Gibson Acoustic Guitars -Are they a touch of class, or as bad as Orville's dress sense? (Gibson Acoustic Guitars)

Member Name: Caveat-Emptor

Product:	Gibson Acoustic Guitars
Date:	12/07/09 (59 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Brilliatly well made, awesome sound (eventually), will probably hold (or increase) their value

Disadvantages: Expensive, Martin Guitars may be better, Take a while to mature and sound good

My review of Gibson Acoustic Guitars
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Introduction
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Originally founded by Orville Gibson in the late 19th century; the Gibson brand of musical instruments quickly gained a great reputation for making hi quality instruments.

Orville (who's dress sense has to be seen to be believed - (I've seen some old photos of him in clothes that would make a 1970's extra on Starsky and Hutch feel embarrassed -lol!) originally started out building mandolins but quickly moved on to make acoustic guitars too.

Orville can certainly take credit for making the first arch-top acoustic guitars, and he also made flat topped ones too -though the Martin company were already making those long before Orville started...

Non the less Gibson went on to make many highly regarded acoustic instruments -and are still making them today (still in Nashville, USA). Gibson acoustics are considered to be some of the best in the world, however it must also be noted that the Martin guitar company is still going strong too -and if anything has a slight edge on Gibson, reputation wise... Though I'm sure Gibson won't mind too much since they also cornered a large part of the electric guitar market too.

My Opinion
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There are too many Gibson guitars in existence (including some of the century or more old ones which are still in existence) to be able to sensibly mention them all, so I'll just point out a few things from the ones I've either owned or am very familiar with...

Arguably the best known Gibson Acoustic guitar is the 'Hummingbird' which has more than a passing resemblance to a Martin dreadnaught style guitar... (a classic Matin design named after a ship). The Hummingbird name derives from he scratchplate which has a picture of the bird on it.

These are expensive; my friend bought one 10 years back and paid well over a thousand pounds for it. Sound wise, I didn't like it - it sounded dead and flat. However, as acoustic guitars will tell you - well made guitars improve their sound with age.

...And I have to say that 10 years on it sounds wonderful - but it's a hell of a long time to wait for your guitar to sound great, especially after paying all that cash. So if it were me, I'd try to buy a second hand one that's already been played loads...

The other Gibson acoustic worthy of note is the J-200, probably best known because Elvis played one in some of his early iconic performances... and it's a great sounding instrument (though I think it's even more expensive than the Hummingbird) but ulness you're lotto numbers have just come up -or your a pro musician; you might want to opt for the cheaper Asian made Epiphone (a subsidiary of Gibson, via which they seller cheaper down market versions of their guitar range) J-200 instead.

It's loads cheaper and the\sound is not dissimilar to the real thing, though of course it's not as good... stil you'd need to be a pretty good judge to notice.


My Verdict
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I think that Gibson acoustic guitars (along with their banjos and mandolins) are top quality excellent instruments that would suit the best discerning players; though arguably Martin still 'do it' a better when it comes to making acoustic guitars.

If you're playing is good enough to notice the difference then a real USA Gibson model is going to be the only thing that satisfies -if you just play semi pro or are on a budget, go for the cheaper (but still pretty good) Epiphone replicas of the proper Gibson acoustics, cuz you're not going to notice that much of a difference except for all the extra cash left in your wallet!!

Thanks for reading my review and I hope you found it useful and interesting. Good luck with your bargain hunting!!

Best wishes,
Caveat-Emptor

Summary: Less original than Orville Gibson's shiny stripey trousers, but still world class instruments!!!