Gibson... again...

[40Hz]

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.

Speak for yourself. I’m 64 and not laughing at anybody younger than me just because they don’t share my opinions or agree with my conclusions.

None of this thread has anything to do with anybody’s age.

 

[Alkali Ike]

The video kind of made me very sad at first. Then I did a little research on the Firebird X. I’m now convinced these were junk that could not be sold or given away without creating even more problems for Gibson. Very unfortunate, but pragmatic.

Maybe this dramatic way of getting rid of them was supposed to be cathartic for Gibson employees.

 

[Jeff Scott]

Fact is, old people are gonna die before young people

Not always.

Better to put them down humanely than to suffer.

Good thing veterinarians don't use the same technology Gibson did..........................

 

[jackn1202]

Speak for yourself. I’m 64 and not laughing at anybody younger than me just because they don’t share my opinions or agree with my conclusions.

None of this thread has anything to do with anybody’s age.

That’s what the “tend to” was for. Not saying everyone. That just seems to be the trend.

 

[40Hz]

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.

Yep. And they’re still going to need to be sent for recycling of some sort anyway. So why not just chop the neck and body once to make them non-repairable and ship them out to a recovery center without public fanfare?

Obviously somebody in Gibson thought doing what they did would make for “good story” with the press.

 

[40Hz]

That’s what the “tend to” was for. Not saying everyone. That just seems to be the trend.

Fair enough. But “seems to” doesn’t make it so. Just sayin’

 

[foolforthecity]

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.

Was that an official Gibson video?

 

[jackn1202]

Fair enough. But “seems to” doesn’t make it so. Just sayin’

Fair point brother!

 

[gully_jones]

What do you call a hundred thousand Gibson instruments at the bottom of the ocean?

A good start.

Ba-dum-che

 

[Nevada Pete]

The wood had to be cut and shaped and painted. The metals and plastics had to be ripped out of the earth and refined and shipped and shaped into components.
It all takes energy. It all puts CO2 and solvents and diesel particles into the atmosphere.
So, yes, to destroy it and to waste it hurts us all, poisons us all.
Just because this the way capitalism has to work does not make it right. And it's not necessarily permanent. Probably can't be if we want to survive, no matter how much we love our toys and trinkets.

I would respond in detail to this post but I already got in trouble with the moderators for addressing a political subject, which is probably wisely off limits here on TB. So I will just say that "capitalism" has nothing to do with whether we "survive" or not.

 

[eldorado2001]

What other companies have made a big PR stunt out of doing so?

I don't remember seeing anything indicating the video was produced by Gibson.
Did Gibson specify the method the contractor used to destroy the guitars?

 

[LoTone]

I wonder if the destroyed guitars were the ones with the automatic tuners gizmo?

 

[JimmyM]

Some of you need a glass of get over yourself juice. If I ran Gibson, I would do the exact same thing with those pieces of crap. If you don't destroy them, then you can't write them off. If you can't write them off, then you will post a gigantic loss and make for a terrible bottom line.

Threads like this once again prove that if you gave control of a successful major musical instrument company to a typical Talkbasser, they would declare bankruptcy within a year.

 

[John6]

Many military bands posted overseas destroy their instruments before returning stateside, at the requests of the manufacturers, who do not want competition from the used market.

and then Peavey is auctioning off all of their old stock, so if you want to sell a Peavey, better do it today.
Gibson was always way above my price range, 5k bucks, I'll buy land before I buy any guitar.

 

[johnson79]

I wonder if the destroyed guitars were the ones with the automatic tuners gizmo?

Of course they do!

 

[Nevada Pete]

“The Firebird X destruction video that surfaced months ago was an isolated batch of Firebird X models built in 2009-2011 which were unsalvageable and damaged with unsafe components. This isolated group of Firebird X models were unable to be donated for any purpose and were destroyed accordingly.

Oh, the guitars had unsafe components. Well, that explains it, then.

How does a guitar have an "unsafe" component?

 

[WI Short Scaler]

First, let me say I know nothing about the guitars, quality-wise or playability-wise.

But there's no way you'll convince me that whatever tax write off Gibson got for this outweighs the PR possibility had they done whatever was necessary to see that these ended up in the hands of people who otherwise can't afford a decent electric guitar.

 

[ctmullins]

A few things that are painfully obvious to me:

• The Firebird X was a solution to a problem nobody had
• The video was not an official Gibson video; it’s far too amateurishly “produced”
• There are safer and more efficient ways of destroying unwanted instruments; this was a publicity stunt
• They could have at least made an effort to salvage some of that hardware

I actually kinda like the aesthetics of the Firebird X...

 

[giacomobass]

Not to mention the bad press etc. that’s amplified by releasing dodos into the wild.

Oh, Gibson has been getting some truly awesome press lately... The reactions to that employee made video are going to be the proverbial nail in the coffin of their corporate image.

 

[brianrost]

How can one not see that taking these things out of the marketplace was the correct decision?

Some bean counter probably decided the labor cost of scavenging parts wasn't worth as much as a tax writeoff.

The limited run of 20 Flying Vs sold in the 1960s were built from parts that had been sitting in the warehouse. Gibson has sold off parts with their name on it before...read up on Thunderfunk bass amps...and there is a long history of "seconds" with the number 2 stamped on the headstock, not to mention blemished guitars sold to employees.

So what's next in the ongoing train wreck of Gibson?