Gibson Guitar Corporation

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Gibson Guitar Corporation

logo
legal form company
founding 1902
in Kalamazoo , Michigan , United States
United StatesUnited States 
Seat Nashville , Tennessee , United States
United StatesUnited States 
management James Curleigh (CEO)
sales US $ 1.7 billion (2017)
Branch Musical instruments
Website www.gibson.com

The Gibson Guitar Corporation (short Gibson , pronunciation: [ ɡibsən ]), founded in 1902, now based in Nashville , Tennessee , USA is one of the oldest and best-known US manufacturer of plucked instruments - banjos , mandolins , guitars , electric guitars and E-basses - as well as guitar amplifiers . These instruments are also sold under the “Gibson” brand. The Gibson Group includes other well-known guitar brands such as Epiphone , Kramer , Dobro and Steinberger as well as u. a. the instrument brands Wurlitzer (electric organs, pianos), Oberheim (synthesizers) and Slingerland (drums).

In addition to competitor Fender , Gibson is one of the pioneering companies in the development of the electric guitar. The world's first industrially mass-produced electric guitar was a Gibson in 1936 - the ES-150 model .

Gibson announced on 1 May 2018 insolvency of, sought bankruptcy protection and announced a restructuring to save the company.

The namesake

Orville Gibson, later named Gibson Guitar Corporation , was born in Chateaugay in the US state of New York in 1856 . In 1881, the young Gibson was listed on the Kalamazoo, Michigan state registry . After some other professional activities, from 1894 he ran a shop for musical instruments in Kalamazoo specializing in mandolins. During this time he experimented with the transfer of manufacturing processes from violin making to plucked instruments . In 1898 he received a US patent for a construction principle for archtop mandolins and guitars. In early 1902, Gibson sold the rights to use his name and patent to a group of business people who founded the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Company that same year and employed Orville Gibson as a consultant. The first Gibson catalog appeared in 1903 and offered mandolins, mandolas , guitars and "harp" guitars. Orville Gibson left the company that same year, whereupon he was granted annual severance pay and a lifelong monthly pension for the next five years. Orville Gibson died in 1918 at the age of 62.

Company history

Gibson has been known as a manufacturer of high quality mandolins, banjos and ukuleles since the beginning of the 20th century . To boost sales, the company relied on a distribution system that was unusual at the time, which, instead of concentrating on retail, used mandolin teachers in particular as sales and advertising partners. In 1919, the nationally known mandolin virtuoso Lloyd Loar was hired as head of the development department. With his relevant practical experience, Lloyd was the ideal man to continue the developments initiated by Orville Gibson. The first instruments for which Lloyd was completely responsible were the F-5 mandolin and a guitar with the type designation L-5 (1923).

When the popularity of and demand for ukuleles and banjos fell steadily in the 1920s, but that for guitars rose sharply, Gibson shifted the focus of production. In 1926 Gibson produced over 6,000 ukuleles and 1,433 guitars; in 1935, however, there were 197 ukuleles, but 20,575 guitars. The company also proved to be a constant innovator in this new market. One of the breakthroughs of the company in this field is the use of adjustable metal tension rods ( truss rod ) that have been installed countersunk into the necks of the instruments. These not only strengthened the neck of the instrument, but also had the particular purpose of adjusting the curvature of the neck (and thus the position of the strings ) and thus compensating for distortions if necessary. Neck rods are used in almost all guitar models today. Gibson also began experimenting with electromagnetic pickups in the 1920s . In 1936 Gibson introduced the ES-150, the first guitar that was equipped with such a pickup as standard.

The shortage of materials caused by the Second World War caused considerable problems for instrument making. In 1944 Gibson therefore decided to cooperate with CMI (Chicago Musical Instruments Co.) , one of the largest musical instrument distributors in the USA.

Due to the success of the Gibson brand, CMI was bought by Norlin Industries in 1969 ("Norlin era"). The aim of the group was to optimize profits through more economical production methods. As a result, cost savings played a major role in the production of Gibson, which had a lasting negative effect on the quality of the instruments. For reasons of cost, for example, cheaper wood was used and laminates were used instead of solid wood. This reduced the sound quality of the instruments, so that the company had to record sales losses.

When a lull in the music business in the 1980s meant that Gibson continued to lose market share due to high-priced instruments, some of which were at best mediocre manufacturing quality, Norlin Industries decided to give up the business that had become unprofitable for them.

