By the 1930s, the company was also making flattop acoustic guitars, as well as one of the first commercially available hollow-body electric guitars, used and popularized by Charlie Christian. Gibson invented archtop guitars by constructing the same type of carved, arched tops used on violins. in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to make mandolin-family instruments.
Orville Gibson started making instruments in 1894 and founded the company in 1902 as the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Mfg. The company was formerly known as Gibson Guitar Corporation and renamed Gibson Brands Inc.
(formerly Gibson Guitar Corporation) is an American manufacturer of guitars, other musical instruments, and professional audio equipment from Kalamazoo, Michigan, and now based in Nashville, Tennessee.
