Classic Gibson Guitars sales are booming here in Nashville Tennesee adding to the testosterone level of the city. The Gibson Guitar Company, makers of Classic Gibson guitars for more than 100 years have experienced a huge comeback thanks to Rochester New York native Henry Jukiewicz. With a masters degree in business administration from Harvard in hand Jukiewicz built Gibson back up to a position of respectability after buying the failing company in 1986.
How Classic Gibson Guitars are made - Video
Juszkiewicz and his partners acquired the faltering classic Gibson Guitars operation from the Norlin Corporation for a reported 5 million. Juszkiewicz's aggressive management style again effected an immediate turnaround, and Gibson became profitable within a month's time. With creative and innovative marketing tactics he concentrated on the consumer rather than the retailer - a reflection of his personal experience as a guitar player. Refocusing the Company on achieving the highest possible standards of quality and customer service, he drove Gibson from the brink of closing to a company that has regained worldwide respect with annual average growth of 20 percent over the last decade. Sales now top 250 million double what they were in 2000.
Gibson's electric guitar factory in Nashville is a prime example of the turnaround. All day long folks are sanding priming and painting putting their mark on a classic Gibson guitar that may one day become a collectable. All Gibson guitars are essentially handmade. Craftsmen tenderly build each guitar over about a 4 week period. Every day 200 to 300 classic Gibson Guitars are completed and shipped to destinations worldwide. These Gibsons demand a somewhat higher price than most guitars due to the quality craftmanship that is put in to each one.
Juszkiewicz began fulfilling his vision of Gibson as a full-line musical instrument company by acquiring other music-related companies. Today, Gibson includes Gibson guitars, basses, banjos, mandolins and amplifiers, Epiphone fretted instruments and amplifiers, Dobro® resonator guitars, Flatiron mandolins, Trace Elliot amplifiers, Slingerland drums, Steinberger basses, Tobias basses, Gibson Strings & Original Equipment, Gibson Showcases, and the Baldwin Piano Co.
