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The ‘Gibson’ name is arguably the most famous name in musical instrument manufacture, and their Banjo Ukes and Ukuleles rank alongside the best that were ever made. The founder of the company was Orville H. Gibson who was born in 1856 in the small town of Chateaugay in upstate New York. As a young man, Orville moved west and settled in Kalamazoo, Michigan, working in various menial jobs to support himself and his love of music. By 1896 Orville had begun making musical instruments in premises near the centre of Kalamazoo. He had ideas to expand but he lacked the capital to do so, until he received financial backing from five businessmen in 1902, when the ‘Gibson Guitar-Mandolin Manufacturing Company Ltd’ was formally created. However, in 1909 Orville Gibson became ill and in 1911 he returned to his former come for treatment. Over the next few years illness prevented Orville in participating in his business as much as he would have wanted to, and on August 21st, 1918, he died in Ogdensburg, a few miles from Chateaugay.
With the demise of the Mandolin in the early 1900’s came the rise in popularity of the Banjo. In 1910, the arrival of the Tango dance craze from Argentina proved to be the perfect catalyst for the increased popularity of the Banjo, and in particular the Tenor Banjo which was originally known as the Tango Banjo. Not surprisingly therefore, Gibson’s first Banjo was a Tenor, the ‘TB’, introduced to their range of instruments in 1918, but despite an enthusiastic endorsement from the extremely well known and popular musician Jas (James, or ‘Jimmie’) H. Johnstone, their first Banjo had developed the worst reputation of any Banjo on the market. Not only that, but the company was also badly run and falling evermore into severe financial trouble, so much so that in 1923 they made a loss of $26,000. However, the appointment of Harry L. Ferris as Business Manager in October 1923 was to put the company back on the road to success. Before the end of the year, Ferris had changed the name of the company to ‘Gibson, Inc’, and taken many other measures which were to turn around the company’s losses and set Gibson on the road to success. However, Ferris privately and publicly blamed the Gibson President, Judge Adams, for the mess that the company had got into in the years prior to Ferris joining. Unfortunately for Ferris, Judge Adams was a powerful man and after a bitter row, Ferris resigned from Gibson on September 8th 1924, but it was to take effect from January 1st 1925. He was replaced by Guy Hart, who was to steer the company through perhaps their most successful period, from 1924 to 1948, and who was responsible for the production and marketing of the best Gibson Banjo Ukes and Ukuleles.
Gibson’s first Banjo, the open back ‘TB’ introduced in 1918, was unsuccessful but it was well made. The Banjo market was expanding rapidly in the early 1920’s but Gibson had a lot of catching up to do. In 1922 they introduced improvements to their Banjo’s and had developed a Resonator, which was by now a common feature on most other makers Banjos. They produced a flat resonator which was partially hinged to allow it to open or close, and it had an oval shaped hole in it to allow it to be easily operated. This became known as the ‘Trapdoor’ model. In 1924 they introduced other instruments of the same design including their first Ukulele Banjo (See below). NEXT
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