“If Slash had picked up a Strat, or stuck with his BC Rich, Gibson would have taken a different turn… Him playing a Les Paul changed the course of the company”: Behind the scenes of the most pivotal moments in Gibson’s history

Gibson Les Pauls and a Marshall stack
(Image credit: Future)

There are guitar companies as old as Gibson but few who have made such a breadth of classic instruments – from mandolins and archtops to iconic solidbody electrics, debonair jazz guitars and sweet-strumming acoustic guitars.

So if you’ve ever struggled to get a handle on exactly how key events unfolded in over a century of guitar making by the company, you’re not alone. Indeed, the guitar-playing public would never have been privy to many of the factors that shaped the company’s evolution.

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