Goodbye, Gibson!

[ChunkyMunky]

http://www.ericgarland.co/2016/09/27/gibson-rating-moodys/

https://www.moodys.com/research/Moodys-downgrades-Gibsons-CFR-to-Caa2-rating-outlook-is-negative--PR_353736

Seems Gibson is in some serious trouble.

[NancyJohnson]

It's highly unlikely they'll disappear.

All things said and done, the issue with all the big name manufacturers is (in no particular order), market saturation, lack of innovation, far-eastern manufacturing plants, lack of quality control and business practice.

Gibson and Fender are guilty as feck for their reliance on products, the designs of which are close to 50-60 years old. They're bullish in the way they allow retailers to sell on their gear (was it GAK that quoted the pressure to stock guitars or lose their official dealer status?).

Gibson are guilty of inflexibility, putting out stuff people are tired of and holding back of the models people do. Why the hell don't they issue a doublecut Les Paul Junior? Basses in different colours? Because they operate an inferior custom shop model where they can triple the price of street models.

Ack. Good riddance.

[Left Foot]

Driving people to your site Eric?

[ChunkyMunky]

[quote name='Left Foot' timestamp='1475159059' post='3143569']
Driving people to your site Eric?
[/quote]

You can call me Eric if you really like but my name's Josh.

[visog]

Have to agree... they've not exactly been a bass players friend. In Gibson's eye's we're the guitar-players buck-tooth idiot cousin who's happy to plunk away on a short-scale thud machine. They bought and ran down Tobias... And my DAW of choice Cakewalk... and they've un-develped that. And their Victory basses were horrid.

Let's raise and angry mob and go burn their factories...

[FinnDave]

Gibson ain't interested in us bass players. The only half decent bass they've ever made was the Thunderbird, and it's still unplayable in standard form.

[visog]

Just looked at their website re. brands:

[color=#000000]Gibson Brands has a portfolio of over 100 well-recognized brand names starting with the #1 guitar brand, Gibson. Other instrument brands include Epiphone, Dobro, Valley Arts, Kramer, Steinberger, Tobias, Slingerland, Maestro, Baldwin, Hamilton, Chickering and Wurlitzer. In professional audio, KRK Systems, TASCAM, Cerwin-Vega, Stanton, and Cakewalk also continue Gibson’s tradition of quality in their respective markets. Consumer electronics brands include Onkyo, Integra, TEAC, and Esoteric.[/color]

[size=4][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#000000]And just noticed this:[/color][/font][/size]

[color=#000000]Craig Anderton – Chief Magic Officer, Gibson[/color]

They're boned!

[BigRedX]

[quote name='visog' timestamp='1475177392' post='3143854']
Have to agree... they've not exactly been a bass players friend. In Gibson's eye's we're the guitar-players buck-tooth idiot cousin who's happy to plunk away on a short-scale thud machine. They bought and ran down Tobias... And my DAW of choice Cakewalk... and they've un-develped that. And their Victory basses were horrid.

Let's raise and angry mob and go burn their factories...
[/quote]

Lets not forget what they did to Opcode either.

I had a very lucky escape there. Having spent a serious amount of time in the early 90s checking all the major MIDI sequencing programs (Cubase, Logic, Performer and Vision) I was all set to invest in Opcode's offering until I joined a band where my songwriting partner was a Logic user, so for ease of exchanging ideas I went and bought a copy of Logic instead.

Also Opcode's MIDI utilities were the backbone of every Mac based MIDI sequencing system until OS X arrived. After Gibson bought them up and stopped development these systems became more and more unreliable as they could no longer cope with changes to the OS and demands being placed on them by updates to the programs that required them. I eventually had to invest in eMagic's Unitor MIDI interface which communicated directly with logic and no longer required the outdated Opcode utility in order to run, simply because I was getting too many MIDI errors with my old interface.

Every time I find myself hankering after a Gibson guitar or bass I simply have to remind myself about Opcode and the urge to buy goes away.

[chris_b]

The only 2 guitarists I know using Gibson guitars have switched to Burny and Orville.

Apparently, sadly, they say this was an upgrade.

[Number6]

Our guitarist buys Epiphone's then upgrades them himself and he believes they equal any Gibson.

[stuckinthepod]

They are also fitting older Gibson pickups to the Epiphone Pro series guitars and basses. These are very well made in Indonesia and a great option at their price point. I bought an Epi TBird Classic Pro bass from Amazon on a deal for £250. This is one of my two gigging basses and plays and sounds great.

The Gibson Tbirds start at £950 and go up to £1600!

Edited September 30, 2016 by stuckinthepod

[Cato]

Even if the current owners went to the wall the creditors would still be able to sell the brand along with the US factories to a new set of owners as a going concern.

As I understand it's not the original core business that got them into trouble, it's all the other shenanigans and corporate take overs of other businesses which have then failed which has left them with huge debts.

I believe Fender are in a similar though not quite so precarious position.

[Woodinblack]

Last I heard Gibson were run pretty badly by a pretty toxic MD*. So it really doesn't matter for the brand, if they fail to pay their debts they will collapse and someone else will buy the name / factory / stock and start again as a new company.
Maybe the new owners would be better, maybe not, either way, unless you are an investor it doesn't really matter from a guitar point of view. Gibson the guitars will live on. In 100 years time I am sure they will still be churning out '58 reissues.

*Yep, seems still the case: https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Reviews/Gibson-Brands-Reviews-E6869.htm

[KevB]

Didn't they buy (and bugger up) Trace Elliot once too?

[visog]

Yes... them too. 1998 apparently. Brand now owned by Peavey.

[ahpook]

I though he was great in Mad Max