During Ted McCarty’s tenure as president of Gibson from 1950 through 1966, the company developed some of the greatest and most enduring electric guitar designs of all time.
In fact, literally every electric model Gibson offers today was designed by McCarty and his team during this golden era, including the Explorer, Firebird, Flying V, Les Paul and SG. These are all timeless models, but McCarty’s semi-hollowbody design for the ES-335 and its numerous variants may be his greatest achievement of all time.
