Gibson USA

The home of Gibson electric guitars today is "Gibson USA," built in 1974 in Nashville specifically for the production of Gibson's Les Paul guitars. Although the entire guitar industry went through a slump in the late '70s, the spirit of innovation remained strong at Gibson. In response to a growing demand for vintage stylings, Gibson tapped its rich history and reissued the dot-neck version of the ES-335 in 1981 and the flametop sunburst Les Paul in 1982. At the same time, two legendary guitarists joined Gibson- B.B. King in 1980 with the Lucille model and Chet Atkins in 1982 with his new concept of a solidbody acoustic guitar. Gibson world headquarters moved to Nashville in 1984 with the closing of the Kalamazoo plant. The financially troubled company was rescued in January 1986 by Henry Juszkiewicz and David Berryman, and the new owners quickly restored Gibson's reputation for quality as well as its profitability. Today's Gibson electric guitars represent the history as well as the future of the electric guitar. The models whose designs have become classics-the ES-175, ES-335, Flying V, Explorer, Firebird, SGs and Les Pauls-are a testament to Gibson's wide appeal, spanning more than four decades of music styles. Gibson's close relationship with musicians is manifest in endorsement models from King, Atkins and jazz greats Howard Roberts and Herb Ellis, plus new Les Pauls made to the personal specifications of rock stars Jimmy Page and Joe Perry. In 1994, Gibson's Centennial year, the new Nighthawk model won an industry award for design, setting the stage for a second hundred years of Gibson quality and innovation.

Henry Juszkiewicz

Dave Berryman

The First Gibson Electrics

By the time Gibson began work on its first electric guitar, the company
had a 40-year tradition of quality and innovation to uphold. The first Gibson electric had to be nothing less than the best electric guitar the world had ever seen. In the spring of 1935, Gibson enlisted musician Alvino Rey to help develop a prototype pickup with engineers at the Lyon & Healy company in Chicago. Later that year, research was moved in-house, where Gibson employee Walter Fuller came up with the final design. Gibson introduced the distinctive hexagonal pickup on a lap steel model in late 1935. The pickup was installed on an F-hole archtop guitar, dubbed the ES150 ES for Electric Spanish), and the first one shipped from the Gibson factory in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on May 20, 1936. Was the ES-150 the best electric guitar that guitarists in 1936 had ever seen? Jazz musician Charlie Christian, who would establish the electric guitar as an instrument with its own unique voice, thought so. Sixty years later, the Gibson ES-150 is still known as the Charlie Christian model, and some jazz players consider the ES-150's "Charlie Christian" pickup to be the best jazz pickup ever made. The ES-150's success was a double-edged sword, establishing Gibson as the foremost maker of electric guitars but at the same time challenging Gibson to top this monumental achievement. After a production break for World War II, Gibson did just that.

The Golden Age of Innovation

In the years after World War II, the electric guitar came of age and Gibson entered a golden of age of
innovation. The P-90 pickup, introduced in 1946, gave guitarists new power and versatility. Under the aggressive leadership of company president Ted McCarty, Gibson debuted two new concepts in 1949 with the ES-5, the first three-pickup guitar, and the ES-175, the first guitar with a sharply pointed cutaway bout. The advent of the solidbody electric guitar posed a new challenge for Gibson. Like the ES-150 in 1936, Gibson's first solidbody electric had to uphold Gibson tradition while going a step beyond all other guitars of its kind. A carved contoured top harkened back to the very first Orville Gibson instruments of the late 1800s, and a gold finish signified a value above all others. With the endorsement of the most popular guitarist of the time, Gibson introduced the Les Paul Model in 1952. The Les Paul quickly grew into a family of four models-the Junior, Special, Standard and Custom - all of which would

become Gibson classics. Gibson's top models sported McCarty's new tune-o-matic bridge, which was introduced on the Les Paul Custom in 1954 and is still the standard Gibson electric guitar bridge. In 1958 McCarty debuted not one, but two radical new ideas-a semi-hollowbody electric and a group of exotic, futuristic solidbodies. The ES-335 was an instant success, combining traditional archtop styling with modern, solidbody construction. The Flying V, Explorerand Moderne proved to be decades ahead of their time. Gibson pushed on into the 1960s with two more bold, modern solidbody lines-the doublecutaway SGmodels of '61 and the reverse-body Firebirds of '63. By the time the McCarty era ended in 1965, a foundation of classic models had been laid that would carry Gibson through the rest of the century.

