History of the Geib Musical Instrument Case Company

[Michael Eck]

Always been curious about the pronunciation. Gibe or Geeb?

[f5loar]

the brown/pink case like that one first appeared with the F5 in 1949 and continued until 1963. Monroe's case was from 1963.
You could also order them with the F12 and later on the A5 and EM200. Only the first few years had the GEIB tag on the inside.

[houseworker]

There's a couple up for sale on eBay at the moment. NFI

[Darryl Wolfe]

I don't have any way to date the case, I got it without the F5 inside. The other one I have looks the same but no badge. Too bad I can't convert them to a Les Paul case.

I think Tommy's dating is about right. I do know that the very earliest one's had the equal length pockets like shown in your picture. At some point the bass side pocket got longer, and that continued over when they changed to black with yellow lining.

[f5loar]

Right you are Darryl the bottom pocket got longer towards the end of the brown/tan cases around mid 1963. Monroe's was still the short one. And then around early 1964 there were a few rare transition cases that had black exterior and the hot pink interior and then they went to the black with yellow/orange until the end of 1969. It would be easier to write a book about the changes in Loars than the changes Gibson did to their F5 cases from 1922 to 2012.

[uncle ken]

I think that 750 price on those for sale might be a stretch. I listed mine here for less that half of that and didn't get much action.

[f5loar]

For those that may not understand what Darryl and I was talking about the longer pocket here is a good example from 1965 showing the black/yellow/orange case with the longer pocket on ebay with a really nice A5 in it:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1965-Gibson-...item20c6758fb1
I think the $750 is a high end price but he does entertain reasonable offers. I would think half that would move pretty quick if in that good of condition. These cases are more of a "cool" factor than a really good case for a vintage F5. They don't offer that much protection, wear out pretty easy and the mandolin flops around inside it.

[Django Fret]

Hi Steve,

Great article! I just bought an electric violin that came in a Geib case and found your article in a google search. Would you be interested in some pictures of it for your documentation efforts? It also has some slight damage to one corner so you can see the burlap under the skin and might be of interest to anyone wanting to know more about the Durabilt process.

Michael, I also found out that it is pronounced "Gibe" (Guy-B) according to one source.

[pfox14]

Always been curious about the pronunciation. Gibe or Geeb?

I always pronounced it Geeb

[Loudloar]

Thanks for the comments, Django Fret. Yes, I'd be interested in pixs of your case. My email is at the bottom of the Geib History webpage.

The construction method is actually the "Kant Krack" process, and was used on Durabilt brand cases, which were a lower-price version of Kank Krack cases.

Steve

[Django Fret]

Steve, hopefully here are some pics if I did this right.



Let me know if you need any other angles or ones with a higher resolution.

[fatt-dad]

haven't finished yet - taking a break. I did laugh at this quote (as if mandolins and guitars were not "musical instruments"):

"The province of the enterprise at the start was confined to manufacturing of canvas cases for guitars and mandolins, and before the expiration of six months the scope of the business was expanded to include also the manufacturing of leather cases for musical instruments."

f-d

o.k. now I'm done. That was very interesting! I need to go check my Gibson guitar case (1930) and see if it has that diamond!