had been working on the solid-body concept since the 1930’s. So Les Paul was brought in to give his input and endorse these new types of guitars. In 1952 the first Les Paul was introduced and the most famous Gibson guitar was born.

Different models of the Les Paul include the Custom, Standard, Special and Junior. The famous humbucker pickup was finally introduced to the Gibson lineup in 1957.

One of Gibson’s main competitors around this time was Epiphone Guitars. After Gibson acquired Epiphone, Most of the Epiphone guitars of today are the more economical versions of the Gibson guitar models.

In 1961, Gibson changed the design of the Les Paul model to a double cutaway design. Gibson then changed the name to the new double-cutaway model to the Gibson SG.

Gibson decided to open up a factory specifically for the production of the Les Paul guitars in 1974. This new home for Gibson was named “Gibson USA” and is located in Nashville, Tennessee.

How Gibson Guitar History Shaped Popular Music

This guitar would go on to become one of, if not the, most iconic guitars the planet had ever seen. From Led Zeppelin to Guns n’ Roses and countless other bands, the Les Paul guitar was played on more hits than you can count. Despite being over 50 years old, this guitar design remains relatively unchanged even to this day.