Knowra Orville Gibson Orville Gibson Orville Gibson was an American instrument maker whose mandolin designs and business led to the company that became the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Company.
Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Company : An American musical-instrument manufacturer founded in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in 1902 and later known as Gibson, Inc. The company grew from the instrument designs and business Orville Gibson began.
Carved-top instrument : A stringed instrument with a top shaped by carving a solid piece of wood. Gibson’s arched, carved plates distinguished his mandolins from many built with flat plates.
John Schall : A businessman who helped organize the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Company and served as its first president. Schall led the company established around Gibson’s designs after its 1902 incorporation.
Flat-top mandolin : A mandolin built with a relatively flat soundboard rather than a carved, arched top. This construction contrasts with the carved-top mandolins Gibson promoted.
Kalamazoo, Michigan : A city in southwestern Michigan that became an early center of American guitar and mandolin manufacturing. Gibson made instruments there, and the company bearing his name began there.
Archtop guitar : A guitar with an arched top and back, often carved or pressed into shape. Gibson’s approach to carved mandolin plates anticipated a construction style used in later guitars.
William C. Vogt : A businessman involved in organizing the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Company in Kalamazoo. Vogt was among the organizers who converted Gibson’s instrument business into a company.
Lloyd Loar F-5 mandolin : A Gibson mandolin model designed by Lloyd Loar in the 1920s, distinguished by its scroll and f-shaped sound holes. The F-5 shows how later Gibson designers refined the carved-top tradition associated with the company’s origins.
Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Company charter : The 1902 corporate charter that established the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Company. The charter turned Gibson’s instrument-making venture into a formally incorporated company.
Mandolin : A plucked string instrument with a small fretted body, commonly tuned in paired courses. The mandolin was Gibson’s principal instrument and the basis of his early designs.
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