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Gibson Acquires Mesa/Boogie
- Thread starter braud357
- Start date
All this talk about buyouts I haven’t seen anyone mention Sadowsky being bought out by Warwick. Who could have seen that coming?
Does anyone remember Lab Series Amps?
Thought so.
I remember the Lab Series, I remember one of the amps not being completely bad (high praise I know).
Not really a buyout, just a transfer of the Metroline production to Germany from Japan. The NYC shop downsized and I suspect it will eventually spin down completely, but that's just a guess.
You know, for all the comments that Gibson destroys every brand the acquire, we seem to ignore Epiphone. They seemed to have kept that brand around for a while. (yeah, I know it's only been kept for the imports along with a few USA made exceptions) Just saying.
Maybe Gibson can be persuaded to spin off basses the the Mesa brand. Anybody want a Mesa designed (with TB help) bass?
From a customer side, Gibson is actually doing big quality movements. This acquisition is one of them.
If it makes MESA products more available at shops and affordable, for Oceania and Europa specially, they will grow them customer base for sure. Actually in Spain there's almost 0 shops having any Subway article in stock to demoing for exemple.
If it makes MESA products more available at shops and affordable, for Oceania and Europa specially, they will grow them customer base for sure. Actually in Spain there's almost 0 shops having any Subway article in stock to demoing for exemple.
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I come to this as someone who's both a Steinberger bass owner and a (essentially former) Cakewalk Sonar user, so I expect the worst from Gibson. Yeah, it could be a good-to-neutral thing for Mesa users and musicians, but these companies became acquisition targets for a reason, and it's very rarely just a shortage of capital. I like Mesa bass gear better than I like their guitar amps, but if it's the guitar rigs that sell in the higher volumes with the higher margins...
100% accurate. However I don't think the shop will spin down. Roger dodownsized probably because of this Covid crisis. Just a guess too.
- Feb 12, 2006
- 60,963
- 5
- 220,655
- Disclosures
- Development Engineer-Mesa Boogie, Development Engineer-Genzler (pedals), Product Support-Genz Benz
The Lab series was designed by Bob Moog under his Moog Music Inc. company which either merged with (or was sold to) Norlin Musical Instruments in the early 1970's. Norlin then acquired Gibson, which is where the association comes from. Of course, this has no relationship to Gibson ownership today.
I am familiar with the Lab series amps, they certainly have many Bob Moog's design details that are WAY ahead of where state of the guitar amp industry was at that time. In fact, many of the gain stages and filters used in the Lab series are the basis for what some designers use today. Like his synths, there were some major steps forward in technology and IMO there are some excellent design elements incorporated that have evolved through the years.
Bob attended Bronx high School of Science at the same time that by dad attended, that was pretty much the premiere secondary science and engineering school on the east coast and was a feeder school to universities. Both Bob and my father went on to get electrical engineering degrees and enjoyed a career in the industry.
His shop was pretty big actually at the time. But I didn't know it started before
Might not be a bad situation...Mesa is a powerhouse organization, and Gibson's new management seem to be in a different mindset than the prior crew. OTOH, consider the excellent Amplified Musical Products amps, which were merged into Gibson, before later morphing into the now departed (and lamented) Thunderfunk line. Anyhow, fingers crossed, and certainly hoping that the venerable Aged Horse will continue through the pastures of amp design, Genz-Benz support, and interface with TalkBass!
Earlier today I was reminded of a big corporate buy out of what was originally a small company that turned out well.
In 1902 Willis Carrier invented residential air conditioning as we know it today. In 1915 he and 6 other engineers pooled 32 K to start the company and bought their first factory in Newark NJ.
As far as I'm concerned their equipment was always top of the line and their engineering department made sure that they were always 1 patent ahead of the competition with ground breaking ideas.
United Technologies bought the company in 1979 and I remember many thinking that product quality would go down and prices would go up. Neither happened. In fact I met the CEO of UT in the 90's while designing some work for his home and asked what changes they made over the years. He said basically only a slight reduction of staff due to duplication of efforts in account, HR, etc. They bought the company because it was so well run and profitable and that the last thing they wanted to do was screw that up.
They were spun off as a separate company in March of 2020.
Carrier Global - Wikipedia
They have never let me down after specifying their equipment for 30 some years and I just bought a new carrier gas furnace and AC system for my house in January as the original system for the first floor and basement from 1984 was finally too worn out to warrant repair.
