Orville Gibson
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Orville H. Gibson (1856 - August 21, 1918, Chateaugay, New York) was a luthier who founded the Gibson Guitar Corporation in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1902, makers of guitars, mandolins and other instruments.
Gibson's dedication to quality and innovation for over 100 years is the foundation for Gibson's growth from a specialized mandolin maker to the world's premier maker of fretted instruments. Gibson began in 1894 in the home workshop of Orville Gibson of Kalamazoo, Michigan. With no formal training to limit his vision, Orville created an entirely new style of mandolin and guitar, with tops carved and arched like the top of a violin. His creations were so different that he was granted a patent on his design. More importantly, they were louder and more durable than contemporary fretted instruments, and musicians soon demanded more than he was able to build in his one-man shop.
On the strength of Orville Gibson's ideas, five Kalamazoo businessmen formed the Gibson Mandolin Guitar Mfg. Co., Ltd., in 1902. Not satisfied simply with exploiting Orville's innovations, they refined his designs and also created new ways of promoting and popularizing their instruments at the grassroots level across America.
In the 1920s when the banjo overshadowed the mandolin and severely threatened Gibson's existence, the Gibson spirit of innovation triumphed. Gibson started from scratch with banjos in 1919 and in less than a decade surpassed companies that had specialized in banjos since before Gibson was founded.
For Gibson, innovation and the drive for perfection became a matter of company integrity. Through every change in the public's musical taste, through every change in the instrument industry, Gibson refused to settle for simply making as good an instrument as its competitors. Even making the best instrument in the business was not good enough. Gibson already made the best mandolin on the market, the F-4, when the Gibson F-5 was introduced in 1922. Gibson already made the best archtop guitar on the market, the L-5, when the Super 400 was created in 1934. Gibson already made the best electric pickup on the market, the P-90, when the humbucking pickup appeared in 1957.
Gibson today stands above all others as the only American company to make all styles of fretted instruments-electric guitars, acoustic guitars, banjos and mandolins. Moreover, Gibson is an acclaimed industry leader in all of these styles. The Gibson Les Paul solidbody electric guitar, the ES-335 semi-hollowbody electric guitar, the Super 400 archtop guitar, the J-200 flat top guitar, the Granada banjo, the F-5L mandolin...These are not just famous Gibson models. These are the original designs that established the industry standard for their respective genres.
All the great Gibson models, past and present, are products of a drive to perfection that represents the future as well as the legacy of Gibson-a drive to be not just the best, but to go to the next level, and be better than the best.
Gibson is buried at Morningside Cemetery in Malone, New York[1]
