Gibson G-101 - Dimensions and Appearance

Dimensions and Appearance

Despite the change in nameplates and model numbers shortly after its introduction, the Kalamazoo K-101 and the Gibson G-101 are the same organ. It otherwise remained unchanged for its entire production run, from prototype to the last unit built. Gibson, which still makes service manuals available for the instrument, supplies only the G-101 manual.

The instrument was 38" long, 18" front-to-back, 10" top-to-bottom of the cabinet and weighed 62 lbs. It had two square, tubular, fold-out legs, and a "drop panel" that acted both as support for the legs when standing (via thumb screws that secured the panel to tabs on the back of the legs) and also as a cover for the folded-in legs during transport. The bottom of the organ was recessed 2½" to accommodate the folded-in legs and allow room for the power supply; when standing, the organ is 34" tall.

The Gibson G-101's external features included a textured black plastic top, a tri-colored plastic keyboard (specifications detailed below), color-coded rocker-switch tabs, and a vinyl/fabric-covered plywood cabinet, drop panel, and lid, using an aqua-and-grey color scheme. It was a very handsome-looking instrument. While superficially similar in appearance to many other transistorized organs used by rock groups in the 1960s, it can easily be distinguished from competing models (the Farfisa Compact and Vox Continental) by identifying the cabinet colors.