Dethklok "Thunderhorse" Explorer

For fierce riffs, eviscerating tones, and all-out metal mayhem, there's no one heavier than Dethklok... or, in the imaginations of their creators, at least. As the resident death metal merchants on Adult Swim's Metalocalypse, Dethklok epitomizes no-hold-barred rock excess; but as much as the band members on the TV show are fictional, the music itself is very real. As performed by Brendon Small in the studio, who also does the voice for Dethklok's Gibson Explorer-wielding lead guitarist Skwisgaar Skwigelf, the guitar playing behind this animated phenomenon is powerful and compelling, and has garnered enough fans to warrant two actual album releasesThe Dethalbum(2007) and Dethalbum II (2009)and a series of live tours, with Small and supporting musicians playing live, accompanying animated characters on the big screen. In honor of this virtual/actual sensation, Gibson USA introduces the Dethklok "Thunderhorse" Explorer, a top-flight metal guitar that is very much real, and patterned after Skwisgaar Skwigelf's weapon of choice. Dressed in a stunning Silverburst finish, appointed with the finest electronics and hardware available, and rendered in the shape of the most radical electric guitar in the history of the instrument, the Dethklok "Thunderhorse" Explorer is a fitting tribute to the musical achievements of Small and his animated partners in rock, although the guitar unlike its namesakeis entirely flesh and blood... or, wood and wire at least. It packs all the meat and muscle to lash out the most menacing metal, yet is capable of purring sweetly when desired, and naturally it offers the kind of stellar playability that you have come to expect from more than a century of Gibson guitars. Check out the Dethklok "Thunderhorse" Explorer now at your authorized Gibson dealer, and prepare to animate your own metal mayhem.

Kirk Hammett Flying V

Neporeivo jedan od najuticajnijih gitarista u istoriji metala, Kirk Hammett je pokazao neuporedivu mo, ton i nadarenost u svojoj gotovo 30-godinjoj karijeri sa Metallicom. Navodi se kao #11 u Rolling Stone-a magazinu u listi "100 najveih gitarista svih vremena," Hammett je takoe pokazao kao trajni i multi-dimenzionalni umetnik, kova bezvremenskih rifova

doprinosei klasine hitove iz godine u godinu . Kirk i Metallica su osvojili ne samo metal svet nego celi muziki svemir, postaju lanovi Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-a u procesu. Tokom tog vremena Kirk je svirao 1979 Gibson Flying V. U ast njegove neverovatna karijere, Gibson Custom uvodi Kirk Hammett Flying V, vernu rekreaciju Kirkove vlastite Flying V i pouzdanog pratitelja tokom svoje svirake karijere s Metallicom, najveeg metal benda u istoriji muzike.

Angus Young SG Standard

For more than 35 years, AC/DC has represented the archetypal big rock guitar sound, setting the standards for countless bands to follow. In particular, Angus Youngs incendiary lead tone and mammoth rhythm crunch have inspired wave after wave of rock guitar heroes, and he has done it all on a Gibson SG Standard. The SG replaced the underappreciated Les Paul Standard in 1961, and while the Les Paul would surface later in the decade as a rock and blues classic, the new SG (originally named Les Paul/SG) was an instant hit in its own right. Its simple yet inspired ingredients of thin, all-mahogany body and neck and two Gibson humbucking pickups gave it a snappy attack with a muscular punch, and its slim, fast neck yielded unprecedented playability. Now the Gibson Custom Shop offers its reproduction of one of the worlds most renowned SGs in the form of the Angus Young SG, a Limited Edition that captures the tone, look, and feel of this rare specimen among a classic breed, but which updates this legendary guitar with custom modifications requested by Angus himself. Angus Young acquired his 1968 SG Standard in 1970, and has used it on all major AC/DC recordings and many tours since the bands inception in 1973. Youngs 68 SG is known to be a superb example of this model, with an unusually slim neck, pickups that blend just the right proportions of power and sweetness, and a resonant, vocal tone that represents the best of the SG formula. Listen closely to any classic AC/DC tune, and the tone is huge, but not filthy or fizzy. Anguss 68 SG achieves a stunning clarity and definition right within its bone -crushing thump and grind. With utmost attention to detail, the Angus Young SG seeks to achieve that tone, aided by a pair of custom-spec Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates humbucking pickups. And with 50 guitars out of the total run of 250 aged in-house by Gibson and signed by Angus himself, this outstanding Custom Shop reproduction also nails the look of this legendary guitar, with upgraded modifications at Anguss request, including an ebony fingerboard with lightning bolt inlays (a further 200 guitars will receive the VOS treatment). The Custom Shop Angus Young SG will also be sold with a custom Certificate of Authenticity, a Gibson Custom Shop hardshell case, and a full range of owners manuals and instruction sheets.

