Although the classic Gibson guitar, used by such greats as Prince, Keith Richards, Johnny Cash, and B.B. King, might bring to mind its current Nashville home, the guitar’s roots are actually in the Michigan city of Kalamazoo.

Built in 1917, the Gibson Factory there created some of the most iconic guitars ever made. But beyond the instruments, the factory was also home to the “Kalamazoo Gals,” a group of over 200 women who kept the guitar manufacturer going during World War II.Started by local mandolin designer Orville Gibson in 1902, the Gibson company was the place for discerning mandolin players to get their instruments. The only thing that slowed the company down during its first decade was World War I. As men were being shipped off to battlefields, the demand for the instrument began to diminish. And although it had been popular with both men and women, the country’s attentions were decidedly not focused on the mandolin anymore.It also didn’t help that upon returning home, the sweet, soft sounds of the mandolin were not what these soldiers wanted to hear. They’d moved on to jazz, and the mandolin just wasn’t going to keep up with that energy.

Zoo tycoon 2 expansion packs download free. Game or Patch Questions?

The serial number of Gibson guitars can be found on the back of the. Factory, RRR numbers 001-499 indicated the guitar was made in Kalamazoo, Michigan. If your guitar was made in a recent year - Gibson USA (Nashville) went to a 9 digit serial number in July 2005 to accommodate their increased production. The sixth number is a the batch number that starts at 0 at the beginning of the day, and when 699 is reached, the batch number changes to 1 and the rank count starts over, allowing the batching to rank/count over 1000 guitars per day.

The company tried to redesign the instrument, make it hip again, but no success. The company knew that to hang on to their customers, it needed to give them something else. This began the new era of guitar making. Unfortunately, World War II happened soon after.With the ongoing war, many of Gibson’s competitors had switched from instrument-making to munition-making in their effort to support the war at home. Xln audio xo manual. Gibson joined suit, well, sort of. With the men gone, the factory began hiring women to make munitions.

In fact, between 1942 and 1946, it hired more women than any other guitar-turned-munitions manufacturer.But secretly, these women weren’t just making bullets. They were making guitars.