Gibson Guitar Factory

  Memphis, home of "Rock-n-Roll" and the "Blues", is our current stop. During our exploration of the city, we happened upon one of the iconic businesses here, the Gibson Guitar factory. Gibson is THE name in guitar manufacturing and since they offered tours of the factory, we signed up immediately.

  Orville Gibson developed and patented a single-piece mandolin design in 1898. Four years later, he opened his first Gibson Guitar and Mandolin factory in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The company has been at the forefront of acoustic guitar manufacturing ever since. Anyone who is a serious guitar player, including B.B. King and Elvis, owned a Gibson. Today, the whole process, from start to finish, takes 3.5 weeks to create a "perfect" Gibson ( they do not sell seconds; less than perfect guitars are crushed). The Memphis factory completes 60 guitars per day.

  While Neither Lori nor I play guitar, we found this to be an immensely fascinating tour and were impressed by the organization of their manufacturing process. With prices ranging from around $2000 to around $6000 each, these instruments easily are the most expensive on the market. We had a great time!

   www.gibson.com

The main entrance to the Gibson Factory.

The guitar lobby where we started our tour.

Our tour tickets.

Next to the lobby is the Gibson store, where you can purchase your very own, for a mere $2000 to $6000.

The start of the process is to frame the body of the guitar.

Once the framing is done, the front and back pieces are glued on and then rapped in 75 yards of linen straps while it dried.

Attaching the neck.

Waiting for the next step in the process.

Once the paint has been applied to give each guitar its distinctive look, ten coats of varnish are applied.

Buffing up the final product.