Mesa now part of Gibson

[agedhorse]

2 hours ago, Beedster said:

Hope all’s OK for you Andy

Thanks. 

[Al Krow]

10 hours ago, agedhorse said:

I have addressed some of this to the best of my ability in a TalkBass thread. Rather than rehash this here, please take a look at the thread:

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/official-mesa-boogie-subway-series-club.1181245/page-1144#post-24825163

AH's key post on this starts at #22876 page 1144 on the TB thread, in case you want to save 20 mins browsing to get there 😁

Edited January 7, 2021 by Rich
Link updated

[agedhorse]

Thanks Al, tried to grab the correct page from my phone but obviously didn't get it quite right. Cheers.

[Rich]

8 hours ago, Al Krow said:

AH's key post on this starts at #22876 page 1144 on the TB thread, in case you want to save 20 mins browsing to get there 😁

I've updated the link in these posts so that it will take you straight there.

[Woodinblack]

12 hours ago, Bill Fitzmaurice said:

It might be OK, since Gibson has no meaningful presence in the guitar amp market. If they'd been bought out by Fender you could expect the brand to disappear.

It had no meaningful presense on the DAW market, or the electronic music market, or the drum market, but it didn't stop it killing products there

 

[Cato]

The sad fact is that just about every company Gibson has acquired in the last 3 decades either only now exists as an almost unrecognisable sad parody of it's former self, such as Kramer and Steinberger, or no longer exists at all.

Edited January 7, 2021 by Cato

[cetera]

Now I REALLY wish I'd picked up one of the bass heads when Guitar Guitar did that Mesa clearance a year or so ago....

[chris_b]

The guy who caused most of the problems at Gibson has gone. Maybe they are sorted with the new management. This news has caused generally negative response here and on TB. That shows how highly MB is regarded and IMO how poorly these takeovers are viewed. MB are saying nothing will change, but plans always change.  The cynical view is the probably the realistic approach.

[Steve Browning]

I guess time will tell. It's probably fairly disquieting for Mesa employees (it's human nature after all) and maybe we should hang fire on the negativity and see what transpires.

If the same people are intending to use the same kit to build the same amps then there's more room for optimism than is felt at the moment.

[Al Krow]

59 minutes ago, cetera said:

Now I REALLY wish I'd picked up one of the bass heads when Guitar Guitar did that Mesa clearance a year or so ago....

Like a lot of gear addicts on BC, I've got through a ton of bass gear over the years.

The oldest piece of bass kit I still have, which I've loved from the day I bought it 6.5 years ago and also from Guitar Guitar, is my Mesa M6 amp. I still can't recommend it highly enough.

Edited January 7, 2021 by Al Krow

[thodrik]

Sleeping on this and I am not as negative on this as I was last night. If the new Gibson management want to really make a statement that 'things are different now' then this is magnificent opportunity for them. For Mesa, it is a way of ensuring that the brand lives on way beyond the working life of its founder Randall Smith, who is entitled to make succession plans in any way he sees fit. 

Edited January 7, 2021 by thodrik

[dayo]

How can they afford to buy other companies when they are so indebt themselves

[Dad3353]

15 minutes ago, dayo said:

How can they afford to buy other companies when they are so indebt themselves

'Creative accounting'..? S'not like a domestic, personal debt; much of these things are Big Business, virtual finances (stocks and shares valuations, for instance, or property ownership valuations...). Magic Money Trees abound. 

Edited January 7, 2021 by Dad3353

[peteb]

8 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

'Creative accounting'..? S'not like a domestic, personal debt; much of these things are Big Business, virtual finances (stocks and shares valuations, for instance, or property ownership valuations...). Magic Money Trees abound. 

From what I have seen, they have 'restructured' and taken most of the debt off their books. This apparently leaves them free to start to doing exactly the same thing again...! 

[karlfer]

I have a feeling that for a year or two at least, little will change with Mesa. Sounds like new Gibson management are on the path of rebuilding reputations & such an iconic brand as Mesa may well be the standard they aspire to on their top line product.

Nonetheless I'm rather glad I decided against selling my amp at a daft low price 😁

[peteb]

1 minute ago, karlfer said:

I have a feeling that for a year or two at least, little will change with Mesa. Sounds like new Gibson management are on the path of rebuilding reputations & such an iconic brand as Mesa may well be the standard they aspire to on their top line product.

Nonetheless I'm rather glad I decided against selling my amp at a daft low price 😁

Let's hope so. But unfortunately there is not a good record of these things turning out well in the long term, yet alone with Gibson who have a particularly bad history. 

[karlfer]

3 minutes ago, peteb said:

Let's hope so. But unfortunately there is not a good record of these things turning out well in the long term, yet alone with Gibson who have a particularly bad history. 

I have a bit of fondness for Gibson as I gigged an '84 Explorer for 17 years and it was a fantastic playing & sounding bass. Rose tinted 🙂

Edited January 7, 2021 by karlfer

[peteb]

2 minutes ago, karlfer said:

I have a bit of fondness for Gibson as I hugged am '84 Explorer for 17 years and it was a fantastic playing & sounding bass. Rose tinted 🙂

Don't get me wrong, I've got a thing about the sound / image of a Les Paul as much as anyone brought up in the 70s! Just looking of one conjures up images of Paul Kossof / Jimmy Page / Thin Lizzy / early Whitesnake / Slash, etc. 

Unfortunately, the company lost its soul when it sold out to a faceless and rather rapacious corporation some time ago. With any luck it might be able to regain its old spirit by learning its lessons from the past, with Mesa Boogie being the jewel in its no-longer tarnished crown.

We can but hope… 

[Woodinblack]

22 hours ago, chris_b said:

That shows how highly MB is regarded and IMO how poorly these takeovers are viewed. MB are saying nothing will change, but plans always change.  The cynical view is the probably the realistic approach.

No, this shows how poorly gibson has handled all takeovers. Takeovers in general are not always that bad, a lot of the big names now only got that way because they were taken over. Just gibson have a very bad history. Maybe they will be better as they have someone new in charge, we will have to see if that has made a large culture change.