Gibson Guitars are a big force in the Guitar World. Gibson Guitars was originally formed by Orville Gibson who began his career making carved archtop mandolins in Kalamazoo, Michigan in the 1890s. Gibson transferred the same skills to making the first of the carved archtop acoustic guitars of the early 20th century. Gibson Guitars have now been a major producer of electric guitars and acoustic guitars for over 50 years. One of the first developments initiated by Gibson Guitars was the adjustable truss-rod that lies inside the neck. This remains in almost total use today as it gives strength to the neck and also allows you to adjust the relief of the neck. Another development of Gibson Guitars is the original shape "f" holes that we still see today in semi-acoustic guitars. Gibson also began using the floating pick guard. These two items gave a definite look to the first, (and following), big bodied archtop guitars. 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. With the increasing popularity of electric or amplified guitars, the top end of the finger board could now be heard. Gibson Guitars had the idea to introduce the cut away stlye in the body shape. This was to be forever used in future electric guitars and many acoustic guitars and led to the world of the lead guitar hero. Gibson Guitars had a good deal of success with the ES 175, electric guitar although it was still a hollow bodied archtop. The market however was excited about Fender's 1950 Telecaster guitar so Gibson had to start some more development work of their own. In 1950 they released their first solid body in the form of the Gibson Les Paul Standard electric guitar. In the early 1950s, it was not only Fender and Gibson Guitars who were putting research into the concept of the solid body guitar. Bibsby guitars were also carrying out some work as were Rickenbacker and National. 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. The first Les Paul Standard guitar was released in 1952. Les Paul received an endorsement contract for a 5 year period which was worth 5% of retail sales. The first Gibson Les Paul cost $210 and was referred to as the Gold Top. 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. At the same time, the general guitar playing public were getting interested in the look of their guitars and not just the sound and feel of the guitar. In response to this Gibson introduced some crazy shapes which were to fill a future niche market. These shapes were the legendary flying V and the Gibson Explorer. The double necked guitar was also produced at the same time. Gibson Guitars have since remained a force for guitar players worldwide.
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