Yeah. A certain predilection for bravado and childish dramatics that seems to be becoming more and more a part Gibson’s corporate culture as time goes on.
Woulda thought that sort of nonsense came to an end with the departure of H.J.
Guess not.
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Gibson... again...
- Thread starter turcmic
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Yeah. A certain predilection for bravado and childish dramatics that seems to be becoming more and more a part Gibson’s corporate culture as time goes on.
Woulda thought that sort of nonsense came to an end with the departure of H.J.
Guess not.
Should've had each one plugged into a Marshall full stack on 11 when they ran em over 
Looks not unlike the automobile manufacturing business when things go very wrong with a model. I worked at the Saturn plant (for a contractor) back in the '90s. Somewhere in there was a recall for thousands of their cars that had bad coolant added in manufacturing. Something highly corrosive. Thousands were shipped back from retailers and customers (all customers got a new one) rather than repaired, engines replaced, or donated to mechanical schools. Returned to the plant and destroyed in the crusher. Just like that. Better, I suppose, to keep that under control rather than have faulty product still out there, in the view of the company.
Just by comparison...in the 1980s when Fender got shut down the Fullerton plant they blew out warehouse stock. A store in Boston got 25 Fender Precision Elite basses, fretted, fretless, maple boards, rosewood boards...but all were ash bodies in transparent green...apparently not a popular color. The street price had been about $800 and the store sold all 25 in about two days for $300 each, with case, candy and full warranty.
Gibson could have chosen to blow those Firebirds out so stores could sell them for $2-300 without a factory warranty and they would have sold every damn one of them.
Gibson could have chosen to blow those Firebirds out so stores could sell them for $2-300 without a factory warranty and they would have sold every damn one of them.
IV. PRESENTATION
“…In the sudden silence as I finished playing, I looked up to a circle of grim, expressionless faces. Father Brown rose to his feet, and his somnolent voice echoed throughout the silent Temple Hall…”
“…Instead of the grateful joy that I expected, they were words of quiet rejection! Instead of praise, sullen dismissal. I watched in shock and horror as Father Brown ground my precious instrument to splinters beneath his feet…”
“…In the sudden silence as I finished playing, I looked up to a circle of grim, expressionless faces. Father Brown rose to his feet, and his somnolent voice echoed throughout the silent Temple Hall…”
“…Instead of the grateful joy that I expected, they were words of quiet rejection! Instead of praise, sullen dismissal. I watched in shock and horror as Father Brown ground my precious instrument to splinters beneath his feet…”
Someone leaked the video because either there was a loophole in the non disclosure agreement, or they were too stupid to not realize that one out of three people filming anything WILL post that crap to the internet.
An idealist might see a bunch of guitars going to impoverished school kids, but will said idealist put forth the time, money, and resources required to get it into the right hands? It’s much easier to make a video lamenting the destruction of a hundred good guitars than it is to initiate a program that gets those guitars into the hands that need them, and last time I checked, Gibson was a business. There’s never money to be made in giving crap away.
Also, this:
Top 5 Reasons For Certified Product Destruction
An idealist might see a bunch of guitars going to impoverished school kids, but will said idealist put forth the time, money, and resources required to get it into the right hands? It’s much easier to make a video lamenting the destruction of a hundred good guitars than it is to initiate a program that gets those guitars into the hands that need them, and last time I checked, Gibson was a business. There’s never money to be made in giving crap away.
Also, this:
Top 5 Reasons For Certified Product Destruction
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PaulCISSA
Unsweetened, highly-caffeinated
That’s small potatoes. The Fortune 500 company I’ve worked for the past 23 years destroys millions of $$ in broadcast/studio electronics and installation components annually to prevent leakage into the second-hand market. It’s a common practice and not just happening at Gibson. Business is business and it’s just a product.
When my employer was in the PC business, they would donate unsold A-stock to developing nations education programs until some crap-hole country on the African Continent attempted to blackmail the donor operating company for a better deal. That ended donations. Full-stop. After that event, even employee access to obsolete models disappeared. So it goes. A few hundred guitars ain’t squat.
When my employer was in the PC business, they would donate unsold A-stock to developing nations education programs until some crap-hole country on the African Continent attempted to blackmail the donor operating company for a better deal. That ended donations. Full-stop. After that event, even employee access to obsolete models disappeared. So it goes. A few hundred guitars ain’t squat.
Okay bud, take a flippin’ walk. Think of all the work that went into these guitars. That’s THOUSANDS of man hours. I work for a high end guitar company. I know how much work goes into a single guitar. If the company I work for put out a video like that, of them destroying my hard work like that for no good reason, I’d lose my f-ing mind. I’d certainly quit faster than you could put out some stupid “who cares” remark. This makes me madder ‘n’ hell.
Think of what those guitars could have done. They could have donated them to kids. They could have given them out to employees. Hell, from a business standpoint, they even could have stripped the electronics and hardware. From what I could see, those were all Firebird X’s. Those things have whole computers inside ‘em. Those could easily be recycled for a tax break, at the very least. This is a total waste. Just another reason why I’ll never buy a new Gibson instrument.
So no, pal, they’re not just chunks of wood, especially to those of us who build ‘em every day. This one hurts.
Every manufacturer destroys product that can't be made right. Cars, pants, basses, frying pans, oranges. It doesn't matter. Product that doesn't meet quality standards gets destroyed. Every Firebird X is defective due to incompetent design.
Donating them to kids would be cruelty to minors.
Hopefully they took out the electronics and burned the bodies. I would have loved to be there to smash a few myself.
First, not everyone does it. Second off, that wouldn’t make it right either way.
It would have hurt them in no way to have given them away. Depending how they played their cards, they could have gotten a huge tax break.
This vid really ruined my day.
If there was a car model where the frame broke in half and the engine fell out on 99% of them after 1000 miles, would it hurt Ford to give them away? Absolutely it would. So the unsold stock would be crushed and either recycled or landfilled.
That's the Firebird X. It is a defective design that can not be made to work properly.
Defective product gets destroyed. That's the reality of the world.
Considering the reputation damage Gibson suffered from the Firebird X, and how emblematic it was of their previous incompetent management, it's a smart move to have some fun symbolically destroying them.
If you made an instrument and the neck developed an unfixable warp that made it unplayable would you put your name on it and give it to a kid? Hopefully not.
It’s not unplayable. The electronics are stupid and difficult to use, but it’s not unplayable. Don’t act like the guitar is gonna break after five minutes.
Assume they donate it to kids. Once a kid learns how to use it, they’ll no how to use it. And most kids these days are so immersed in tech, they’ll be able to figure it out so much quicker than someone born 40 years ago. Plus, kids are gonna be a lot more thrilled about space age tech in a crazy looking guitar than an old fella.
I don’t know where you’re getting that “unfixable warp” thing from, but that’s not the case and therefore an invalid argument.
Alkali Ike
Gold Supporting Member
- Jan 1, 2011
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This. From what I’ve read about the X, it would be a support nightmare for Gibson now even if they gave them away. Too much software, too flaky, not right. Think about warranty and support issues.
Plenty of good, usable parts wasted ! they could have been rewired to standard. I cannot see the logic of such waste !
Exactly. Just like the first gen robot tuner guitars where the gears would strip if you tried to tune them manually, and they didn't have replacement parts even while they were still selling the guitars.
Destroying them is acknowledging a mistake and moving past it. Considering the many stupid things Gibson has been doing lately, this is a rare positive.
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