Zakk Wylde Les Paul Bullseye

From his early work with Ozzy Osbourne, to his seminal playing with Black Label Society, to his distinctive solo outings, Zakk Wylde has distinguished himself as one of the most fierce lead players in all of rock. A technique as furious and aggressive demands a guitar to match. Gibson Custom is honored to work with Wylde to create a guitar that features his trademark bullseye graphics, EMG humbucking pickups and raw, unfinished necks. The Zakk Wylde Les Paul from

Gibson Custom is the ultimate weapon for guitarists looking to hack out anything from metal to grunge to the most raw shred styles.

Dom Gibson elektrine gitare danas je "Gibson USA", izgraen 1974. u Nevillu posebno za proizvodnju Gibsona Les Paul gitara. Iako je cela gitarska industrija prola kroz krize u kasnim 70-tih, duh inovativnosti ostao snaan u Gibsonu. Kao odgovor na rastudu potranju za vintage stilovima, Gibson je iskoristio svoju bogatu istoriju i ponovo izdao dot-neck verziju ES-335 u 1981. i Flametop Sunburst Les Paul u 1982. U isto vreme, dvojica legendarnih gitarista se pridruilo Gibson-u: BB King 1980. sa Lucille modelom i et Atkins u 1982. sa svojim novim konceptom solidbody akustine gitare.

Finansijski problematina fabrika je bila spaena u januaru 1986. Godine od strane Henrija Juskievisc i Dejvida Berimana, i novi vlasnici vrlo brzo vratiti Gibsonu ugled za kvalitet, kao i njegovu profitabilnost. Dananje Gibson elektrine gitare predstavljaju istoriju, kao i bududnost elektrine gitare. Modeli iji dizajn su postali klasici-ES-175, ES-335, Flying V, Explorer, Firebird, SG i Les Paul su dokaz Gibsona da su najbolji, u rasponu vie od etiri decenije muzikih stilova.

Golden Age of Innovation U godinama nakon Drugog svetskog rata, elektrine gitare postali uobiajene, a Gibson je uao u zlatno doba inovacije. P-90 pickup, uveden u 1946, je dao gitaristima novu snagu i svestranost. Pod vostvom agresivnog predsednika fabrike Teda MekKartija, Gibson je debitovao dva nova koncepta u 1949. sa ES-5, i ES-175 to je prva gitara s otro je istaknutim CutAway vratu. Pojavom solidbody gitare, elektrina gitara je predstavljala novi izazov za Gibson. Kao ES-150 1936, Gibson prva solidbody elektrina, je morala se pridravati Gibson tradicije dok ide korak dalje sa svim ostalim gitarama te vrste. Uz odobrenje jednog od najpopularnijih gitarista tog vremena, Gibson je predstavio model Les Paul 1952. Les Paul je brzo rastao u porodici etiri modela-Junior, Special, Standard i Custom - svi koji de postati Gibson klasici. Gibson top modeli nosili McCarty novi tune-omatic most, koji je uveden na Les Paul Custom 1954 i jo uvek je standardni most Gibson elektrine gitare. U 1958 McCarty debitirao ne jedan, nego dva radikalne nove ideje-polu-hollowbody elektrine i skupina egzotinih, futuristiki solidbodies.ES-335 bio instant uspjeh, kombinirajudi tradicionalnu archtop stil s modernim, solidbody gradnje.Flying V, Explorerand Moderne pokazao se desetljedima ispred svog vremena. Gibson guraju dalje u 1960 s dva vie bold, modernim linijama solidbody-the double-presjeenim SGmodels od '61 i obrnuto-tijelo firebirds od '63. Do trenutka McCarty era je zavrila u 1965, temelj klasinih modela sahraniti koji de nositi Gibson kroz ostatak stoljeda.