Gibson
Orville Gibson founded the company in 1902 as the "Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Mfg. Co. Ltd." in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to make mandolin-family instruments. Gibson invented archtop guitars by constructing the same type of carved, arched tops used on violins. By the 1930s, the company was also making flattop acoustic guitars, as well as one of the first commercially available hollow-body electric guitars, used and popularized by Charlie Christian. In 1944, Gibson was bought by Chicago Musical Instruments (CMI), which was acquired in 1969 by Panama-based conglomerate Ecuadorian Company Limited (ECL), that changed its name in the same year to Norlin Corporation. Gibson was owned by Norlin Corporation from 1969 to 1986. In 1986, the company was acquired by a group led by Henry Juszkiewicz and David H. Berryman.
Gibson Victory
In order to respond to the superstrat craze, Gibson introduced new models such as the US-1, the US-2, M-III, "Q-3000, and WRC models" . Though the US-1 was one of Gibson's first mass-production superstrats the Victory MV is the true "FIRST" Gibson superstrat. The MV's were rare guitars when they were new. Only 1800 MVX and 200 MV2 were ever minted. They were distributed worldwide. Only the earliest of these exceptional Gibson Victory MV guitars (quantity unknown) were handmade by the 44 veteran luthiers in the historic 225 Parsons St. Kalamazoo factory, using the best methods, and highest quality materials, with reputations of caring about each instrument as a creative piece of art. They were also the last. In 1981 America was in terrible stagflation, the economy was miserable, Millions of union auto workers and steel mill workers lost their jobs due to cheap imported cars and steel, The OPEC oil cartel controlled the world oil supply and had America on its knees . Americans begged in long lines at gas station for overpriced gas, banks started to foreclose on family farms. At the same time factories in Japan, China, and Korea were producing cheap lookalike copies of classic designs from Fender, Gibson, and Rickenbacker putting American luthiers out of work, and forcing American guitar companies to make the change to automated mass production lines, and the Kalamazoo factory founded in 1894 by Orville H. Gibson was shut down. Les Paul himself came with a truck to rescue the KZ/LP-115 Pickup Winding Machine. and final minting of the MV's were sent to Nashville using automated milling and routing equipment and the "speedy" Meteor ME-301 PAF Pickup Winder Some of the master luthiers who made the last "Kalamazoo Victories" purchased the old Gibson factory, equipment, and tools, and started the Heritage Guitar Co. Emphasizing quality before quantity, the character of the two factories that Gibson ran in the early '80s was quite different. Nashville was set up to produce large quantities of a few individual models whereas Kalamazoo was more flexible and could design, specialize, and customize small runs and "one-of-a-kind" instruments. The MV's were superb guitars: a Victory, both in name and features, ahead of its time,but a defeat for Gibson in terms of sales. Due to the double-dip recession top shelf guitars were simply unaffordable to most professional musicians at the time. The Victory MV's were hard to find in music stores, and if you wanted to custom / special order one they took time to make. They were priced between the Les Paul Deluxe and the Les Paul Standard. The Victory MV's were not well marketed. In the late 70's getting a copy of the Gibson Guitar Catalog was on every musicians wish list. But in 1981 and 1982 there were no American catalogs. To save money on advertising, Gibson only publicized the Victories with a 5 page black and white paper leaflet. It was also very poor timing to market the Victory MV-2 as "Designed primarily for the discerning country player" during the worst farm foreclosure crisis in US history. It was not until 1983 that the Gibson Guitar Catalog showed a Twilight Blue Victory MVX with a Kahler tremolo in a full color high quality photograph. Over the decades many MV's have been played hard, need fret dressing or re-fretting, and have some scars. Only a small percentage of Victory MV's actually have the original Kahler 2200 Tremolo System invented in 1979 by Gary Kahler and Dave Storey, and an even smaller percentage have a "Gibson Branded" Kahler 2200 Tremolo. Shredder Danny Coralles from Autopsy/Abscess - one of the early breed of US death metal acts still plays his Victory MVX. The Kinks' Ray Davies also played a Victory MVX. There was at least one Gibson Victory MV Twelve string prototype. There was also at least one Gibson Victory MV with a white scratch plate. The Victory MV guitars are perhaps some of the most underestimated, and short lived guitars in Gibson history. The bulk of production seems to have been limited to the second half of 1981, and the first quarter of 1982 in Nashville. Blink in the early 1980s and you would have missed them. The Victory Standard, Artist, and Custom bass guitar model were produced from 1981 to c. 1986.