Gibson

Gibson Brands, Inc.

Formerly called	Gibson Guitar Corporation
Type	Private
Industry	Musical instruments
Founded	1902; 115 years ago (1902) in Kalamazoo, Michigan
Founder	Orville Gibson
Headquarters	Nashville, Tennessee, United States
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Henry Juszkiewicz (Chairman and CEO) David Berryman (President) Reggie Mebane (COO) Orville Gibson (Founder) Lloyd Loar Ted McCarty Les Paul Seth Lover
Products	Mandolins Archtop, acoustic and electric guitars Bass guitars Audio equipment
Subsidiaries	Baldwin Piano Cakewalk Cerwin-Vega Dobro Epiphone Esoteric Harmony Central Integra Kramer KRK Systems Maestro Onkyo Stanton Steinberger TASCAM TEAC Corporation Tobias
Website	Gibson.com

Gibson Brands, Inc. (formerly Gibson Guitar Corp.) is an American manufacturer of guitars and other instruments, now based in Nashville, Tennessee. The company was formerly known as Gibson Guitar Corp. and renamed Gibson Brands, Inc. on June 11, 2013.

Orville Gibson founded the company in 1902 as The Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Mfg. Co., Ltd. in Kalamazoo, Michigan to make mandolin-family instruments. Gibson invented archtop guitars by constructing the same type of carved, arched tops used on violins. By the 1930s, the company was also making flattop acoustic guitars, as well as one of the first commercially available hollow-body electric guitars, used and popularized by Charlie Christian. In 1944, Gibson was bought by Chicago Musical Instruments (CMI) which was acquired in 1969 by Panama-based conglomerate, Ecuadorian Company Limited (E.C.L.) that changed its name in the same year to Norlin Corporation.

Gibson sells guitars under a variety of brand names and builds one of the world's most iconic guitars, the Gibson Les Paul. Many Gibson instruments are highly collectible. Gibson was at the forefront of innovation in acoustic guitars, especially in the big band era of the 1930s; the Gibson Super 400 was widely imitated. In 1952, Gibson introduced its first solid-body electric guitar, the Les Paul which became its most popular guitar to date— designed by Ted McCarty and Les Paul.

Gibson was owned by the Norlin corporation from 1969 to 1986. In 1986, the company was acquired by its present owners. Gibson is a privately held corporation owned by its chief executive officer Henry Juszkiewicz and its president David H. Berryman. In addition to guitars, Gibson offers consumer audio equipment devices through its subsidiaries Onkyo Corporation, Cerwin Vega and Stanton, as well as professional audio equipment from KRK Systems also pianos from their wholly owned subsidiary Baldwin Piano and music software from Cakewalk.