Gibson

Est. 1902 Website ↗

About

Gibson is one of the world's most recognized guitar manufacturers, renowned for pioneering archtop guitar design and for the legendary Les Paul solid-body electric. Its instruments — the Les Paul, SG, ES-335, Flying V, and Explorer among them — have shaped the sound of blues, jazz, rock, and metal for over a century.

History

Orville Gibson began handcrafting mandolins and guitars in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1894, and the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Co. was formally established in 1902. Designer Lloyd Loar's work in the 1920s, including the L-5 guitar and F-5 mandolin, helped pioneer archtop guitar design. In 1936 Gibson introduced the ES-150, one of the first commercially available hollow-body electric guitars, and in 1952 the solid-body Les Paul arrived — soon to become the company's most iconic model. The modernist Explorer and Flying V followed in 1958. Chicago Musical Instruments acquired Gibson in 1944, and Norlin Corporation took control in 1969, a period widely associated with declining quality; production shifted from Kalamazoo to Nashville between 1976 and 1984. A 1986 buyout led by Henry Juszkiewicz and David Berryman revitalized the company. Gibson filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2018, emerging later that year under new ownership led by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, and continues to build guitars from its Nashville, Tennessee headquarters today.