It’s difficult to believe that Gibson’s fame began as a part-time pastime for Orville Gibson! He did a variety of part-time jobs to support his primary love, which was handcrafting musical instruments.

In 1894, Orville started making acoustic guitars and mandolins in his Kalamazoo, Michigan shop. He pioneered a guitar design with a carved, hollow top and an oval sound hole that would become the archtop guitar standard. It didn’t take long for demand for his handcrafted inventions to soar, and in 1902 he gathered the funding to establish the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Company.