In January 1986, Gibson was taken over by new management led by Henry Juszkiewicz, Gery Zebrowski and David Berryman. The new management showed a feeling for what the market wanted and stuck to the idea of ​​returning to the advantages of the best vintage instruments. After Norlin's departure, quality was again more important, even if the series Gibson instruments no longer achieved the quality of the time before 1969. Only the high-priced Gibson instruments sold in the Custom Shop product line come close to this quality.

January 2012 Gibson acquired shares in the Onkyo Corporation in Japan as well as the majority shares in Onkyo USA and thus became the second largest shareholder of the audio manufacturer. In April 2013 TEAC was acquired for $ 52 million. In 2014, WOOX Innovation , the audio, video, multimedia and accessories division of Philips, was purchased for 135 million dollars .

In February 2018 it was announced that the company was on the verge of insolvency. Gibson has over $ 500 million in debt that it would have to service this year. Between 2013 and 2016, sales had dropped from $ 2.1 billion to $ 1.7 billion.

On May 1, 2018, Gibson filed for bankruptcy and filed an agreement with more than two-thirds of its creditors to reorganize. The company was finally saved with the help of the American alternative country musician Nat Zilkha and the investment company Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. , where the guitarist has been Head of Special Situations and partner since 2007. On October 2, 2018, the company was released from legal supervision by judicial approval and passed into the ownership of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and other investors. On October 23, the new management of the company was announced with James Curleigh as the new CEO .

Allegations from environmentalists

In November 2009 and again in August 2011, US federal authorities searched Gibson's premises and confiscated tropical woods such as ebony and rosewood , instruments made from them, and files. The wood is said to come from illegal logging in Madagascar and India. The basis for the seizure is the so-called Lacey Act , which prohibits the import of illegally felled wood into the USA, even if the violations of the law were not committed in the USA. In October 2011, a motion to amend this law was tabled in Congress. Environmental protection organizations such as Rainforest Rescue accuse Gibson of being behind this initiative together with the timber company APP and called for international protests against Gibson and the proposed change in the law. In November 2011, the Zurich Zoo published a study according to which the large quantities of tropical wood processed by Gibson could not possibly come from legal forest concessions. Seven out of eight trees were illegally felled; in addition, wood was felled in the Masoala National Park . The luthier agreed to pay a fine of $ 300,000.

Gibson brand guitars

Soon after Gibson's production focus was shifted to guitars, archtop guitars (“jazz guitars”, percussion guitars) took a special place in the product range. These are acoustic full resonance guitars with a domed, usually carved top (and bottom) and F-sound holes ; Instruments that are mostly played with steel strings. The construction principle of these instruments is borrowed from that of violin making . Famous archtop guitar models that have been built practically unchanged since the 1920s and 1930s are the Gibson Super 400 , the Gibson L-5 , as well as the Gibson ES-175 and the Gibson Byrdland since the 1950s . Due to their elaborate and high-quality manufacturing, these four models are at the top of Gibson's product range to this day.

The type designation "ES" used by the company since the 1930s for many of its guitar models stands as an abbreviation for Electric-Spanish , whereby the company only uses the Spanish attribute to distinguish instruments played on edge, i.e. with an upright body , from those with a flat body played lap steel guitars . However, this is only used by the company for its full and semi-resonance guitars; none of the solid body electric guitars developed by Gibson since the early 1950s has this name.

Gibson set a milestone in the development of the guitar in 1936 with the ES-150 , the first industrially mass-produced guitar with an electromagnetic pickup. This instrument was the jazz guitar-player Charlie Christian known of it (and with a Gibson guitar amp type EH-150 in 1939 in the band of) Benny Goodman the role of the guitar in the band structure of only accompanying rhythm instrument to full-fledged solo instrument evolved. This was thanks to the electrical amplification that Gibson had brought to series production, which enabled guitarists to play in big bands with sufficient volume to stand alongside other solo instruments on an equal footing. The cartridge type of games played by Christian ES-150 , a Einzelspuler ( single coil ) is, since then as Charlie Christian pickup referred.

In addition to full resonance guitars, Gibson has also been building electrically amplified so-called semi-acoustic semi- resonance guitars since the late 1950s . The construction principle developed by the company is based on a flat hollow body (semi-hollow) with a vaulted ceiling, into which a solid wood block connected to the ceiling and floor is glued in the middle. This helps the instruments to be less susceptible to acoustic feedback and thus enables louder electrical amplification than can be implemented with full resonance guitars. Gibson's most widely used semi-resonance model is the ES-335 , introduced in 1958 , which is used by countless guitarists in many branches of popular music.

