AFTER JOINING THE solid-body revolution with the Les Paul in 1952, Gibson ramped up with impressive speed to meet the forward-looking sounds and styles of the rock and roll era. Just five years on from that introduction, the Kalamazoo-based company was designing and prototyping some of the most revolutionary electric guitars to hit the market, and company president Ted McCarty was very much at the helm of the effort.
McCarty was hired as Gibson’s CEO in 1948, promoted to vice president in 1949 and, in 1950, advanced to the role of president, a position he held until his departure in 1966. Throughout his tenure, however, McCarty functioned as far more than an administrative executive. He’d earned an engineering degree from the University of Cincinnati and was never afraid to step out of the boardroom and into the R&D
