Garrison Guitars was a

guitar manufacturing Guitar manufacturing is the use of machines, tools, and labor in the production of electric and acoustic guitars. This phrase may be in reference to handcrafting guitars using traditional methods or assembly line production in large quantities us ...

company originally founded by Chris Griffiths in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

in 1999. The company became a

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a s ...

Gibson Gibson may refer to: People * Gibson (surname) Businesses * Gibson Brands, Inc., an American manufacturer of guitars, other musical instruments, and audio equipment * Gibson Technology, and English automotive and motorsport company based * Gi ...

in 2007, and its plant was closed in 2010. During its existence, Garrison manufactured

electric Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by ...

and acoustic guitars.

History

Chris Griffiths established "Garrison Guitars" in St. John's, the capital city of the

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...

Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

, in 1999. In early 2001, Garrison Guitars opened an acoustic guitar manufacturing company in Canada tooled with the latest

robotics Robotics is an interdisciplinary branch of computer science and engineering. Robotics involves design, construction, operation, and use of robots. The goal of robotics is to design machines that can help and assist humans. Robotics integrat ...

laser cutting Laser cutting is a technology that uses a laser to vaporize materials, resulting in a cut edge. While typically used for industrial manufacturing applications, it is now used by schools, small businesses, architecture, and hobbyists. Laser cutt ...

CNC milling Numerical control (also computer numerical control, and commonly called CNC) is the automated control of machining tools (such as drills, lathes, mills, grinders, routers and 3D printers) by means of a computer. A CNC machine processes a ...

, and UV finishing. The 20,000 square foot factory produced orders for distribution in North America, Australia, United Kingdom, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, China, Japan and Canada. Garrison G20-E Acoustic Guitar body

Garrison Guitars and its founder won awards for innovation, business planning, export growth, leadership and entrepreneurship. Garrison Guitars was awarded a "Golden Axe Award" for Best Value by Harmony Central in 2000. Founder Chris Griffiths was also awarded the Manning Innovation Award in 2003. Garrison Guitars were crafted using innovations including the Griffiths Active Bracing System, a revolutionary method of guitar construction that took over six years to perfect. The single unit brace combined all the acoustic guitar's top braces into a single unit to allow for

resonance Resonance describes the phenomenon of increased amplitude that occurs when the frequency of an applied periodic force (or a Fourier component of it) is equal or close to a natural frequency of the system on which it acts. When an oscillatin ...

to have an uninterrupted path of travel throughout the instrument and provided enhanced structural stability. Offering a range of instruments at all price points, Garrison's "G"-Series featured all solid woods, hard-shell cases, bolt-on necks, and UV-finishes in a variety of wood combinations. The "G"-series also included the full GAB system combining front and back braces, kerfing, and neck and end blocks. The "G"-series were crafted in Canada. The "AG" Series was an affordable line using the patented bracing system technology only for the top, with more traditional back/side bracing and kerfing. The "AG" series were "designed in Canada, made in China". The company also manufactured all solid wood

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

s and

mandola The mandola (US and Canada) or tenor mandola (Ireland and UK) is a fretted, stringed musical instrument. It is to the mandolin what the viola is to the violin: the four double courses of strings tuned in fifths to the same pitches as the viola ...

s in its Canada factory. On July 3, 2007,

Gibson Guitar Corporation Gibson Brands, Inc. (formerly Gibson Guitar Corporation) is an American manufacturer of guitars, other musical instruments, and professional audio equipment from Kalamazoo, Michigan, and now based in Nashville, Tennessee. The company was forme ...

announced its acquisition of Garrison Guitars. The acquisition was to "further Gibson's expansion in the acoustic guitar market offering a new series of Gibson brand acoustic guitars aimed at the median price point" and converted to produce the short-lived Gibson "Songmaker"-Series. Gibson did not carry forward with the GABS in their Songmaker series, and ended production around 2010, closing down the Garrison factory in Canada, taking along with it the GABS technology.

References

{{Guitar brands Guitar manufacturing companies Musical instrument manufacturing companies of Canada Canadian companies disestablished in 2010 Canadian companies established in 1999 Companies based in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador 2007 mergers and acquisitions