The first solid -body electric guitars from Gibson , which were released in the early 1950s, aimed even more consistently in the direction of higher volume potential - instruments with a solid wood body that hardly resonates acoustically , in which electrical amplification is indispensable for sound generation.

The solid body electric guitar Les Paul

The first and best-known solid body guitar from Gibson is the Les Paul model, first introduced in 1952 , which is named after one of the best-known US guitarists (at the time the instrument was launched) - after Les Paul , actually Lester William Polfus . After the Fender Telecaster , the Gibson Les Paul was the second industrially mass-produced solid body electric guitar.

Due to the success of the competitor Leo Fender with the Telecaster and the increased demand for solid wood guitars, Gibson was looking for opportunities to enter the market. One remembered the man whose self-made guitar the company had rejected as a “broomstick with strings” in the late 1940s. This prototype from 1941, jokingly called The Log by its designer Les Paul , essentially consisted of the body halves of a fully sawed-through full resonance guitar, which were glued on the left and right to a solid wooden beam with pickups and a guitar neck. This rather crudely constructed instrument became a decisive inspiration for the development of the Les Paul electric guitar and was the trigger for a long-term collaboration with the guitarist.

At the end of the 1950s, the first Les Paul guitars and other Gibson models were equipped with humbucking pickups for electrical amplification - a pickup model that suppresses the humming noises generated by electromagnetic interference by means of pairs of bar magnets wrapped in opposite directions with copper wire. This type of pickup is still the most widely used on Gibson electric guitars. He found numerous imitators, despite Gibson's warning to copyists that was initially attached to each copy until 1962: "PAF", abbreviation for Patent Applied For (patent pending); an addition that established itself as the unofficial name for this early humbucker type.

More solid body guitar models from Gibson

In addition to the Les Paul, Gibson developed a number of other types of electric guitars since the late 1950s. Some of these stood out due to their innovative and unconventional design, but their market success turned out to be extremely different and in some cases only arose years after the models were first introduced.

SG

When sales of the Les Paul began to drop in the second half of the 1950s , Gibson responded in 1958 by introducing the SG, conceived as a more radical form of the Les Paul - a model with a flat body and two pointed body horns, originally presented as the Les Paul SG . Due to his own dissatisfaction with this instrument and for private reasons, Les Paul temporarily interrupted his cooperation with Gibson in 1962, which led to the name of the model being shortened to the model name SG (for Solid Guitar ) , which is still used today . Famous SG players are or were, among others, Eric Clapton (who played a psychedelically painted model in the band Cream ), Angus Young from the hard rock band AC / DC , Jimmy Page and Frank Zappa .

Melody Maker

'59 Melody Maker with two single coil pickups

The Melody Maker has been built since 1959. In terms of shape, it is similar to Les Paul . It also has a single cutaway , but a thinner body, a solid wood mahogany neck and no binding. Several variants were launched, for example with a single-coil pickup, with two single-coils, with a short scale length and as a twelve-string version.

From 1962 the Melody Maker D was developed, a double-cutaway guitar that was based on the SG .

There are many different models of Melody Maker that have changed over the years (Melody Maker D, All American II, Les Paul Melody Maker).

In 2007, the Melody Maker was reintroduced as an independent model by Gibson. It is only in Nashville ( Tennessee built). Gibson stated that the new model is exactly based on the '59 Melody Maker . The instrument is available in white, black and sunburst with a matt finish.

The Melody Maker is the only Gibson guitar that can be purchased new for less than 400 euros, although it is produced in the USA. A Joan Jett model was launched as a special edition in 2008 .

According to Gibson, the Melody Maker was the company's most successful guitar from 1959 to 1965.

  • Melody Maker

  • Headstock

Modernistic: Explorer, Flying V and Moderne

Also in 1958, the company presented two further designs that caused a sensation with their expansive, pointed shapes and which were offered by Gibson in a series called Modernistic : the Explorer with an asymmetrically jagged body shape and the Flying V , a model with a V-shaped body that gave it its name. Both originally aimed specifically at the guitarists of modern jazz. The “futuristic” design of both the Flying V and the Explorer was so far ahead of its time when they were introduced that the instruments were rejected by many customers and thus initially became commercial failures. Compared to the other Gibson models, these guitars found only a few buyers, which is why their production was soon discontinued. The first edition of Explorer and Flying V each amounted to less than 100 instruments, which later became sought-after collector's items.

