Gibson just getting weirder and weirder.

[NancyJohnson]

Did anyone see this?

I know the Firebird X was a bit of a munter, but couldn't these instruments have been distributed to good causes or stripped and retooled?  I've no idea how old the footage is, but it does seem horribly wasteful.  Even the pickups (Gibson mini-humbuckers) are the same as the ones in regular Firebirds.  Maybe it's a way of giving ol' Henry's legacy the finger, but like I said,  Gibson just get weirder and weirder.

 

 

[Huge Hands]

That is one way to relic an instrument.......

[DoubleOhStephan]

Sure there are plenty of music schools who would have been grateful if Gibson (or whoever mashed them up) donated them instead. Better publicity too. 

[Teebs]

It's a visual metaphor for what they're doing to their reputation currently.

Twerps!

[TheRev]

That's pretty sickening.  Surely it would have been better to recycle the parts,  donate or give them away rather than just smash them up.

[NancyJohnson]

Gibson have made a statement:

“The Firebird X destruction video was an isolated batch of Firebird X models built in 2009-2011 which were unsalvageable and damaged with unsafe components. This isolated group of Firebird X models were unable to be donated for any purpose and were destroyed accordingly.”

If the components were unsafe, what about the components in the ones that suckers people actually shelled out $3K for? 

[Beer of the Bass]

I gather that large businesses will often destroy batches of unsaleable products, but the decision to make such an obvious spectacle of it is an odd one...

[scalpy]

3 minutes ago, NancyJohnson said:

Gibson have made a statement:

“The Firebird X destruction video was an isolated batch of Firebird X models built in 2009-2011 which were unsalvageable and damaged with unsafe components. This isolated group of Firebird X models were unable to be donated for any purpose and were destroyed accordingly.”

If the components were unsafe, what about the components in the ones that suckers people actually shelled out $3K for? 

Damaged and unsafe how? More unsafe than a cheapo Chinese knock off?

I'd have gladly risked it as a music head of department and used them as decoration if they really were that bad.

[Cat Burrito]

I had my Gibson Thunderbird out at rehearsal last night and that video makes me not want to use it. If parts were unsafe they could have salvaged / recycled something from all of that.

[Rich]

I couldn't watch more than 20 seconds of that. Horrid, disgraceful waste. Unsafe my arrse. My opinion of Gibson, which was low to start with, has hit rockbottom and started to dig.

Edited August 1, 2019 by Rich

[Delberthot]

How exactly could a guitar be unsafe unless that was the special edition with the hidden bear trap and headstock that shoots poisoned darts at the audience?

[ahpook]

Painful to watch.

This looks like something a company might do after having imported something, found it's faulty and worked out it's cheaper to destroy it than pay duty/tax on it.

Just a hunch.

Edited August 1, 2019 by ahpook

[Jazzmaster62]

Has Elon Musk took over at Gibson?!

[still-young]

How can a guitar be unsafe in anyway that isn't an easy fix? The only thing I can think is electricity, but the electrics in a guitar are quite simple. Even in a fairly complex electronics heavy guitar like the Firebird X, surely they could have sorted it?

Edited August 1, 2019 by still-young

[HazBeen]

1 minute ago, still-young said:

How can a guitar be unsafe in anyway that isn't an easy fix? The only thing I can think is electricity, but the electrics in a guitar are quite simple. Even in a fairly complex electronics heavy guitar like the Firebird X, surely they could have sorted it?

Kryptonite trussrod, atomic capacitors

[Cuzzie]

I dunno - some didn’t seem too broken - maybe after this they were deemed safe and then are up for sale

[HowieBass]

That'll be just their normal quality control procedure before they get sent out surely? 😏

[SubsonicSimpleton]

Just seen a video about the video in the OP, that sheds some more light on this by way of interview with the person who shot the footage.

 

[Skinnyman]

If I recall correctly, the Firebird X didn't really set the world on fire, sales-wise?

So what are Gibson going to do with all that unsold stock? When their dealers are refusing to buy more Les Pauls unless Gibson take back all those unsold Firebird X's? When they've spent all that money telling the world - and their investors - that this is the future of the guitar?

They could discount, of course. But that devalues the brand. It's an embarrassing admission that they got it wrong.

Far better to quietly gather them all up and destroy them.

Just like all the major design houses do with their unsold stock. There's a reason you don't see last year's Gucci stuff in the discount stores - it all gets shredded.

It happens all the time - quietly and without fuss.

So laying them all out in a big line and driving a bulldozer over them while taking a video of same seems a bit odd.

Maybe they genuinely were unsafe. Returns from the Chernobyl branch of Guitar Center?

 

Edit: I was typing this when Mr Subsonic posted the video above - I haven't had chance/bandwidth to watch it yet but hopefully it sheds a bit of light on things

Edited August 1, 2019 by Skinnyman

[Rich]

36 minutes ago, HazBeen said:

Kryptonite trussrod, atomic capacitors

From what I understand, it was found that faulty flux capacitors were delivering several jiggawatts of electric shock to anyone who attempted to play Stairway To Heaven on them.

[Teebs]

Gibson no-longer make guitars.

They now just make gaffes.

Anyway, I'm surprised that they needed that machine to destroy those guitars - normally you just have to look at the neck on a Gibson & the head voluntarily separates from the neck...

 

[Teebs]

3 minutes ago, Rich said:

From what I understand, it was found that faulty flux capacitors were delivering several jiggawatts of electric shock to anyone who attempted to play Stairway To Heaven on them.

That's not a fault...  

[Guest oZZma]

1 hour ago, Rich said:

Unsafe my arrse.

Yeah. Ridiculous.

[ezbass]

That’s disgusting and I smell horse manure. Unsafe my rear end; unsafe, how so?

Edited August 1, 2019 by ezbass

[Crusoe]

They couldn't have salvaged anything? Necks? Bridges? Tuners? Knobs? Nothing?