[.ca] Gibson Guitars: Ted McCarty's Golden Era: 1948-1966 (ISBN 1423418131)

Ted McCarty - Genius:
Very informative book on the Golden Era of Gibson Guitars under the management of Theodore M. McCarty. Gil Hembree recounts the stories of Mr. McCarty and the people who worked at the Gibson Factory located in Kalamazoo, Michigan, the original home of the Gibson Guitar Company. His book has interviews with many of the employees that worked in the Gibson plant in an attempt to find out who was responsible for the creating/manufacturing of many of Gibson Guitars' most famous lines: the '58/'59/'60 Cherry Sunburst Gibson Les Paul Standard, the '58 Korina Moderne, the '58 Korina Flying V, the '58 Korina Explorer, the late '50's Cherry Red ES 335 plus all the parts that are on these guitars and more specifically the Patent Applied For Humbucking Pickups. The book also delves into later models developed under McCarty before he left the company in '65 such as the SG and the Firebird lines of guitars. The book follows both Mr. McCarty and the Gibson Guitar Company through to almost the modern day with the book ending shortly after the death of Mr. McCarty. Mr. Hembree leaves a few questions not completely answered and has no definitive answer to many of the most important questions that he wanted to find out and write about. This is probably due to the fact that he began writing the book in the last fifteen years when many of the people that could give him the facts he wanted had all passed away.A very good read for all those persons that have owned or do own a Gibson Electric Guitar, a Gibson Acoustic Guitar (or an Epiphone Guitar purchased after Gibson Guitar Company bought the company). We will never know if it was Mr. McCarty or the people he employed that are the true artists. We do know that Mr. McCarty was the driving force of Gibson in that era. I highly recommend this book to those who knew of Mr. Theodore M. McCarty, a true genius of the twentieth century in the field of musical instrumentation.