Originally Posted by Supersonic Scientist
Wow. Hard not to conclude that the sooner the present company is put out of its misery, and something new arises from the ashes run by somebody else, the better.
Wow. Hard not to conclude that the sooner the present company is put out of its misery, and something new arises from the ashes run by somebody else, the better.
...and it has finally come to this...
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money...tcy/567821002/
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...501-story.html
G.A.S -aholic
Juszkiewicz will undoubtedly get a golden parachute worth hundreds of millions. In the 1990s this sort of "leadership" was known as "vampire capitalism." It's too bad a great legacy has been shattered to make one greedy dude rich.
Saw a TV ad this past weekend for Guitar Center - a Les Paul for $1649 - looks to be the Studio
The Les Paul Studio is a stylish, essential guitar that delivers on design, tone and playability with authority. The white-bound, solid-rosewood fingerboard and SlimTaper neck provide a high-end appearance and enhanced playing feel. A pair of Gibson’s most popular humbucking pickups, ‘57 Classic and ‘57 Classic+ and 2 push-pull pots in an Ult...
Checking out their website showed plenty of Gibson's with hefty pricetags ...
"Normal is just the average of extremes" - Gary Lessor
That's the American Way™ now. See also: Toys R Us, among many others.
Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally
Did Toys R Us implode due to a greedy CEO, or due to competition from Amazon?
^^ The way things are going, there will soon be no brick and mortar stores left.
"Well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?"--Dalai Lama
Sounds like a great name for a band or an album
Last edited by dgtlman; 05-01-2018 at 06:38 PM.
They were over-leveraged by a hedge fund.
Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally
All the kids grew up.
I think there are a lot of factors involved in Gibson's bankruptcy.
They've been plagued with quality issues for quite a few years.
Sales of guitars are down across the board for ALL manufacturers due to the fact the younger generation is just not interested in picking up guitars anymore.
I see that as cyclical as my experience has shown everything comes full circle eventually.
Poor management and decision making such as the acquisition of a failing company(Phillips) by a failing company(Gibson) only increased their debt.
I bought a Gibson Les Paul Tribute Gold Top from Sweetwater last summer and I'm quite pleased with the quality at least on the appearance. Due to personal reasons I haven't been able to play it but for a few hours after unboxing it, but it sounded and played well at that time.
I'll let you know in a couple of months how that works out once I can fire it up again with my VOX AC10C1 combo amp.
Soundcloud page: Richard Hermans, musical meanderings https://soundcloud.com/precipice YouTube: [https://www.youtube.com/@richardhermans4457
A lot of big box retailers are blaming Amazon but they're only responsible for 4% of all retail. I would imagine that Amazon swallows up a higher percentage in books/music/video but they've become a convenient excuse. In the early 00s too many retailers expanded to a ridiculous amount of stores (remember Borders, Circuit City, etc). When the economy started to tank, those places took a huge hit.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
Not new but a very informed discussion of Gibson guitars and the unfortunate situation:
"We'll lose money on every sale, but we can make it up in volume." Yeah, MBAs started running companies and vampire capitalism became a thing.
Maybe, in order to attract customers at a younger age, Gibson could sell guitars through "Toys 'R Us." Oh....wait a minute.
Hell, they ain't even old-timey ! - Homer Stokes
Henry Juszkiewicz is interviewed in the current edition of Guitarist magazine about Gibson's present travails. He comes across as devious, manifestly untrustworthy, and only vaguely acquainted with concepts such as the truth in the course of the text - and this despite being given a very easy time by the interviewer. Indeed, if Juszkiewicz'z own account were to be believed, Gibson's current financial problems are little more than a temporary financial blip that are already well on the way to being resolved, there is NO CRISIS, and in fact take away the problems with Philips then everything is fine and dandy. If I read the interview correctly, he also states that he expects to be at the company for at least another two years. I'm sure Gibson's employees (who, fro the most part, utterly loathe HJ for his despotic style of micro-management) will be thrilled by this news
Oh yes, he also dismisses the regularly reported quality-control problems with Gibson's guitars as 'fake news.' Such a nice man.
Here's the latest...
https://www.gearnews.com/are-gibson-...bye-bye-henry/
G.A.S -aholic
Should have happened already, but I'm glad to see that at least it's happening now. But the "music industry experience preferred" (my emphasis) isn't exactly encouraging. To me, that should be pretty much mandatory. Though possibly if they get a PE guy who will spin off various components, then maybe the guitar division will be spun out and become independent. So that could work, but I'm not holding my breath. It will be interesting to see what happens.
Bill
New ‘Flying-V’ Plane Could Revolutionise Air Travel
https://www.physics-astronomy.org/20...lutionise.html
I've never heard about the tuning issues with Gibsons - so what did all those guitar heroes that played SGs and Les Pauls do about that if the problems was chronic? Do the Heritage guitars suffer from the same issue with the scale length?
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
Reminds me of somebody, but I can't think of who.
But, I'm sure that under his direction, Gibson sales will grow bigly, and they'll win so much they'll get tired of winning.
Well, if I buy an acoustic, I'll buy a Martin or Ovation. If I buy an electric, it's a Fender. Never was a big Gibson fan. In fact, next purchase coming up is the Fender Acoustasonic Telecaster, which can be used as either an electric or an acoustic via the wizardry of a Fishman acoustic engine (big fan of Fishman as well). I played one at my local guitar store, and loved it, particularly since many of the songs I play and compose have both electric and acoustic passages. Now, it's just a matter of impressing upon the wife the need of another $2000 guitar. That shouldn't be difficult.
"And your little sister's immaculate virginity wings away on the bony shoulders of a young horse named George who stole surreptitiously into her geography revision."
Occasional musical musings on https://darkelffile.blogspot.com/
I'd never heard about this issue. I did a llittle digging around and there seem to be issues related to scale length as these guys are referencing, and issues about the headstock tilt angle affecting the tuning. The little I read seemed to indicate the issues were real, but they were fixable if the guitar was set up properly, and particularly if the nut was lubricated with graphite (or other lubricant). So while scale (or headstock angle) may present an obstacle, it's clear that it can be overcome and that Gibson players have been doing it successfully for ages.
Their suggestion of a longer scale for the traditional Gibson models isn't a bad one, but moving from 24.75" to 25.5" has a pretty big impact on string tension, and thus playability. Goosing it a bit probably wouldn't hurt, but it isn't clear to me that would solve the problem. A roller bridge would seem a better addition, one that gives more play to properly intonate the strings.
FWIW, I have a Rainsong acoustic that is 24.75" scale, and it stays in tune beautifully, and I tune it with its built in tuner - so I don't have to fudge the b and g strings to get them to sympathetically tune with the other strings. I also had an Epiphone Les Paul, and had no problems with tuning on that, though I did heavily lubricate the rather cheap nut (should have just replaced it). So I'm not really clear that scale length is the only factor here. For Gibson guitars, it's probably a combination of factors that are solvable, but may take some trial and error. I agree Gibson should try to solve some of these issues on their guitars out of the box. I personally don't think it's as major an issue as these guys are making out.
Bill
I don't play guitar, but Heritage guitars are still made by hand right here in Kalamazoo Michigan in the old original Gibson factory, by a bunch of old timers who used to work for Gibson back in the day before they pulled out of town and moved to Nashville. It does not get much more hand crafted than that.
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