130 Years Of Gibson130TH Gibson ANNIVERSARY
1902: Birth of the Gibson company
Around 1880, Orville Gibson moved from his native New York State to Kalamazoo, Michigan. He developed an unconventional mix of ideas and methods to make his mandolin-family instruments and guitars, starting in the mid-1890s – with the company today marking 1894 as the year of its inception. He did not use internal bracing. Instead, he would carve his tops and backs, and rather than the usual heated-and-bent sides he’d saw the sides from solid wood. In 1902, Orville sold out to a group of five businessmen who formed the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Company. Orville left soon afterwards, receiving a regular royalty for five years and then a monthly cheque for $41.66 until his death in 1918.
1922: L-5 archtop introduced
Gibson had shifted from Orville’s idiosyncratic creations to produce reliable models such as the L-4 archtop (1912) and the Nick Lucas flat-top (1927), although at first the company’s emphasis was on mandolins and then banjos, for a time the most popular stringed instruments. Lloyd Loar’s Master Series L-5 guitar of 1922 defined the contemporary archtop, apparently more akin to violins than guitars. The L-5 had a carved arched top, two f-holes instead of a single round soundhole, a floating height-adjustable bridge with strings fastened to a separate metal tailpiece, and a neck-strengthening truss rod.
1934: Guitars take centre stage
The growing popularity of the guitar made it the focus of Gibson’s efforts during the 30s, leading inevitably to bigger, louder, improved instruments. There were two key introductions in 1934: the Jumbo flat-top, which together with the
