Voldemort and co. may not be around for much longer....
https://www.thestreet.com/story/1428...-its-debt.html
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Voldemort and co. may not be around for much longer....
https://www.thestreet.com/story/1428...-its-debt.html
Seems to have been in decline for a while now.
I know. All they needed to do is make the same guitars well but try and make them less expensive - but they couldn't do that.
2015 must have been a terrible year for them - with a self-inflicted wound.
I can see why the quality of their guitars has declined a bit, I saw a video on youtube of a guy who had bought an expensive Les Paul, only to have to return it to get it replaced as the quality of the instrument was below par, he explained that he had to return every replacement he had been sent and that he wasn't going to buy any more guitars from them.
Methinks the lawyers took all their money.
BTW All the legal wrangling seems to be centred around the 'Les Paul' brand?
cheers, Mark.
$1.2B turnover and still cannot manage their finances.....gotta wonder how much has been or is still being wasted on non income producing executive salaries. Usually the first place to look to save a business going under. Not that I care that much as would not buy one of their new instruments given the high price to low QC aspect.
Gibson guitar quality has often see-sawed. It was terrible in the '80s. My mate had a guitar shop in the mid-late 80s and sent most of the guitars back to the distributor have the necks reset. I never liked any of the LP's I tried in the music shops in the '80s - I bought a Yamaha SG3000 instead. But my '95 LP is superb, so they must have got it back together at some point. And then probably lost and found it again several times.
Know what you mean. When my eldest son went shopping for his Explorer about 10 years ago he went to several stores and all the black ones were so poorly finished that you could see the glue lines where planks had been glued together near the control knob wing. He ended up with a white one as it felt the best, probably due to being the only one available with an ebony fret board, and was also best finished too.
That fact that they seem to be unable to stay in tune is a negative thing. They can sell off Kramer and some of the other brands, kill off some of the models. They'll survive, but there will definitely be changes.
Saddest thing is the basic design though on some aspects is mechanically flawed is also a damn good sounding instrument.
If you were 100% certain to get a quality build then most other issues fall by the way side and the chances increase dramatically that you would buy it anyway regardless of price... Most other instrument manufacturers CEO's have worked that out, or have at least bastardised it reasonably well into a more user friendly version of 'you get what you pay for' regime.... I suppose I should count myself as one of the lucky ones with my 2016 model LP that so far has only had its Switchcraft switch fail.
But hey, with $1.2b in revenue and they still can't manage the numbers says buckets about who is running that show...
Have you seen some of the finishes on the 2018 range? Some of the new(old) ones look great - the Goldtop Classic with P90s already has my credit card twitching (it won't happen).
http://youtu.be/Xza8f2ZKWgQ
But the new 'fade' bursts on all the 'high performance' models just look half-finished to me, like they couldn't be bothered to go all the way round with the spray gun.
Attachment 22100
Still not convinced about the rear-mounted pups on those HP models (I wouldn't touch one anyway but Gibson aren't making them easy to like). I haven't seen any rear-body pictures of them but there must now be a cover plate on the back for them. They'd probably look better with uncovered pickups.
But again with the LP HP, they seem to be making a whole product line that (to me) is going to be pretty hard to shift.
Maybe one day they will learn what book MATCHING means, funny how PRS, Fuijigen,ESP and even the factory doing Pitbulls can line the veneers up but Gibson can't.
Agreed, they are not a good look. Once again, a swing and a miss.Quote:
Originally Posted by Simon Barden
Found a picture of the back of a LP HP. No cover plate, just adjustment screws. Which means that the pickups are unique to Gibson as there are no mounting tabs sticking out, so unless the likes of SD and DiMarzio etc. start making pickups with the new Gibson mounting system, you're stuck with a Gibson-only selection, so you better be sure you like their pickups!
Just digging their own grave that little bit deeper.
Their SG HP models also have the same pickup/mounting system.
Looks like their still using the GForce system on HP models.....
