Gay, Bi or straight he made some excellent musical instruments. Today IMHO I rate Gibson the second best guitar manufacturer in the world.

I second this observation!

1st Fender
1st Gibson
2nd Martin

for me it is a tie for 1st
and since I've never own a Martin I put it in 2nd, I did play one of them backpackers and the strings were way to high and I played one of their manmade woods one and it sounded like any 100 dollar guitar you'd buy at kmart, but I know Martin is king, I just have never played a "real" Martin, yet

I'm not real fussed on Martin these days. To me it seems they have become a little worse than they were 10 years ago.

I have never been a Martin fan. Respected because of age and tradion I still prefer Laravee's, Taylor's and Ovation's.

I too love Taylor and Ovation's. I also like an Australian made guitar by the name of Maton. They are great and the quality is right up there with the very expensive name brand guitars.