| Gibson guitars have ruled the rock and roll roost for | | | | world was obsessed with "modern" things. Space |
| many years. Ever since the nineteen thirties when | | | | travel was on the minds of many creative people |
| pioneer electric guitar player, Charlie Christian took to | | | | working in a multitude of areas of industrial design. So it |
| them, Gibson guitars have always been very popular | | | | was one morning that the Gibson Flying V awoke and |
| with guitar players. They have the magic combination | | | | attempted to take flight. Unfortunately it only survived |
| of technical excellence and prestige and pizzazz. As | | | | for about one year. It slept then until the flamboyant |
| pioneers in the electric guitar field, they have always | | | | nineteen seventies welcomed it once more to the |
| made good use of every opportunity to get their | | | | world. Some famous guitarists, Jimi Hendrix among |
| guitars played by the leading guitarists. The company | | | | them, played it for a while and it found its way into the |
| began in 1936 but Gibson guitars took hold of the | | | | shops again, but only for a short time. The Gibson |
| 1960's with both hands and gave the era a big tongue | | | | company tried to rescue the situation by introducing |
| kiss. With the phenomenal growth of rock 'n' roll the | | | | the Firebird, a variation on the Flying V thought up by a |
| solid body electric guitar which evolved in the fifties | | | | car designer. The result looks more like a bad drawing |
| became the ultimate accessory for the young | | | | of an electric guitar. |
| gentleman wishing to have loads of sex. | | | | Recently Gibson has added an astounding feature to |
| The era produced many famous Gibson guitar models | | | | the world of guitar playing. The Powertune system. It |
| like the Double Cutaway SG, the Firebird and the Flying | | | | gives electric guitars the ability to tune themselves, thus |
| V. Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Peter Green, Chet Atkins | | | | making sure that the secret of many professional |
| all big names of the guitar, played Gibson guitars. And | | | | guitar players remains perfectly safe. Another thing |
| one of Gibson's triumphs - the Les Paul model was, | | | | that might surprise some people is the fact that Gibson |
| and still is, in the hands of a boatload of guitar playing | | | | has held its own quite well in the area of acoustic |
| pioneers. The Les Paul model was the company's | | | | guitar manufacturing. There is an Arlo Guthrie guitar in |
| response to public enthusiasm for the electric guitar. | | | | the Gibson Artist Signature Series of guitars. Possibly |
| Les Paul was arguably the most popular electric guitar | | | | somebody in the early seventies thought Arlo was |
| player in the world who had previously invented his | | | | going to be really, really big. Other artists to have |
| own solid body electric guitar. He was signed up by | | | | Gibson acoustic guitars named for them are Elvis |
| the Gibson company to lend his name to their new | | | | Presley, Sheryl Crow, Woody Guthrie, Robert Johnson |
| guitar and actually made some design suggestions | | | | and Pete Townshend. |
| which may or may not have been followed up, | | | | So if you find yourself wondering what makes Gibson |
| according to who you listen to. | | | | guitars so special the answer is in the company's ability |
| But the world of making great guitars was not all | | | | to keep its name alive in the mind of the guitar playing |
| cheese and crackers. In the late nineteen fifties the | | | | public. |