Gibson... again...

[giacomobass]

I still believe the guitars were destroyed because they didn't meet RHOS and they couldn't apply CE marks. There's a paper trail and lots of documentation. If that stuff is not up to snuff, you can't ship.

What are the restricted materials mandated under RoHS?
The substances banned under RoHS are lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), cadmium (Cd), hexavalent chromium (CrVI), polybrominated biphenyls (PBB), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE), and four different phthalates (DEHP, BBP, BBP, DIBP).

Do you want that in your schools? If you can't certify your product does not contain these things below acceptable limits you can't sell or give it away to the poor.

Sure, and the US environmental regulations-compliant way of disposing stuff containing hazardous materials ("unsafe components", as the Gibson press release calls them) is to have it run over by a bulldozer? Please.

 

[40Hz]

Those guitars were written off. Not a bad idea to have evidence the items were destroyed. Personally I thought the video was hilarious and some of you guys need to lighten up. From the press release it seems to be some part of the electronics didn't meet ROHS. Without ROHS, you can't sell the items here or ship them anywhere else. Can't give them away either because they'd all end up on reverb as "new".

If there actually is an ROHS issue provoking the destruction as you say they’re hinting (although I find that a little hard to swallow considering the materials that do fall under ROHS guidelines) I’d think smashing them on the ground in such a spectacular manner might be more likely to create a HAZMAT cleanup issue now that they have bits and pieces of material scattered all over the place.

And I don’t know of too many companies who would be so naive as to voluntarily draw attention to the fact they had a ROHS compliance issue with some of their products. Because doing so runs the risk of now getting all their products put under the proverbial microscope to see if any of those have the same problem.

FWIW The people involved in environmental protection enforcement actions tend to have absolutely no sense of humor about stunts like that if hazardous materials are present. I doubt suggesting they “lighten up” would go over very well with them.

 

[Jehos]

the destruction of musical instruments, fake or not, is always a bad idea.

Jimi Hendrix would like a word.

 

[Devnor]

If there actually is an ROHS issue provoking the destruction as you say they’re hinting (although I find that a little hard to swallow considering the materials that do fall under ROHS guidelines) I’d think smashing them on the ground in such a spectacular manner might be more likely to create a HAZMAT cleanup issue now that they have bits and pieces of material scattered all over the place.

Firebird X is full of custom built electronics. Small batch stuff and not off the shelf. Smashing them on the ground is irrevelant. Landfills are full of non ROHS electronics. You are trying to make this into some kind of big deal which it's not.

 

[40Hz]

Firebird X is full of custom built electronics. Small batch stuff and not off the shelf. Smashing them on the ground is irrevelant. Landfills are full of non ROHS electronics. You are trying to make this into some kind of big deal which it's not.

Nothing is ever a big deal - until it becomes one. Which it could if the local authorities decided to take an interest and it turned out there was a problem.

As far as custom built electronics go, virtually everything (custom built or not) comes from the same component sources. So if Gibson somehow managed to get a bunch of electronic components that somehow didn't comply with standards, and could therefore not be sold, then the problem would be a lot bigger than just with Gibson and I’d suspect it would have been all over the news. Which AFAIK it hasn’t.

Regarding ‘so what’… the fact our landfills already have a ton of stuff in them that should have never been dumped there in the first place doesn’t make “just a little bit more - so who cares?” a very compelling or responsible argument IMO. YMMV.

 

[Fergie Fulton]

Gibson showing why they are in trouble...regardless of what the instruments are, fake, sub standard, badly constructed, dangerous etc...the smart move is dispose of them discretely..or in secret.

Never...ever..think that such a video, action...or statement will ever see your company in a positive light.

This is bad management and a total lack of understanding of the market you are in...if they are not legal, for what ever reason, dispose of them quietly and with no publicity.

 

[mmbass21]

These guitars were just garbage. The electronics are not upgradable, I've heard that they're compatible with like windows 98 or something like that. When they closed the plant the guitars were in storage and had to be destroyed. While they could've removed tuners, bridges the actual pickups and other electronic components, they could never be reused from what I understand because they were all unique spec'd for this model. They also couldn't swap out the electronics to a standard guitar with all the special routing done on the body. There's a large battery compartment and something on the topside of the guitar that was like a tuner module. The cost to would've been too much, a loss is a loss, tough to watch.

