Welcome to Gibson Guitar Stop!

Gibson Guitar Stop provides information and reviews about Gibson guitars, where to buy, used Gibson guitars, Firebird, SG, Les Paul, Gibson acoustic guitars, and more.

Gibson is a manufacturer of acoustic and electric guitars. Gibson also owns and makes guitars under such brands as Epiphone, Kramer, Valley Arts, Tobias, Steinberger, and Kalamazoo.

Gibson is especially well known for their electric guitars—solidbody models like the Les Paul, the SG, the Flying V, the Explorer and the Firebird; hollowbody models like the ES-175 and the ES-335; as well as high-end archtops such as the L-5 and the Citation.

Despite being such a revered six-string guitar manufacturer, Gibson has had much success from their line of bass models such the Thunderbird (based on the Firebird), the EB-0 and EB-3 (based on the SG), the Ripper, and the Grabber, both first manufactured in the 1970s.

Company founder Orville Gibson originally made mandolins in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in the late 1890s. He actually invented the archtop guitar by using the same type of carved, arched tops found on violins. By the 1930s, the Gibson was also making flattop acoustic guitars, as well as the first commercially available hollow-body electric guitars, which were used and popularized by Charlie Christian. In the early 1950s, Gibson introduced its first solid-body electric guitar and its most popular guitar to date—the Les Paul. After being bought by the Norlin corporation in the late 1960s Gibson's quality and fortunes took a steep decline until early 1986, when the company was rescued by its present owners. Gibson Guitar is a privately held corporation.