Gibson Guitar Company

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, U.S.
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	List Henry Juszkiewicz (Chairman and CEO) David Berryman (President) Reggie Mebane (COO) Orville Gibson (Founder) Lloyd Loar (Luthier) Ted McCarty (President, 1950–66) Les Paul (Musician) Seth Lover (Humbucker inventor)
Products	Archtop, acoustic and electric guitars Bass guitars Mandolins Audio equipment
Subsidiaries	List Baldwin Piano Cakewalk Cerwin-Vega Dobro Epiphone Esoteric Harmony Central Integra Kramer KRK Systems Maestro Onkyo Stanton Steinberger TASCAM TEAC Corporation Tobias
Website	www.gibson.com

Coordinates: 36°07′48″N 86°43′33″W / 36.1298758°N 86.7257458°W / 36.1298758; -86.7257458

Gibson Brands, Inc. (formerly Gibson Guitar Corp.) is an American manufacturer of guitars, other musical instruments, and consumer and professional electronics 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.