Ted Mc Carty

Theodore McCarty, guitar manufacturer: born Somerset, Kentucky 10 October 1909; President, Gibson Guitars 1950-66; married (one son, one daughter); died Twin Falls, Idaho 1 April 2001.

Theodore McCarty, guitar manufacturer: born Somerset, Kentucky 10 October 1909; President, Gibson Guitars 1950-66; married (one son, one daughter); died Twin Falls, Idaho 1 April 2001.

Unlike Leo Fender, that other giant of the electric guitar, Ted McCarty's name remains relatively unknown outside the industry in spite of the fact that the instruments that he was ultimately responsible for creating have at one time or another been seen in the hands of virtually every rock guitarist from Eric Clapton to Noel Gallagher. However, the list of achievements of the Gibson Company during his years as president confirms his stature as one of the pioneers of the electric guitar.

Born in 1909, Theodore McCarty graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 1933 with a degree in Commercial Engineering. Introduced to the music industry via the Wurlitzer Company, he moved in 1948 to the Gibson Company, based in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and after only two years he was promoted to be president.

McCarty was to remain with Gibson until 1966. During this time he contributed to the design of several classic guitars that remain industry standards to this day: The 335, Flying V, Explorer, Moderne, Firebird, the ubiquitous Les Paul model and the humbucking pickup.

McCarty, like Leo Fender, was not a musician and he brought to the venerable Gibson organisation a fresh outlook unencumbered by the baggage of tradition. "I owe my success to the fact that I didn't know any better," he stated. "I didn't know you couldn't do it, so I did it." During his time at Gibson the company's sales increased by 1,250 per cent, its profits 15 times, the factory expanding from 60,000 square feet with 150 employees to 250,000 square feet with 1,200 employees.

In his first year as president McCarty was instrumental in designing what came to be known as the Les Paul Model, a response to Fender's new "plank guitar", the solidbody Broadcaster. The solidbody guitar was set to revolutionise the industry and the Les Paul, introduced in 1952, marked Gibson's entry into this area.

At first reluctant to follow Fender's lead "We didn't like the idea, because it didn't take a lot of skill to build a plank guitar" McCarty soon concluded that the solidbody was here to stay. "We were watching what Fender was doing," he later recalled. "I said we've got to get into that business. We are giving him a free run, he's the only one making that kind of guitar. We talked it over and decided let's make one."

Other guitar companies initially left the field open. "Their attitude was: forget it, because anyone with a band-saw and a router can make a solidbody guitar," said McCarty.

Needing an excuse to launch their new model, McCarty suggested that they should approach the pop guitarist Les Paul, a long-time champion of the solidbody guitar, who was hugely popular at the time. The degree of Paul's involvement in the development of the Les Paul Model may never be satisfactorily resolved, with Paul claiming "I designed everything on there except the archtop." McCarty however remained adamant: "We designed it over at Gibson before Les had even seen it."

In spite of the Les Paul Model, by the late Fifties the perception of Gibson was that of a company that had become rather old-fashioned. In an attempt to counteract this McCarty came up with the radically shaped Flying V, Moderne and Explorer. They proved too radical for the time and sold poorly. "Dealers would buy a few Flying Vs and then hang them in their windows just to attract attention."

Leaving Gibson in 1966, McCarty bought Bigsby accessories, a manufacturer of musical instrument parts that supplied most of the big names of the day. He sold the company and retired, aged 90, in 1999. In 1994 the Paul Reed Smith company launched their McCarty model, the first instrument to bear his name.