Maybe they could've removed all the metal and plastic to recycle the wood for something else.

 

[S-Bigbottom]

It's all good.
Home Depot got a nice new stock of Oriented Strand Board and Medium-Density Fiberboard.
These guitars are living on in someones living room or garage as the walls instead of being hung on the walls.

 

[giacomobass]

Folks, please, the "unsafe components" thing is just a laughable corporate excuse. Everything can be recycled. That was a batch of unsold guitars built ten years ago. Gibson chose to destroy them just because it was cheaper for them to do so. I think everyone can judge for themselves whether that company is really concerned about anything other than their own profits, and draw their own conclusions.

 

[troy mcclure]

it seems like an awful lot of work went into the video. why not sell them as epiphone or use the necks and bodies in other projects?

 

[giacomobass]

Maybe they could've removed all the metal and plastic to recycle the wood for something else.

Metal and plastic can also be recycled.

 

[gln1955]

They could have shipped them to China and undercut the fakes made there. No worries about hazardous materials either.

 

[flojob]

Some of us have missed our true calling

 

[andrew]

Why do this?

I get that the Firebird X was a bad idea and massively overpriced to boot, but why not donate them to a music school, where they'd get into the hands of learning musicians? Hell, you might even pick up some converts along the way.

This is just a grotesque waste.

Exactly. I've been to countries where people are desperate for musical instruments. These should have been donated regardless of their fugliness.

 

[jackn1202]

Look man, I understand it's summer and you're out of school. Isn't there some mandatory summer reading you need to do with Ian McLaughlin?

Hey man, I get that you haven’t had your morning nap yet. Why don’t you call the nurse and ask for an aspirin for that migraine you’re working up, make sure you watch that blood pressure too.

I’m gonna make an observation here. It seems like the younger folks in this thread tend to be mad about this, while the older folks are laughing at the younger folks.

Fact is, old people are gonna die before young people. Then, it’ll be up to young folks such as myself to buy Gibson instruments and keep them afloat, ‘cuz you’re not gonna be around to do so. If they do things that make young folks angry, then the young folks aren’t gonna buy. Then they will go bankrupt. Personally, I’d hate to see that, but unless they pull themselves together and quit doing dumb stuff like this, I’m not about to buy a new Gibson instrument.

 

[MobileHolmes]

They should have made it into a PR thing. Admit the Firebird x was terrible. Invite people to come to GC as PR events across the country and smash them in some kind of silly rig and do it while plugged into a stack. give the pieces away to people that attend and talk to players about the future of Gibson. Would have been a great way to Build your brand in an unexpected way. Ohhh well I’ve already decided not to ever purchase a Gibson anyways.

My local shop used to have a guitar throw competition, I think typically the stuff that was unfixable in the repair shop

 

[johnson79]

Keep in mind that this guitar is not like the others. Rewiring them would cost hundreds of dollars per unit, if it's even possible. Better to put them down humanely than to suffer.

 

[lz4005]

it seems like an awful lot of work went into the video. why not sell them as epiphone or use the necks and bodies in other projects?

Because all the parts were proprietary to that design. They wouldn't fit on anything else. All the way down to the tuners, bridge and pickups. Nothing is on that guitar is reusable.

If it was a functional instrument with cosmetic flaws they could sell them for cheap to blow them out, or give them away, but there are so many problems with the electronics they're absolutely useless.

Keep in mind that this guitar is not like the others. Rewiring them would cost hundreds of dollars per unit, if it's even possible. Better to put them down humanely than to suffer.

Exactly. You could buy and give away 3 Epiphones for the cost of converting a single Firebird X into a functional instrument. Not only rewiring, but creating covers for the holes, etc.

 

[foolforthecity]

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.

Bottom line. Amazing how many folks have no real understanding of business. Sometimes you have to admit defeat and cut and run. But you DONT release bad product, at least not if you still have one iota of dignity left. Not to mention the bad press etc. that’s amplified by releasing dodos into the wild.

 

[gln1955]

Bottom line. Amazing how many folks have no real understanding of business. Sometimes you have to admit defeat and cut and run. But you DONT release bad product, at least not if you still have one iota of dignity left. Not to mention the bad press etc. that’s amplified by releasing dodos into the wild.

Yes, so much better to create a spectacle out of destroying your mistakes and letting someone film it. Lots of good press there, as we've seen.