|
The World Of Gibson Guitars. Information For Guitar Addicts. |
By:
Terry Booth |
|
|
The World of Gibson Guitars. Information for Guitar Addicts.
Terry Booth
Gibson Guitars are an icon of the guitar industry. Gibson is currently a major player in both the electric guitar and acoustic guitar market. The company was originally named after Orville Gibson who made mandolins in Kalamazoo, Michigan at the end of the 19th century. Gibson used the same method to initially make the big body archtop acoustic guitars.
Gibson Guitars were one of the first to come up with the adjustable truss rod inside the neck of the guitar to give it strength. This remains in use today to also allow guitarists to impact on the neck relief.
Even today, just about every guitar has an adjustable truss-rod that runs through the neck of the guitar. This was developed by Gibson Guitars in the early days to give strength to the neck. The floating pick guard is also an innovation of Gibson.
In the 1930s, Gibson began to experiment with electrifying and amplifying the sound of the guitar. The initial ES range of electric acoustic archtop guitar was a big leap forward. The ES stood for Electric Spanish. The term Spanish was simply to distinguish it from the popular lap Hawaiian guitars of the time.
Gibson Guitars were also responsible for introducing the cutaway shape. This was not so important with acoustic guitars but with the introduction of electric acoustics and solid body electric guitars, the amplification meant that the top end of the finger board could be heard. This opened up a whole new world of sounds and allowed the later emergence of the lead guitar soloist.
The ES-175 with the pointed cut away was the first of Gibson's really successful electric guitars. After Fender released its broadcaster guitar in 1950, (the forerunner to the Telecaster), Gibson Guitars put their efforts into developing their first solid body guitar which became the Les Paul Standard.
The whole guitar industry was excited about the advent of the solid body guitar and Gibson and Fender were joined by the likes of National, Bigsby and Rickenbacker who were also undertaking their own development.
Les Paul was one of the foremost guitarists of the time. His real first name was Lester. Paul had himself been tinkering with the idea of solid body guitars. His first concept model was referred to as the log guitar. He approached Gibson Guitars with his ideas in the 1940s but was rejected outright. Once Fender released the Telecaster, Gibson went back to Les Paul and asked him to work with them.
Gibson and the other guitar companies wanted to pursue the solid body concept because it provided some unique benefits. The hollow bodied guitars had suffered from feedback when under amplification and this was certainly a sticking point. The solid bodies did not suffer as much from this. The solid body guitars also provided wonderful sustain of the pure natural sound from the strings. The solid bodies were lastly much easier to produce.
In 1952, Gibson Guitars released it's first solid body electric guitar, the Gibson Les Paul Standard. Under a 5 year contract, Les Paul agreed to be an endorsee for which he was to receive 5% of the value of the sales. The Les Paul Standard's retail price was $210 which was about $20 dearer than the Fender.
Gibson Guitars like all companies appreciated the need to move with new products. In 1958, Gibson introduced the sunburst appearance of the Les Paul Standard which proved very popular. This guitar in particular is now a collector's item. 1958 was also the year, that Gibson added the extra cutaway to the body shape of the Les Paul Junior and Les Paul Standard. This would soon lead to the SG model which simply stands for Solid Guitar.
The same year Gibson Guitars also began getting radical with their body shape. They bought out the first double neck guitar. They also introduced the Flying V shape and the Explorer shape. This was a response to guitar players placing more emphasis on the look of their guitars as well as the sound and playability. Gibson Guitars were able to stamp their mark on the guitar industry for many years.
Author: Terry Booth has always been keen on http://www.guitarplayersworld.com/Electric/gibson_guitars) Gibson Guitars since buying his first electric guitar, (a Japanese Les Paul imitation) as a young child. Visit his website http://www.guitarplayersworld.com/ GuitarPlayersWorld.com
|
|
Article Source: http://www.statssheet.com/articles/article70959.html |
|
|
|
|
|
