Reference Library Articles

Gennaro Gagliano seems to be an unjustly overlooked member of a particularly large violin making family.

George Panormo worked all his life in London and was born in 1776, but quite where remains a mystery.

During World War II, Gibson manufactured no electric guitars, and its production of acoustics was severely restricted

Orville H. Gibson (1856-1918) was born of an American mother and an English father near Chateaugay, close to the Canadian border in northern New York state

Gibson continued to refine and develop its archtop acoustics throughout the 1930s.

Gibson launched its first full-production electric guitar, the EH-150, in January 1936.

In the late 1950s, Gibson decided to make fundamental alterations to its Les Paul guitars.

Traditional-style electric archtops had deep bodies: Gibson's Super 400 CES and L-5 CES both measured a generous 3 3/8 inches (8.6cm) from top to back

Traditional-style electric archtops had deep bodies: Gibson's Super 400 CES and L-5 CES both measured a generous 3 3/8 inches (8.6cm) from top to back

The approach to Billy Byrd and Hank Garland that led to the creation of Gibson's 'Byrdland' archtop was not an isolated occurrence.

In the 1950s, Fender had shaken up the guitar-making establishment with its bold solid-body designs.

The Firebirds were the last major Gibson electrics introduced by Ted McCarty, who left the company in 1966 after 16 years as its President

Serafin is one of the great names of Venetian violin making, but in some ways the lesser-known Giorgio represents the spirit of the tradition better than his uncle Santo

It often seems as if every parish in Italy was home to a family of gifted violin makers at some time or other

Celoniatus is one of the charming and distinctive makers of the early Turin school. His work is consistent in finish and style, and is limited only by the relative lack of tonal power that his elegant Amati-like arching can provide.

The beginning of the nineteenth century saw a dramatic renaissance in the art of violin making.

The city of Bologna has made a very important contribution to violin making.

Giovanni Battista Guadagnini was not only a truly great violin maker in his own right, but also the head of a small dynasty of luthiers.

Gofredo Cappa was a most interesting seventeenth century maker of the Turin school, although born (in 1644) and working in nearby Saluzzo until his death in 1717.

Friedrich Gretsch (1856-1895) was a German émigré to the USA who set up a New York-based company making banjos and percussion instruments in 1883

The Hill family is the longest and most respected of English violin making dynasties, and the generation of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century became the world's leading authority, supervising one of the greatest workshops in Europe

Gibson's departure from Kalamazoo, Michigan, in 1984 did not end the long history of guitar making there.

According to most accounts, the end of the great Amati tradition in Cremona was a rather abject one.

The peaceful rural environment of southwestern England has attracted a number of leading British luthiers.