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Gibson Design & Innovation Retrospective
Below is a picture of Orville Gibson's original "one-man" workshop and a few of the fine instruments he built during the years prior to the formation of the company that would bare his name. As you can see, Gibson and design innovation were synonymous right from the very beginning.
Above from left to right: Orville Gibson-made A 37-string Harp Zither (5 melody strings and 32 open strings); Very ornate early 18-string harp-guitar; A-style mandolin, 18" guitar with butterfly inlay, and F-style mandolin.
This collection of headstock designs provides not only a history of all the shapes and sizes of various Gibsons and the changes to their logos, but also a testiment to the incredible craftsmanship of Gibson emplyees and those responsible for creating these fabulous works of art.
PROTOTYPES AND EXPERIMENTAL MODELS:
One thing you can say about Gibson was they weren't afraid to experiment when designing new instruments and improving on existing models.
Right: From c1919, an innovative design nicknamed the 'cat's eye" special. It had the label of Gibson's Army/Navy GY Special, but that guitar model had a standard round soundhole. For more on this experimental prototype click hereBelow: he c1924 L-5 prototype. This version with the oddly-shaped "moustache top" peghead appeared in a few Gibson brochures and catalogs, but was in fact an early prototype including the slightly different body size than the production version. The only known example of this peghead design appears on a 1924 Gibson K-5 mand-cello that was converted from an L-5, possibly the only one ever made (see above peghead pictures - 5th row down, 2nd from the left).
Below: A c1929-30 Gibson L-1 protoype with its unusual banjo-style 13-fret neck with volute (angle part protruding from the back of the peghead). Courtesy of Neil Reck
Below: c1930 "sound baffle" guitar design appeared in an advertisement and claimed to have "an amplifying resonator". This design never appeared in any catalog or brochure and apparently never made it past the prototype stage.
Left: Gibson's 1933 pocket catalog featured two models that never appeared in any other full-line catalog. A few surviving examples suggest they abandoned these designs in less than a year.Below: An unknown prototype possibly from the early 1930s - I like to call the "Mickey Mouse ears" guitar.
From the front, the guitar below appears to be an ordinary mid-1930's Roy Smeck Stage Deluxe Hawaiian guitar model, but from the back it is clearly a unique custom-made square neck design similar to what you would find on a Weissenborn or similar Hawaiian guitar. Note the transition from the large square neck to the back of the peghead, which owes a lot to Orville Gibson's early guitar designs that featured semi-hollow necks.
Above: The Jack Pennewell "Twin-Six" custom-made double neck guitar. Date of manufacture unknown, but probably mid-1930s..
Below: c1952 company photo Gibson's management team with Ted McCarty holding what appears to be a "gold top" ES-175 protoype. The "gold top" ES-295 and sunburst ES-175 were both introduced around the same time, but there was no "gold top" version of the ES-175 offered as a production guitar.
Left to right: Walter Fuller, Julius Bellson, Wilbur Marker, Ted McCarty, and John Huis.
Do you have a cool or unusual Gibson & would like to add it to our website?
Please email pictures to info@fox-guitars.com
