Chicago Musical Instruments

Originally founded by Maurice H. Berlin in April, 1920 as Martin Band Instrument Company of Chicago, the company changed its name to Chicago Musical Instrument Co. three years later.{{cite news |last=Wiener |first=Leonard |date=11 February 1974 |title=Norlin - organs to flugel horns |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/30798019/norlin_and_cmi/ |access-date=2023-07-20}}{{cite book |ref={{sfnref|Duchossoir, A.R.|(1998)}} |last=Duchossoir |first=A.R. |year=1998 |title=Gibson Electrics: The Classic Years: An Illustrated History from the Mid-30s to the Mid-60s |publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation |page=27}}

In 1944, CMI took over controlling interests and marketing of the Gibson Guitar Company,{{harvnb|Duchossoir, A.R.|(1998)|p=27}}{{cite book |last=Achard |first=Ken |year=1999 |title=The History and Development of the American Guitar |publisher=The Bold Strummer |page=189}} then known as Gibson Inc. CMI expanded Gibson's Kalamazoo, MI, plant at 225 Parsons Street by 15,000 square feet in 1945, and changed the logo on Gibson headstocks in 1947. In 1949 CMI appointed as president of Gibson Ted McCarty, who would lead Gibson until 1966, overseeing many classic Gibson guitar designs, such as the Les Paul, the ES-335, the SG, and others.

Shortly after World War II ended and U.S. restrictions on the manufacture of musical instruments were lifted, CMI acquired brasswind manufacturer F. E. Olds & Son.{{cite web|last=Edwards|first=ElShaddai|title=The Scherl & Roth Years|website=Contempora Corner|url=https://contemporacorner.com/history/scherl-roth/|access-date=20 July 2023}}

In 1955, CMI acquired Lowrey Organ Company.{{cite book|last=Dorf |first=Richard |title=Electronic Musical Instruments |date=1968 |publisher=RADIOFILE |location=New York City |page=225 |url=http://crasno.ca/articles/doc/EMI_RHDorf_1968.pdf |access-date=20 July 2023}}

CMI acquired Epiphone Guitars, a former competitor of Gibson's, in 1957.{{cite book |ref={{sfnref|Bonds, Ray (ed.)|(2006)}} |last=Bonds |first=Ray |year=2006 |title=The Illustrated Directory of Guitars |publisher=Barnes & Noble/Salamander Books |page=344}} The Epiphone name brand came to be used largely for marketing budget versions of classic Gibson designs, originally made in the Kalamazoo plant but since the 1970s in Asia.

Guitar effects were produced under the Maestro brand, beginning with the FZ-1 Fuzz-Tone in 1962,{{cite web|last1=Dregni|first1=Michael|title=Maesto Fuzz-Tone|url=http://www.vintageguitar.com/17397/maestro-fuzz-tone/|website=Vintage Guitar|publisher=Vintage Guitar, Inc.|date=December 2013|access-date=November 30, 2015|location=PO Box 7301 Bismarck, ND 58507}} and later including the Tom Oberheim-designed RM-1A Ring Modulator and PS-1 Phase Shifter.{{cite web|title=Maestro: The World’s First and Weirdest Pedal Company Returns! |url=https://www.sweetwater.com/insync/maestro-the-worlds-first-and-weirdest-pedal-company-returns/ |date=19 January 2022 |access-date=20 July 2023}}

In 1964, CMI purchased brass instrument manufacturer F.A. Reynolds Company and merged the F.A. Reynolds and F.E. Olds production lines.

In 1969 Ecuadorian Company Limited (ECL), a Panama-based holding company, acquired a majority of CMI shares, and the two companies merged in July of that year.{{harvnb|White, Forrest|(1994)|pp=180–181}} ECL was renamed Norlin Corporation (a portmanteau of the names Norton Stevens of ECL and Arnold Berlin of CMI;{{harvnb|Bonds, Ray (ed.)|(2006)|p=376}} Stevens and Berlin were friends and classmates at the Harvard Business School).{{cite web |title=Arnold Berlin |url=http://www.namm.org/library/oral-history/arnold-berlin |format=video |date=July 9, 2002 |work=NAMM Oral History Interview |publisher=NAMM Resource Center}}

In 1973, Norlin purchased Moog Music. That year, with annual sales of more than $120 million, Norlin was the largest seller of musical instruments in the US, with the Norlin Music division accounting for more than two-thirds of Norlin Corporation's total sales at the time.

In January 1984, Norlin became the target of a hostile takeover, and sold off Lowrey Organ in October of that year, followed by Gibson in early 1986.{{cite book |last=Glinsky |first=Albert |title=Switched On: Bob Moog and the Synthesizer Revolution |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2022 |isbn=9780197642078 |location=New York City |page=325}}

• Gibson Kalamazoo Electric Guitar

{{reflist}}

• [https://www.namm.org/library/oral-history/category/cmi-chicago-musical-instruments Chicago Musical Instruments Interviews] at NAMM Oral History Program
• [https://www.namm.org/library/oral-history/category/norlin-corporation Norlin Corporation Interviews] at NAMM Oral History Program

{{Commons category|Chicago Musical Instruments Co.}}

Category:Musical instrument manufacturing companies of the United States

Category:Manufacturing companies established in 1920

Category:1920 establishments in Illinois

Category:Distribution companies of the United States

Category:Audio equipment manufacturers of the United States

Category:1973 mergers and acquisitions

Category:Manufacturing companies disestablished in 1969

Category:1969 disestablishments in Illinois

Category:American companies disestablished in 1969