[2] 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.

[9] The Epiphone name brand came to be used largely for marketing budget versions of classic Gibson designs, originally made in the Kalamazoo plant but since the 1970s in Asia.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,[10] and later including the Tom Oberheim-designed RM-1A Ring Modulator and PS-1 Phase Shifter.

[12] ECL was renamed Norlin Corporation (a portmanteau of the names Norton Stevens of ECL and Arnold Berlin of CMI;[13] Stevens and Berlin were friends and classmates at the Harvard Business School).

[3][2] 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.