Orville by Gibson
| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Musical instruments |
| Founded | 1988 |
| Founder | Yamano Gakki & Gibson |
| Defunct | 1998 |
| Headquarters | Japan |
|
Area served
|
Worldwide |
|
Key people
|
Yamano Gakki (dealer) |
| Products |
Electric guitars bass guitars |
| Parent | Gibson |
Orville by Gibson (オービルbyギブソン), also known simply as Orville (オービル), was a brand of guitars that was managed by the Gibson Guitar Corporation for the Japanese market during the late 1980s and most of the 1990s. The name is borrowed from Orville Gibson, who founded the Gibson Guitar Company in 1902.
During the 1970s and the 1980s, Japanese guitar companies using brand names such as Ibanez, Tōkai, Burny, and Greco were making high-quality copies of Fender and Gibson guitars. Some brands were sold only on the Japanese market, but other brands such as Ibanez were also exported. Fender and Gibson opened Japanese branch divisions to make guitars in Japan using the Fender/Squier or Gibson/Epiphone brand names for the Japanese market.
Fender established Fender Japan in 1982 and contracted Yamano Gakki (山野楽器) and Kanda Shokai (神田商会) to oversee the production and distribution of Fender Japan guitars in cooperation with Fender. Yamano Gakki (Gakki meaning "musical instrument(s)") are one of Japan's largest musical instrument distributors and retailers, and Kanda Shokai are one of Japan's largest musical instrument distributors. Gibson established Epiphone Japan in the early 1970s with the production and distribution being managed by Aria in cooperation with Gibson.
The Aria and Gibson Epiphone Japan partnership ended in 1983 with the production of Epiphone guitars for export being moved to Korea. In 1987 Yamano Gakki obtained the Gibson and Epiphone dealership in Japan. Yamano Gakki distributed Gibson and Korean Epiphone guitars and also produced a limited range of Epiphone Japan semi-acoustic guitars in cooperation with Gibson.
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