It wasn't until musicians like Jimi Hendrix , Marc Bolan and other guitarists of the 1960s and 1970s made the Flying V and Explorer popular. Since that time, these guitars have been particularly popular with rock guitarists - including those from the heavy metal genre - so that they are not only in Gibson's product range to the present, but also copies and further developments of both models from some other manufacturers, such as ESP , are offered successfully.

A third model from the Modernistic series did not make it to production: the Modern , for which a patent was applied for in 1957, but of which only prototypes were made. Since few photos and construction plans of this model, but no instruments, remained of this model, the modern age achieved a myth-like status among guitar lovers until Gibson brought out a small edition as a special series in the 1980s. The Futura, a pointed variant of the Explorer, only made it into series production as a cheaper model at the subsidiary Epiphone . Gibson also brought so-called reissue models of the Flying V and the Explorer onto the market. These were just reissued versions of the two models. They also did not establish themselves in the market.

Firebird

In 1963 Gibson introduced the Firebird - another asymmetrical design, designed by automotive designer Ray Dietrich , with a full neck, reverse (mirror-inverted) cut body and headstock, and banjo tuning machines. Despite attempts by the company with a “more moderate” non-reverse model introduced in 1965, this model also met with little approval from buyers in the first few years after its market launch. Years later, the Firebird was finally offered again in its original design and has retained a relatively small circle of enthusiasts up to the present day. One of the most prominent among them is the blues-rock guitarist Johnny Winter .

Dark Fire

The Gibson Dark Fire was a modification of the Les Paul , an electric guitar with a specially chambered mahogany body, which makes the instrument easier. She was inspired by the program of robotic models and with a further developed version of the Powertune-tuning system of Tronical and a more powerful battery provided via a stereo - jack cable and a special interface could even be charged while playing. This interface also served to exchange data with studio equipment or a PC. The heart of the instrument was the Chameleon Tone Technology - an equalizer system, with the help of which very variable sound settings could be made possible. A Burstbucker 3 ( humbucker ) and a P-90H ( single coil ) as well as a piezoelectric pickup , which acted as a frequency sensor and could be displayed directly in the signal of the magnetic pickup, were installed. This made the Dark Fire stand out as a very versatile electric guitar, as it combined EQ technology (not to be confused with digital emulation) and auto-tuning with a huge variety of analog sounds. The model was designed by Marino Soumas and Anik Tanvir Mahamud and presented for the first time at the end of 2008. Due to the lack of commercial success, production of the model was discontinued in 2010.

Gibson electric basses

Gibson also makes electric basses , but they are far less popular than the company's guitars. The first Gibson electric bass, the EB model ("EB" stands for Electric Bass ) was introduced in 1953, around two years after the introduction of the first mass- produced solid-body electric bass, the Fender Precision Bass . The EB had a violin-shaped solid body with a vaulted top and a single electromagnetic pickup on the fingerboard base. Other special features of the model were the banjo mechanisms used as well as a screw-on long spike included in the delivery. The latter should enable the musicians to play the instrument not only like a guitar, but also like a double bass placed on the floor in an upright position. The model was initially produced until 1958. In 1970 there was a new edition under the changed model name EB-1 .

Later bass models from the 1950s and 60s, sold under the names EB-0 (from 1959) to EB-6 or SB and Les Paul , borrowed their design from Gibson electric guitars such as the SG , the models Les Paul and Les Paul Junior and the ES-335 . The Thunderbird model , which was first introduced in 1963 and is still one of the brand's most famous electric basses, took up the design of the Firebird electric guitar that was introduced at the same time . It was not until the L9S Ripper and G1 Grabber models, which were offered from 1973, that Gibson had completely independently designed electric basses in its range.

The commercial success of almost all Gibson bass models, however, always lagged far behind that of its competitor Fender . At present, Gibson basses can be seen as marginal in popular music. The only exception is the Thunderbird model , which is now sold under the company's own Epiphone brand and is widely used by rock bassists. The few prominent bassists who play Gibson instruments include Shavo Odadjian ( System of a Down ), Simon Gallup ( The Cure ), Kim Gordon ( Sonic Youth ), Jack Bruce ( Cream ), John Entwistle ( The Who ), Krist Novoselic ( Nirvana ), Mike Dirnt ( Green Day ), Jeordie White ( Marilyn Manson ) and Nikki Sixx ( Mötley Crüe ).

Western guitars

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.
One of the signature models from the Artist series: "Special Edition Elvis Presley Model".

