cool article about the Kalamazoo transition

[DC Ron]

Sorry if this is old, but the article is stamped today:

 

http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2015/03/when_the_gibson_guitar_co_left.html

 

Editor's note: This is one in a series of stories about Kalamazoo's guitar-making heritage. Go here to read more.

KALAMAZOO, MI -- After years of local workers fighting to show their worth, the writing was officially on the wall in February 1984: Gibson Guitar announced it was leaving Kalamazoo for good.

The iconic Gibson factory at 225 Parsons St. that had once employed 1,600 people during peak years in the 1960s had been down operating with a skeleton crew of just 44 employees since 1982, according to reports in Kalamazoo Gazette at the time.

Later that month, former Gibson plant manager Jim Deurloo reached an agreement that the company would continue to keep making and repairing guitars, banjos and mandolins in Kalamazoo "as long as it was profitable." But that final concession wouldn't be enough to stop the factory from shuttering its doors officially on June 29, 1984 and relocating its entire operation to a plant Gibson built in Nashville, Tenn., in 1974.

"We had two plants sucking wind, both of them operating at half capacity and (Gibson was) trying to make a decision one way or the other," said Deurloo, 75, now a co-owner of Heritage Guitar Co. that operates in the Parsons Street factory. "I thought they were going to keep it in Kalamazoo, and they did for a while.

"But they'd seen the demand was not going to increase, so they had to make a decision one way or another."

Moving to Nashville

Deurloo, who started at Gibson sanding guitar rims in the fall of 1958, said Gibson officially began production at its Nashville plant as a way to diversify its production model amid declining guitar sales in the U.S.

Guitar sales tumbled from a peak of 2.5 million in 1972 to 1.2 million by 1982, due largely to an influx in less costly foreign production, Gazette stories show.

"They were copying (Les Pauls) down to the last flaw," Deurloo said of the foreign competitors.

Gibson, long considered one of the world's top producers of stringed instruments, struggled to maintain its quality standards in the face of the increased competition. Mark Sahlgren, a Gibson employee from 1965-70, recalled the struggle between production goals and instrument quality even existed during his years.

"To me and the people that I worked with, we cared more about the instruments than the corporate, the top people," said Sahlgren, 74. "We cared about every instrument as a creative piece of art. But someone would come through and say you have to finish 100 guitars in a day and you could just see the conflict."

Originally, Deurloo said he was told the Nashville plant would produce just one model of guitar, but that quickly began to change.

"Eventually it got to the point where we made the first batch of something and then they started producing it," said Marv Lamb, a Heritage Guitar Co. co-owner who worked as superintendent at the Kalamazoo plant during those final years. "We'd get prototypes set up and streamlined for them and then they'd take them down there and start making them."

Lamb recalled a disconnect existing between the new operation and the veterans of the Kalamazoo plant, which was operating in just 45,000 of the factory's 173,000 total square feet in the final years.

"They wanted to make everything by-the-book, but we were used to doing it by our shirttail -- do it and get it done," said Lamb, who started with Gibson in 1956.

Lamb and Deurloo each received offers from Gibson to relocate to Nashville and both considered it for a time. Deurloo said he traveled back and forth to Nashville for a time and even worked there consistently for nearly a year.

"They had no infrastructure in Nashville," Deurloo said of his frequent trips. "You couldn't get anything at the hardware store other than a quarter-inch drill. They just didn't have anything, so we had to come up to Kalamazoo and go to Grand Rapids because the auto industry had all that infrastructure and that's what we used."

Ultimately, both men decided making the move wouldn't be in their best interest.

"Some people made comments that their wife would kill them if they moved to Nashville," Lamb recalled with a chuckle.

"When they asked me to move permanently, I said, 'If that's what you want me to do, I'm done,'" Deurloo said.

Jack French, a repairman who began working for Gibson in 1961, said he and fellow repairman Pete Moreno were paid to travel to Nashville twice a month to assist with repairs. But when Gibson asked French to start making the trip weekly, he had a choice to make.

"I'd flown planes my whole life, so I considered the idea of getting my license, buying a plane and flying home on weekends," French, 72, said. "I don't think my wife cared for the idea much."

All three of the men were among the last employees of the Kalamazoo plant when it closed.

"I guess we are privileged to be here at this point in time to be part of history," Deurloo is quoted as saying in the June 28, 1984 edition of the Kalamazoo Gazette. "Which is kind of a dichotomy perhaps ... to have to lose your job to have this kind of privilege."

The heritage continues

The Heritage Guitar Co., which Lamb and Deurloo own along with fellow former Gibson employees Bill Paige and J.P. Moats, will celebrate its 30th anniversary on April 1.

Starting their own guitar-manufacturing business wasn't always the plan, Deurloo said. Instead, Heritage evolved from a woodworking business that Lamb, Moats and Deurloo started in Moat's pole barn in 1983 as a side job.

"We started making clocks and van parts and things like that," Deurloo said. "But initially I wasn't interested in doing guitars."

But once it became clear then men would begin looking for work after Gibson's departure, they had to decide if they wanted to give up guitar building for good.

"We could have went off and got jobs in other places, we all had the experience and the capabilities," Lamb said. "But I think we elected to do what we knew how to do best."

Paige, who starting working at Gibson until 1975, admitted he was drawn into the partnership because of the "attraction" of working with men as experienced as Lamb and Deurloo.

"Those guys had all the knowledge of the process between them," Paige, 69, said.

Now, Heritage continues to employ 18 workers on a part-time basis and produces about 50 guitars a month. Although it's a far cry from Gibson's peak production numbers, the Heritage owners maintain the quality of their guitars can't be matched by larger manufacturers.

"I've worked on guitars all my life, so it was good to be able to continue to do that," Lamb said. "And I don't know when the hell I'm going to quit."

Alex Mitchell is a reporter for the Kalamazoo Gazette. Email him at amitche5@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter.

[schundog]

It's the same story we have all heard, but it never gets old, does it?! I think they are re-telling the story in installments in commemoration of the upcoming 30 year Heritage Anniversary on April 1. Thanks for posting it, Ron! I'm still loving your/my 535!

[bolero]

thanks for posting!

 

it's been an honour to meet & hang out with those guys.

 

and play the guitars they've built

[KRockMI]

Schundog is right, MLIVE.com is doing a series of articles on Heritage. Here is one posted this morning.

 

http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2015/03/heritage_guitar_co_still_craft.html#incart_river

 

If the link doesn't work you can go to mlive.com and find today's article:

Heritage Guitar Co. still crafting world-class instruments in Kalamazoo after 30 years

[FredZepp]

That's a good read... with a couple of new quotes that I hadn't seen before.

 

A good re-telling of the Parsons Street story... thanks for the post.

[Gitfiddler]

Schundog is right, MLIVE.com is doing a series of articles on Heritage. Here is one posted this morning.

 

http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2015/03/heritage_guitar_co_still_craft.html#incart_river

 

If the link doesn't work you can go to mlive.com and find today's article:

Heritage Guitar Co. still crafting world-class instruments in Kalamazoo after 30 years

 

Great stuff!!