So kids, not all big corporate buy outs are bad!
In 1902 Willis Carrier invented residential air conditioning as we know it today. In 1915 he and 6 other engineers pooled 32 K to start the company and bought their first factory in Newark NJ.
As far as I'm concerned their equipment was always top of the line and their engineering department made sure that they were always 1 patent ahead of the competition with ground breaking ideas.
United Technologies bought the company in 1979 and I remember many thinking that product quality would go down and prices would go up. Neither happened. In fact I met the CEO of UT in the 90's while designing some work for his home and asked what changes they made over the years. He said basically only a slight reduction of staff due to duplication of efforts in account, HR, etc. They bought the company because it was so well run and profitable and that the last thing they wanted to do was screw that up.
They were spun off as a separate company in March of 2020.
Carrier Global - Wikipedia
They have never let me down after specifying their equipment for 30 some years and I just bought a new carrier gas furnace and AC system for my house in January as the original system for the first floor and basement from 1984 was finally too worn out to warrant repair.
So kids, not all big corporate buy outs are bad!
The Fender/Sunn analogy 8s particularly pathetic. Sunn was gone when FMIC bought the name IN THE '80S!!! The used the name on a line of stage lighting gear when I was still in retail which I left in '88. It was resurrected at least ten years later, didn't succeed, and went away.
FMIC bought Guild in '95, transfused lots of cash and marketing into the company, and kept it alive for a long time. Yes, they closed the factory in Rhode Island. That factory was originally a pencil making plant, and the cost to update it to be modern guitar making facility, especially for spraying VOCs and controlling humidity and temperature were prohibitive. They did move it around several times, eventually settling in the same factory that made Ovation (who always did a wonderful job of making guitars regardless my feelings about the design).
SWR was floundering when FMIC bought them Steve Rabe having been gone for several years.
They bought Kaman Music primarily for the distribution business, not for Ovation, Takamine, Hamer, CB700, etc.
Chicaho Musical Instruments who owned Gibson, bought Epiphone in 1958. They also owned a brass instrument company, (Selmer I think), a string instrument one, and a piano/organ company. Norlin bought CMI at the end of the '60s, until Henry J got it in '88. He mismanaged it for a couple of decades, including the Tobias, Steinberger, etc. debacles. That is why he lost the company. It's new management with a vested interest in keeping the brand successful.
So instead of hand-wringing cynicism, y'all might try seeing what happens.
Or ya could go out and buy a bunch of amps and cabinets today, keep them in the boxes for twenty years, then loose a ton of money because "pre-Gibson" never materializes in the vintage Mesa market.
FMIC bought Guild in '95, transfused lots of cash and marketing into the company, and kept it alive for a long time. Yes, they closed the factory in Rhode Island. That factory was originally a pencil making plant, and the cost to update it to be modern guitar making facility, especially for spraying VOCs and controlling humidity and temperature were prohibitive. They did move it around several times, eventually settling in the same factory that made Ovation (who always did a wonderful job of making guitars regardless my feelings about the design).
SWR was floundering when FMIC bought them Steve Rabe having been gone for several years.
They bought Kaman Music primarily for the distribution business, not for Ovation, Takamine, Hamer, CB700, etc.
Chicaho Musical Instruments who owned Gibson, bought Epiphone in 1958. They also owned a brass instrument company, (Selmer I think), a string instrument one, and a piano/organ company. Norlin bought CMI at the end of the '60s, until Henry J got it in '88. He mismanaged it for a couple of decades, including the Tobias, Steinberger, etc. debacles. That is why he lost the company. It's new management with a vested interest in keeping the brand successful.
So instead of hand-wringing cynicism, y'all might try seeing what happens.
Or ya could go out and buy a bunch of amps and cabinets today, keep them in the boxes for twenty years, then loose a ton of money because "pre-Gibson" never materializes in the vintage Mesa market.
I don't think it's about being cynical at all and I don't think the revenue stream of those past companies is a concern either.
I think it's about the lack of quality in products after Gibson gets their hands on them. Most of the people in this thread aren't cheering on the demise of Mesa and they aren't saying they'll be gone in six months either. They're genuinely concerned that the quality of the products will drop below a level that they're willing to purchase at.
We love Mesa amps so we're worried that Gibson won't do right by them.
I can not believe anything wrong will happen to Mesa. You can't put down such a brand without paying the price a way or another as I mentioned earlier.
