What’s Inside the Gibson Vault?

Gibson guitars have been ringing out for 132 years! And there’s one place in the Nashville Gibson factory that has been off limits to outsiders for decades… Until now!

Mark Agnesi was kind enough to open the secret vault behind a bookshelf, filled with all the legendary instruments that have made Gibson a household name, including Orville Gibson’s first guitar, some legendary Lloyd Loar pieces that shaped music everywhere, the first Gibson electric guitar, the breakthroughs of the ‘50s, and the last guitar created in the 20th century.

In the 1920s Lloyd Loar was Gibson's acoustic sound engineer. While he was only with Gibson for three years, two of the four instruments he crafted were legendary and stand the test of time. “The Lloyd Loar F-5 Mandolin. This is what a guy named Bill Monroe used to create a genre of music called bluegrass.” And “the L-5 Guitar is what a lady named Mother Maybelle Carter used to create a genre of music called country.” Have you ever heard of country music? Well The L-5 was the first guitar to ever have F-holes, but it wouldn’t be the last.

In the 1950's, Gibson was sending out game-changing innovations left and right. In the early 1950’s we got solid body electric guitars, 1953 the Tune-O-Matic bridge was the new staple to keep guitars in tune, and in 1957 Seth Lover developed the Humbucker. The first Coronet Prototype after Gibson bought Epiphone came out in 1957 — which was the first solid body Epiphone. And let’s not forget in 1958 the ES-335 was the first semi hollowbody electric guitar designed by Ted McCarty, the president of Gibson at the time.

Gibson loves artisan craftsmanship. And to start the 21st century right, they paid tribute to the 1900s with the 20th Century Guitar. ”The back of the guitar is actually the star of the show. It's basically like every pop culture figure by decade of the entire century either hand painted burned or inlaid with mother of pearl and abalone.” If the art wasn’t fancy enough, what about those 18k gold inlays… Who am I kidding? The front of the guitar has Rambo and Marilyn Monroe on it, so of course we love it!

Gibson certainly changed the game several times throughout the 20th century, but that doesn’t mean they’re done. They’re still making some of the best stringed instruments you can get your hands on. And if you want to follow Gibson into the 21st century, make sure to check out all the Gibson guitars right here at AMS and don’t forget to follow the AMS YouTube Channel for all things Gibson.