by Christopher Hall | AARP
Though Gibson has been around more than a century, it was in 1935 that the firm began making the electric guitars used by everyone from Chet Atkins and B.B. King to legions of amateur musicians. At the Gibson Beale Street Showcase, tour participants walk through the factory floor and watch as highly skilled luthiers at various stations go about the multiple steps to make a guitar almost entirely by hand, including binding the body, fitting the neck, painting, buffing, stringing and tuning.
http://www.aarp.org/travel/destinations/info-01-2014/factory-tours-in-america.2.html