Occupation Inventor Name Orville Gibson | ||
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Full Name Orville H. Gibson Died August 18, 1918, Ogdensburg, New York, United States | ||
Organizations founded Gibson Guitar Corporation | ||
Orville gibson les paul custom 1989 japan
Orville H. Gibson (May 1856 – August 19, 1918) was a luthier who founded the Gibson Guitar Company in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1896, makers of guitars, mandolins and other instruments.
Contents
- Orville gibson les paul custom 1989 japan
- How orville gibson impacted kalamazoo
- Career
- Illness and death
- References
He was born in Chateaugay, New York. According to the 1900 U.S. Federal Census, he was born in May, and his obituary published in The Malone Farmer on Wednesday, August 21, 1918, states he died on August 19th and his funeral was held at the home of his brother O. M. Gibson on August 21st.
How orville gibson impacted kalamazoo
Career
Gibson began in 1894 in his home workshop in Kalamazoo, Michigan. With no formal training, Gibson created an entirely new style of mandolin and guitar, with tops carved rather than bent, and arched like the top of a violin. He applied for and was granted a patent on the design. More importantly, they were louder and more durable than contemporary fretted instruments, and musicians soon demanded more than he was able to build in his one-man shop.
On the strength of Gibson's ideas, five Kalamazoo businessmen formed the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Mfg. Co., Ltd., in 1902. Within a short period after the company was started, the board passed a motion that "Orville H. Gibson be paid only for the actual time he works for the Company." After that time, there is no clear indication whether he worked there full-time, or as a consultant. Julius Bellson states in his 1973 publication, The Gibson Story, that "Orville Gibson had visions and dreams that were considered eccentric."
Illness and death
Starting in 1908, Gibson was paid a salary of $500 by Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Co., Limited (equivalent to $20,000 a year in modern terms). He had a number of stays in hospitals between 1907 and 1911. In 1916, he was again hospitalized, and died on August 19, 1918, at 62 years of age, in St. Lawrence State Hospital in Ogdensburg, New York. Gibson is buried at Morningside Cemetery in Malone, New York.