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My Banner LG visits its birth place


jt

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Thanks, folks! It was fun to wander the old building, Banner Gibson in hand, while checking on the progress of the renovation efforts. Cool times at 225 Parsons Street in Kalamazoo!

 

Great photo, John! Do you have a new project going, or "just happened to pass by?"

 

Lars, I visited at the request of the Gibson building's new property owner. A substantial renovation is underway. The completed building will include an expanded Heritage Guitars, which has operated out of the building, using all of the original equipment, including some dating back to Orville's time and all of the machinery that the Kalamazoo Gals used, since Gibson left in 1984. "Included in the renovations will be a 2,000-square-foot beer garden, a bar or restaurant and observational areas to see the iconic Gibson smokestack through skylights from within the building and finishing areas for the Heritage manufacturing space. An intimate performance venue also is a possibility. The building will feature upgraded and expanded manufacturing space for Heritage, along with other rehabilitated space for current and future tenants." Story here.

 

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I am in the process of working out a collaboration with the new owners. Details, hopefully, soon (maybe tomorrow). What I can say at this point is that there will be a permanent monument to the Kalamazoo Gals and, most likely, a major music event to celebrate the building's reopening.

 

And, another photo, this from some months back when I visited for preliminary talks and took my 1943 went-to-WWII SJ to the factory floor and posed in front of some of those WWII-era tools that the Gals used to build it:13442350_10206371045408307_8574017095073003761_n.jpg?oh=7de9feaaad8a3d3c894a99f0ad64ec06&oe=5983B667

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I'm really happy about what they're doing there. Too bad Gibson Acoustic couldn't have a small custom shop there. How cool would that be, to have a modern Gibson Kalamazoo guitar??

 

I see a lot of merchandising opportunities, but I suspect today's Gibson would put the kibosh on them.

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I'm really happy about what they're doing there. Too bad Gibson Acoustic couldn't have a small custom shop there. How cool would that be, to have a modern Gibson Kalamazoo guitar??

 

I see a lot of merchandising opportunities, but I suspect today's Gibson would put the kibosh on them.

 

Oh, Gibson has shown no interest in the building or what goes on in Kalamazoo. There will be modern Kalamazoo-made acoustic guitars coming from that building, using all of the original molds that Gibson abandoned when it moved to Nashville in 1984. Most recently and amazingly, while cleaning out the building for the renovations, workers discovered original molds for classic pickguards for Hummingbird, Dove, J-200, etc.

 

As for a kibosh, I don't think so. Gibson didn't register a design patent for the Banner until about 7 months after my book was published and had received media coverage from NPR, NBC, BBC, etc. :)

 

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True, I would like to visit this building.

 

If the project proceeds as planned, and there's no reason to think that it won't, there will be many reasons to visit this building, including a brew pub/restaurant, performance space, area from which to observe Heritage build guitars, and a museum. The property developers are already collecting some significant early Gibson instruments and are partnering with the Kalamazoo Valley Museum, which has a terrific collection.

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Oh, Gibson has shown no interest in the building or what goes on in Kalamazoo. There will be modern Kalamazoo-made acoustic guitars coming from that building, using all of the original molds that Gibson abandoned when it moved to Nashville in 1984. Most recently and amazingly, while cleaning out the building for the renovations, workers discovered original molds for classic pickguards for Hummingbird, Dove, J-200, etc.

 

 

Unbelievable - leaving the molds behind with the building when they sold it? It's literally giving away the company's intellectual property and what differentiated their guitars from the competition. Was that still during the Norlin regime?

 

Thanks for the pictures - sounds like good things are going to happen.

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Unbelievable - leaving the molds behind with the building when they sold it? It's literally giving away the company's intellectual property and what differentiated their guitars from the competition. Was that still during the Norlin regime?

Yes. Norlin pulled out of Kalamazoo in 1984, leaving behind all of the guitar-making equipment and all of the molds, etc., and moved to Nashville. Juszkiewicz, Berryman, and Zebrowski bought Gibson in 1986.

 

It's astonishing to see what the Norlin folks left behind. Here I am on the factory floor, leaning against machinery that the Kalamazoo Gals would have used, holding my went-to-WWII 1943 SJ:13442350_10206371045408307_8574017095073003761_n.jpg?oh=7de9feaaad8a3d3c894a99f0ad64ec06&oe=5983B667

 

My favorite piece of equipment that Norlin left in its wake is this clamping wheel with a 1899 date stamped on its side: it was there when Orville was there:13229509414_957a657b10.jpg

 

In any event, the new owner's are excited about embracing the building's past. Most meaningfully to me is that, when completely restored, the building will bear a plaque honoring the Kalamazoo Gals. My crude mock-up:

 

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Maybe even cooler, the Kennedy Center award winning play based on Kalamazoo Gals, which opened to great reviews in Kalamazoo, seems headed for Chicago.

 

14182242-10210479340484421-177551440-n_1.jpg?1490556408

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