Gibson has also been producing acoustic guitars with a flat top and a round sound hole positioned on the fingerboard since the company's early years . Gibson celebrated its entry into the flat top business in 1928 with the "Nick Lucas" , the first signature model on the world market.

The Martin Guitars company brought the first dreadnought guitars onto the market in 1916 . Because of the unusual size of the body of this revolutionary development, it was named after the battleship class of the same name in the British Navy. These new models from Martin enjoyed rapid success and so in 1934 Gibson followed suit with the J-45 , which, in contrast to the straight-shouldered ("square shoulder") Martin models, was made with "round shoulder" were. The J-45 is still one of the most popular acoustic guitars in the world today. It was not until 1960 that Gibson produced the Hummingbird , a dreadnought with straight shoulders.

Just three years after the presentation of the J-45 , Gibson again presented a new body shape, namely the SJ-200 ("Super Jumbo"), whereby the prototype of the SJ-200 was originally made in 1937 as a custom-made product for the "singing Hollywood cowboy" Ray Whitley was built. The connection between the Hollywood greatness and Gibson started, as it were, on the sidelines of a rodeo in Madison Square Garden with Ray's order for a Custom Super Jumbo, which was supposed to be bigger, nicer, louder and more eye-catching than anything on the market to date. Due to the great demand, it was decided in 1938 to mass-produce the extraordinary instrument. The development of the SJ-200 never stopped, Gibson changed its appearance several times and steadily improved its sound. The lush body size of the currently available SJ , with a maximum width of 43.2 cm and a height of 53 cm, still corresponds to the standard dimensions from 1939.

In order to offer an inexpensive alternative to the SJ-200 , Gibson introduced the J-185 in 1951 , with which the body shape of the so-called "mini-jumbo" was born. This had a lower shoulder width reduced by approx. 3 cm, but its body was a little deeper. The result was a guitar that delivered a bit less bass, but still remained assertive. However, the guitar was initially not very popular and was therefore withdrawn from the program in 1959. In the 80s, Gibson's master guitar builder Ren Ferguson revived the J-185 and created a revised version of the "Mini-Jumbo" under the same name.

Gibson acoustic guitars are partially handcrafted in Bozeman , Montana from selected solid and fine woods. They are known for their assertive, attacking and warm sound as well as their high quality workmanship and, along with other instrument manufacturers, are among the popular guitars in the higher price segment. As a rule, every Gibson acoustic guitar is delivered with a certificate of authenticity and a serial number contained therein, which is intended to underline the uniqueness of each individual instrument as a one-off .

Unlike many of its competitors, Gibson never had its guitars manufactured in low-wage countries such as China , Taiwan or South Korea , which means that Gibson acoustic guitars never fell below a certain price level. With the so-called Songmaker series , however, there is a Western guitar from Gibson for the first time, which falls into the price range around 1,000 euros, but is still manufactured in the mother factory in Bozeman and made from solid wood. Optical subtleties such as inlays or bindings, for which Gibson acoustic guitars have always been very popular, were almost completely dispensed with for reasons of cost.

In order to make the legendary Gibson guitars accessible to less well-heeled guitarists, at least in shape, copies of these instruments are manufactured by the Gibson subsidiary Epiphone and sold worldwide. In contrast to the original models, however, these are not produced in the USA, but in the Far East and are usually made from woods of lower quality or from cheaper laminates . This makes them look very close to the original models.

Among the most prominent players of Gibson's acoustic guitars were or include Robert Johnson , Elvis Presley ; John Lennon and Paul McCartney of the Beatles ; Woody Guthrie , Keb 'Mo' , Elvis Costello , Arlo Guthrie , Kris Kristofferson , Emmylou Harris , Jackson Browne , John Hiatt , Pete Townshend , Dwight Yoakam , Billie Joe Armstrong , Aaron Lewis , Brad Paisley , Sheryl Crow , Dave Grohl and KT Tunstall . Gibson has been building signature models in honor of these musicians since 1928 - the so-called Artist series . Some of these are original replicas of the guitars used by the artists at the time, or new developments designed together with the artist.

Other products from Gibson

Gibson has also been active in the manufacture and sale of guitar amplifiers since the 1930s, albeit to a much lesser extent than in the guitars product line. The ES-150 amplifier model presented for the first time in 1936 , offered together with the guitar of the same name, was one of the first series-produced guitar amplifiers.

