Gibson were unable to use their own Gibson name in Japan and so chose their founders first name as the brand name, and so produced "Orville" and "Orville by Gibson" guitars in Japan. The latter being the superior range using genuine Gibson USA pickups and hardware.
I would assume they chose not to use the Gibson name to differentiate the Japanese from the American made Gibsons. Are there any Gibson branded guitars that are not made in America?
"It would have been made about 19 years ago ( serial G01xxxx = July 1991) by Fujigen-Gakki as a Japanese made Gibson for the Japanese home market. Gibson were unable to use their own Gibson name in Japan and so chose their founders first name as the brand name, and so produced "Orville" and "Orville by Gibson" guitars in Japan. The latter being the superior range using genuine Gibson USA pickups and hardware."
I would have then thought they would just use Epiphone....
That's what mine is.
At some point in the 90's Gibson retired the Orville name in Japan and started using Epi. There's a difference though from the Epiphones the rest of the world gets (which were made in Korea and then Indonesia and elsewhere). The Epi Japan models were made just for the Japanese market. I had the same kind of bird Denis has and it was the same bass as the regular Orville bird. The Orville 'by' Gibson was the upgraded model, but they're both nice birds.
Any idea what the upgrades were for the upper tier Orville over the regular Orville or Epi? The history and evolution of T-birds is fascinating!
