Musical Success: Gibson Guitars

When you mention a particular product and speak about the top of the line, one specific brand within that product line usually comes to mind. For example, if you talk about top of the line in the car industry, one may think or mention the brand of Cadillac, Lexus, Porsche, Mercedes Benz, etc.

In addition, if you were to talk about music you might think of a Steinway, Baldwin, Stradivarius, etc. Specifically, if you were to talk about the top of the line in the guitar world, one of the names that probably would be mentioned would be Gibson Guitars.

The History Of Gibson Guitars

The founder of the Gibson Guitar company was Orville Gibson. However, the first manufactured stringed instruments by Orville Gibson weren’t guitars but mandolins. Eventually, though, the production of mandolins gave way to the production of guitars and the Gibson Mandolin Guitar Manufacturing Company was born in 1902. Soon, the production of guitars became the mainstay and Gibson introduced numerous innovative guitar designs.

Eventually, the electric guitar came on the scene. In fact, the Gibson Guitar Company released the first Electric Spanish model. The claim to fame of this model is that it is being credited as the first electric guitar successfully built for commercial use.

Another successful line of Gibson Guitars was the Gibson Les Paul. This particular model of Gibson Guitar was released in 1954. Other guitarists who have helped to popularize the Gibson Guitar have been Eric Clapton, Keith Richards and Pete Green.

The Categorizing Of Gibson Guitars

In 1970, Gibson Guitars decided upon a tactic to help protect their name and the guitars that were manufactured. That solution was to stamp an eight digit serial number on their product.

Specifically, the eight digit number is stamped on the underside of the headstock of the guitar. In addition, the serial number is significant. That significance is that the number corresponds to the date that the instrument was manufactured, the location indicating where the guitar was made and the run number. Specifically, the first and fifth number represent the year, the second, third and fourth number represent the day of the year of manufacturing and the sixth number represents the locale of manufacturing. Finally, the last two digits, of the eight digit serial number, represent the run number.

Types Of Gibson Guitars

In addition to electric guitars, there are other types of Gibson Guitars. Those types include acoustic guitars, bass and bluegrass style guitars.