Original Kalamazoo Factory

[ajzwart]

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.

 

 

 

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.

[RaysEpiphone]

What a cool pic! I got some kin-folk that use to live around Grand Rapids, they've long moved away but we went to the Kellogg's Plant in Kalamazoo many times when I was a kid and we where visiting the family up there (both my mom and dad are from Detroit). Funny that whole time I never knew anything about Gibson Guitar's until I got into my Teen's in the early 1980's.

[brc]

Great pics

Would love to see more if you can.

I have a couple of Gibsons that came out of that factory.

I would love to take the tour of the new site in Tenn.< guess were talking about a road trip>

I am huge fan on the history of guitars. Like you mentioned, all the guitars that came out of there and the people that they are associated to.

[pippy]

Nice!

 

It was built especially for Gibson in 1917 and after the tail-end of the '50s the Epi's were made at a different part of that same plant.

 

Much history at 225 Parsons St!

When Heritage (founded by ex-Gibson men Marvin Lamb, J.P. Moats and Jim Duerloo) bought the site they also bought some of the machinery.

I believe they still have - and use - the original rim-bending press which was used to make all the 335 style instruments back in '59-on.

 

P.

[Kaiser Bill]

When I was on the road in the mid-70s, I was working in Detroit with a band out of Youngstown Ohio. We had Mondays off, so I drove down to Kalamazoo and asked to go through the factory. They wanted to know how many would be in the tour. I laughed and said just me. They said we don't do one person tours... you need to be with a group. After some protesting, they finally agreed to let me see the factory. I was given a whirlwind tour. I got to see the entire factory in about 30 minutes. Talk about your "Bum's Rush". Oh well...

I just added it to the list of other big companies I've been through. Fender, Ampeg, Altec, Seymour Duncan, Polytone, Radio Shack, Sun, and General Mills.

[badbluesplayer]

Cool!

[MrNylon]

Cool post!

[EVOL!]

Great story.

 

I lived in the Bland Rapids area for six and a half years and sadly never made it to the old Gibson factory. My bassplayer at the time lived in Kzoo and he took a seventies Epiphone I had to an ex Gibson guy for repairs. Said the guy was super cool.

 

How is GRap these days? I was there in the nineties (GVSU is my Alma Mater) and I lived in Allendale, a farm house in Coopersville, and downtown GRap at Lafayette and Fulton. Last time I was there was for a short weekend in 2011 to pick up a dog from a rescue. I could not believe how much GVSU has changed! When I was there it was the Allendale campus and the downtown campus consisted of a single building: Eberhard Center, where the PBS station is/was. Had some great times there (Reptile House, RIP, and that old abandoned hotel which I think was called The Enclave) and some not so great times, but it is all living.