The Gibson company continues to build banjo and mandolin. The Bluegrass musician Earl Scruggs played first Banjo a blue RB-11 , then a Granada and finally the Earl Scruggs Golden Deluxe . The Gibson banjos that were made before World War II (such as the Granada RB ) are considered among the best of their kind by experts and are the choice of many professional musicians.

List of known Gibson guitar models (selection)

Full and semi-resonant guitars:

Solid body electric guitars:

Western guitars:

literature

  • George Gruhn, Walter Carter: Electric Guitars & Basses . PPV Verlag, Bergkirchen 1999, ISBN 3-932275-04-7 .
  • Tony Bacon, Dave Hunter: Totally Guitar - the definite guide. Guitar Encyclopedia. Backbeat Books, London 2004, ISBN 1-871547-81-4 .
  • Electric guitars ; Special issue of the magazine Guitar & Bass on the history of the electric guitar. MM-Musik-Media-Verlag, Ulm 2004. ISSN  0934-7674
  • Guitar & Bass - The Musicians' Magazine , Issue 12/2004. MM-Musik-Media-Verlag, Ulm, ISSN  0934-7674
  • Bass Professor , German-language specialist magazine for electric bass players, issues 4/2007 and 1/2008. ISSN  1431-7648

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ eu.tennessean.com: Gibson taps JC curleigh as CEO to lead iconic guitar company out of bankruptcy
  2. ^ Edward Helmore: Never felt more like singing the blues: Gibson guitar firm files for bankruptcy. The Guardian , May 1, 2018, accessed May 2, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Oxford Dictionaries: Gibson (here pronunciation of the cocktail as an example), accessed on March 6, 2018.
  4. ↑ faz.net: Gibson files for bankruptcy, May 1, 2018
  5. ^ History ( Memento of March 10, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ a b c Totally Guitar. P. 389.
  7. ↑ Ralf Bauer: Gibson Roy Smeck Stage de Luxe, 1935. In: Akustik Guitar , issue 5/2011, p. 126 f.
  8. ↑ de.onkyo.com
  9. ↑ musicradar.com
  10. ↑ Philips sells WOOX Innovations to Gibson Brands. Retrieved on August 17, 2019 (German).
  11. ^ Press report Süddeutsche Zeitung , February 2018
  12. ↑ Press report musikexpress, February 2018
  13. ↑ Tom Teodorczuk: We asked musicians why guitar companies like Gibson are struggling and how to revive them. Retrieved August 17, 2019 (American English).
  14. ↑ Legendary US guitar manufacturer Gibson insolvent orf.at, May 2, 2018, accessed May 2, 2018.
  15. ↑ Bankruptcy: The Facts About Gibson Bankruptcy , May 3, 2018.
  16. ↑ Gibson is saved: With a new passion and focus on guitar making, Metalhammer.de
  17. ↑ Portfolio of the company Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
  18. ^ Gibson Guitars Announces New CEO, Leadership Team
  19. ↑ Madagascar: Robbery and Murder in Paradise on www.regenwald.org
  20. ↑ a b Gibson guitars: Illegal tropical wood for noble guitars? on www.regenwald.org
  21. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from March 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.opencongress.org
  22. ↑ Press release no. 506 of the Zurich Zoo ( Memento of the original from May 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF file; 48 kB) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.zoo.ch
  23. ↑ Zoo brings guitar maker Gibson to his knees. In: Tages-Anzeiger (accessed on: August 8, 2012).
  24. ↑ Guitar & Bass , issue 12/2004, p. 76 ff: Charlie Christian & the Gibson ES-150
  25. ↑ Electric guitars. P. 130.
  26. ↑ Electric guitars. P. 23.
  27. ↑ Electric guitars. P. 135.
  28. ↑ Electric guitars. P. 134.
  29. ↑ gibson.com
  30. ^ Totally Guitar. P. 409 ff.
  31. ^ Totally Guitar. P. 410 f.
  32. ^ Bass Professor , Volume 4/2007, p. 100: The Story of Gibson Basses , Part 1
  33. ↑ Gruhn / Carter, p. 157. With large-format illustration.
  34. ^ Bass Professor , Issue 1/2008, p. 78 ff: The Story of Gibson Basses , Part 2
  35. ↑ Electric guitars. P. 43.
  36. ^ Tony Bacon, Paul Day: The Ultimate Guitar Book. Edited by Nigel Osborne, Dorling Kindersley, London / New York / Stuttgart 1991; Reprint 1993, ISBN 0-86318-640-8 , p. 39.
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