...and the zero fret and the slightly wider neck (not a big as the 2015 necks though).
It's like they are trying to sabotage the value of the brand.
I thought the same about Marshall, with their earphones and sunglasses, then I saw their "licensing manager". A mid 20's girl with more tats than most guys, a real try hard hipster who no doubt had no idea of how Marshall was seen in the marketplace or the respect it had gained, no doubt to her it was a cash cow to be milked before moving on to the next brand.Quote:
Originally Posted by CascadiaGuitarGeek
That explained everything. I'm willing to bet the same recent graduate type is running Gibsons marketing.
If they just focused on consistency across a smaller range of models they could rest on the brand reputation for the rest of time. As it is the expectations of picking up a new Gibson are just not met when you hold one in your hands.
I went, cash in hand to buy one and simply couldn't justify the spend after playing a bunch of Gibson and Epiphone LPs. Both the copy cats (Yamaha Revstar and Hagstrom Custom deluxe) I played were far superior in look, feel, playability and sound, add in a better price point and it was a no brainer - and no regrets as the money left over went straight into a Pitbull kit.
a Producer friend of mine recently said " We don't sell product any more, we sell the image of a product. The actual products quality is irrelevant "
A few years back there was a big difference between Gibson and it's Epiphone replica but by the sounds of things that has sadly deteriorated in recent times and making it extremely difficult to justify their ridiculously high price point.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sonic Mountain
Have to agree that what we once sneered at could now be a better proposition, as it is probably only snob value that keeps driving new sales for them.
I've just caught up on this thread and I think Dedders captured what's happening. Enthusiastic, just out off college, "Hipsters" who think they now all there is to know about everything.
At some point the brand becomes the product. Does anyone really believe that Marshall makes headphones? Is a Fender a Fender or a knock off?
Leo Fender was a genius, both in terms of innovative designs and figuring how to make them incredibly simply.
Les Paul was a genius, Paul Bigsby...and on and on. I have one of the only Fenders ever designed by Roger Rossmeisl. It's cool not because it's a Fender, and not because he deigned a bunch of Rickenbackers. It's cool because he designed s cool guitar, which should be the only thing that counts.
As long as we allow brands to tell us more than our hands and ears and even eyes we will live in a world where my '75 Precision is worth three times what my '94 G&L bass is worth, even though the G&L is better in every way.
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The worst part of the gibbon going under, (if it does actually happen) is the loss of work for me repairing broken headstocks, re dressing frets because of that stupid pleck BS and installing new machine heads that actually keep the strings in tune... to name just a few issues I seem to be always fixing.. Oh well, looks like I might have to wait a few more years before I can buy that 69' Chevvy Impala..
There will still be a legacy of Epi's and Gibbons to fix over the coming years DB - certainly enough to keep food on the table.
Interesting that you mention pleck.Quote:
Originally Posted by dingobass
I know nothing about it but thought that it was a good thing to get your guitar set up with it.
Am I wrong?? And what is pleck that is better than getting a tech to set up your guitar ?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by OliSam
From what I understand, a Plek Machine is a special CNC (Computer Numerically Controlled) Machine that is used to level the frets of a guitar after they have been individually height-measured, it can supposedly level frets to a very high degree of precision, allowing optimal playability of a guitar, apparently the neck on my Gibson USA LP Studio guitar has been Pleked at the Gibson factory.
DB, and other luthiers, despise Plek because often it can cause damage to the fretboard. It is basically a robot shortcut for fret "levelling" that can't compete with a human fret "dressing". And I don't think it is cheaper to get done either.
Can a computer compete with a craftsmans touch? I don't think so but there are obviously people out there who think so.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fretworn
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I think the name will go on indefinitely, just like the bike names, Norton, Triumph ,Indian, you can buy something with that label on it but it's got nothing to do with the original firm. In fact Gibson is already at that point, the next owners of the names and designs will probably be Asian.
alas that's prob true.. for as long as there are brandnames and other copyrights and trademarks to be bought and sold