Gibson News

Change "News" to "Speculation" and we're good. Maybe Guitar Center will finally pay their bills and bail Gibson out. lol

 

don't we need "Gibson rumour mill" mega thread at this point?

 

Multiple threads around here, commentary is hot and heavy.

 

Being a business guy I study what works in business. One thing that I keep seeing over and over is that older established business models have a really difficult time adapting their business model to one that meets the demands of the 21st century. Just look at any government institution. In an instant Information Age, you are lucky to get any answers from them in three weeks or better...... Being an old Gibson RD guy I been following a thread about the new RD reissue. @mistergoats has given a very thorough and insightful look at his experience with the new RD he laid out some serious coin for. Brand new high dollar bass and he has been chasing a buzz in the electronics that were “certified” to be quality checked. He has been much more forgiving with the issue than I fear I would have been..... I hope Gibson has the foresight to get their act together and market with 21st century standards. The world won’t slow down for them.... Or me either, dangit.

 

Didn't they make a movie about Gibson?

 

The story was picked up by a number of publications, like Variety, today. There are some significant issues: Gibson went on a buying spree. They tried to branch out into pro audio and bought up companies like Onkyo (including Pioneer), TEAC, Cerwin Vega, and the electronics division of Philips. Interest rates on debt are creeping up. I think the key question here is, would it be a chapter 7, 11, or 13 bankruptcy? If they seek bankruptcy protection, will it be like the airlines who keep operating in bankruptcy, or will the debtors take over, or would it be a liquidation?

 

We Canadians tend to be too polite.

Follow up to that - I've had to send the bass back to the Gibson distributor across the country (I'm in Vancouver, BC and the rep is in Ontario, about 4,000 kms away) and I'm looking at about a month before I get it back.

I think it's gall or arrogance or something that there's an actual analog photograph of that bass in the case with with the bass, showing it's being checked. There are levels on the computer showing it's tested perfectly and it's sitting beside an amplifier. If that bass was ever hooked up to an amp, that hum would have been completely and immediately noticeable.

The shop technician at L&M tested it and the grounding was fine if you touched any part of the bass aside from the passive/active switch, but effectively, it was not grounded properly somewhere in the PCB circuit.

The end result is that I'll have to wait roughly a month for the bass to be shipped back and forth across the country to have the PCB active circuit replaced or re-grounded.

I've wanted an RD for a very long time but the vintage ones are out of my price range in the $3K-4K range. This bass, at just over $2K, is the more affordable option, but has already left me with a bad taste. I love the bass, I just expect it to work properly from the factory, especially if they are going to brag about it with a photo included in the case of the instrument being tested.

 

Hey GrapeBass,

The crew at L&M are excellent, don't get me wrong. The bass department took me upstairs to the techs who looked at it right away. After a bunch of bench tests, there was nothing further they could do without wrecking the Gibson warranty, so we made the decision together to send it back.

Keep in mind the enclosed photograph came from the Gibson Nashville plant. If there is an extra level of testing that happens at Yorkville, that means two sets of trained ears and eyes missed a glaring, obnoxious buzz coming out of a moderately expensive instrument. It doesn't give me a lot of confidence as a purchaser.

Here's a crap photo I had on my phone of the photo of the bass included in the case:

 

I’m not associated with anyone, sometimes not even myself, but it is possible that the bass was ok in testing and something happened in shipping. There’s the occasional postal or UPS emplyee here in the States, anyway, that can, occasionally, be less than gentle.

On the other hand, the RD’s are some of my favorites from Gibson. The first two bass bodies I built were based off of a tracing of a friends RD Artist so I hope it all gets worked out and she becomes a keeper.

 

Ya man, one of my first thoughts was that something happened in shipping. The bass came straight from Gibson in the shipping box fully sealed. I opened it myself. Anything could have happened to it between Nashville and Vancouver.

That's cool you made an RD shaped body! And thanks for the well-wishes - she's gonna be my main bass when she gets back!

 

Another one:

Gibson guitar company facing imminent bankruptcy

 

Does anyone else find it weird that the 6-month CFO was named Bill Lawrence? The same as, oh you know, Bill Lawrence who designed pickups for Gibson in the 70's?

 

Yeah, I noticed that too.

 

Pull quote from the article....
"As a quick reminder, Gibson has 100 brand names in its roster including Epiphone, Dobro, Valley Arts, Kramer, Steinberger, Tobias, Slingerland, Maestro, Baldwin, Hamilton, Chickering and Wurlitzer.

Its audio brands include KRK Systems, TASCAM, Cakewalk, Cerwin-Vega!, Stanton, Onkyo, Integra, TEAC, TASCAM Professional Software, and Esoteric."

The vast majority of these brands should be shut down altogether or sold off to entities that will take them and run with them.

The acoustic piano business is all but dead. Get out of it now. That takes out Baldwin, Hamilton, Chickering and Wurlitzer.

Gibson era Valley Arts, Steinberger, Kramer and, Tobias have so few fans it isn't even funny. Gone. Nobody will care. (OK, two of you will care..... and the rest of us don't care that you care.)

The studio monitor market is flooded. Get out of KRK.

The vinyl and needles DJ business? Who even does that anymore??? Get out of Stanton.

Trim the fat. Quit trying to revive old ideas because one generation insists on it.

 

not a fan.