Gibson Brands, Inc. (formerly Gibson Guitar Corp.) is an American manufacturer of guitars, other musical instruments, and consumer and professional electronics now based in Nashville, Tennessee. The company was formerly known as Gibson Guitar Corp. and renamed Gibson Brands, Inc. on June 11, 2013.[3][4]
Gibson Brands, Inc.
Gibson logo.svg
Formerly called
Gibson Guitar Corporation
Type
Private
Industry Musical instruments
Founded 1902; 115 years ago [1] in Kalamazoo, Michigan
Founder Orville Gibson
Headquarters Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
List
Henry Juszkiewicz (Chairman and CEO)
David Berryman (President)
Reggie Mebane (COO)
Orville Gibson (Founder)
Lloyd Loar (Luthier)
Ted McCarty (President, 1950–66)
Les Paul (Musician)
Seth Lover (Humbucker inventor)
Products Archtop, acoustic and electric guitars
Bass guitars
Mandolins
Audio equipment
Subsidiaries
List
Baldwin Piano
Cakewalk
Cerwin-Vega
Dobro
Epiphone
Esoteric
Harmony Central
Integra
Kramer
KRK Systems
Maestro
Onkyo
Slingerland
Stanton
Steinberger
TASCAM
TEAC Corporation
Tobias[2]
Website www.gibson.com
Orville Gibson founded the company in 1902 as "The Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Mfg. Co., Ltd." in Kalamazoo, Michigan to make mandolin-family instruments.[1] Gibson invented archtop guitars by constructing the same type of carved, arched tops used on violins. By the 1930s, the company was also making flattop acoustic guitars, as well as one of the first commercially available hollow-body electric guitars, used and popularized by Charlie Christian. In 1944, Gibson was bought by Chicago Musical Instruments (CMI) which was acquired in 1969 by Panama-based conglomerate, Ecuadorian Company Limited (E.C.L.) that changed its name in the same year to Norlin Corporation.
