Some of this information has appeared elsewhere on the web but I just heard about it and spoke with the author on the phone today. Spann's Guide To Gibson 1902-1941 is a 300 page book set to be published around the first of May and contains a lot of information I think many of us will be interested in reading. From what I gather, there are quite a few missing pieces of the Gibson puzzle that will be presented here. Just one piece of that is the names of most of the employees pre-WWII and of course with that comes some first-hand information. Joe is a genealogist by profession.
Here's a list of the contents of the book Joe (Spann) sent me:
Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements Page iii
Introduction Page iv
Chapter 1 - The Factory Page 1
Chapter 2 - The Employees Page 13
Chapter 3 – Vendors: 1925 - 1931 Page 45
Chapter 4 - Factory Order Numbers Page 63
Chapter 5 - Serial Numbers Page 189
Chapter 6 - Dealers & Wholesalers Page 193
Chapter 7 - Teacher-Agents Page 225
Chapter 8 - Artists & Endorsers Page 235
Chapter 9 - The Instruments Page 251
Appendix A – Gibson Banjo Models (1919-1941) Page 265
Appendix B – Gibson Production Totals Page 285
Appendix C – 1941 Production Costs Page 286
Appendix D – Gibson Ephemera Page 287
Sources Page 295
At the end there are eight pages of color photographs which show a small portion of Steve Huber's collection of rare Gibson ephemera.
There are 24 charts included, as listed here:
Gibson Employees: 1915 – 1945
Factory Order Numbers: 1902 – 1916 Series
Factory Order Numbers: 1917 – 1923 Series
Factory Order Numbers: 1924 – 1925 Series
Factory Order Numbers: 1925 Banjo Series
Factory Order Numbers: 1925 – 1931 Series
Factory Order Numbers: 1927 – 1928 Banjo Series
Factory Order Numbers: 1931 – 1933 Series
Factory Order Numbers: 1934 Series
Factory Order Numbers: 1935 Series
Factory Order Numbers: 1936 Series
Factory Order Numbers: 1937 Series
Factory Order Numbers: 1938 Series
Factory Order Numbers: 1939 Series
Factory Order Numbers: 1940 - 1945 Series
Numerical Serial Number Index: 1905 – 1947
Letter Prefix Serial Number Index: 1938 – 1940
Gibson Dealers: Circa 1935
Gibson Teacher-Agents: Individuals
Gibson Teacher-Agents: Schools & Studios
Gibson Endorsers: 1917 – 1942
Gibson Brand Instrument Models: 1903 – 1941
Kalamazoo Brand Instrument Models: 1933 – 1941
Recording King Brand Instrument Models 1929 – 1940
Ron Middlebrook at Centerstream tells me that we should have books to sell by the first week of May. The retail price is $39.99.
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More to come on this bit of information...
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