Jump to content
Gibson Brands Forums

Original Kalamazoo Factory


ajzwart

Recommended Posts

Hey all! I haven't posted here in a long time, but I'm looking to start hanging out more often! What got me coming back to post was something very cool that happened to me yesterday...

 

I'm from Michigan, and I've always grown up knowing that Gibson Guitar Corp. and Orville Gibson was from Kalamazoo (Kzoo). I grew up in Grand Rapids, about an hour north of Kzoo, but my grandparents and fathers side of my family grew up in kzoo as well, so I've spent many days and weekends as I was growing up down there. When I was 13, I started playing guitar, and when I was 18 I bought my first Gibson (A Les Paul Studio, Worn Cherry. Upgraded all the cosmetics from black to cream, I'll post pictures of that soon). Anyways, this past weekend I was visiting my grandparents, and my grandpa said, "Hey, lets go head down to the old Gibson factory!" (Now Heritage guitars). So we drove the approximately 10 minutes from my grandfathers place, and as we pull up I was speechless.

 

photo.jpg

 

image.jpeg

 

This is the original building that Gibson had from the early 1900's all the way up to 1984-85 when they officially moved all production to Nashville.

 

Theres so much history behind these doors. All the hours spent making the worlds most famous guitars. Just thinking about how Jimmy Page played a guitar that was made handcrafted by Gibson luthiers just down the road gives me goosebumps. These aren't the best pictures, but I'm hoping to go back soon and take some more with a SLR. My grandfather knows one of the current luthiers at Heritage which still uses this building, so I'm hoping to actually get inside and see the machinery. Anyways, I just wanted to share these pictures and tell about this cool experience I had!

 

One last note, I was also told that my great uncle worked in the late 50's to early 70's at Gibson, polishing the guitars that had just come off the assembly line. Wicked cool.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...