Ian Perge:
OK, I'm not an employee of Gibson in any way. The sources I've used are multiple published interviews with Michael Tobias, Henry Juszkiewicz and David H. Berryman (this is where they laid out Gibson's current policies and practices), my own personal experience playing these and many other basses, and some many-page discussion threads on maybe a dozen forums on the net (a great deal of which was negative also). I can't vouch for the reliability of what any of these people said anymore than I can vouch for my own (or for yours).
And from this reading, I think Juszkiewicz would dearly love to lay hands on the gawd-awful bass you describe. He does sound entirely serious about maintaining highest quality standards. He says that the "bone pile" of discards at one time was depressingly large. (This was in an April 2006 interview).
If you do a search on Henry Juszkiewicz, you should be rewarded with a good many hits, both good and bad. But I also read whatever I could find searching for Tobias bass, and for Gibson guitars, including discussion groups like this.
What triggered all this was stories like yours. I wondered whether Gibson had abandoned all quality control, so you might get a great bass if made on Wednesday, or something like what you describe made on Monday or Friday. So I paid close attention to Tobias basses sold by Gibson dealers from Austin Texas to Nashville to Atlanta. I confess I haven't found any trace of the problems you list. I find it hard to believe (just as you do) that anyone would try to sell such an instrument - it does sound like an unfinished bass that should have been rejected fairly early in the build process.
(In fact, from other experience I've had in manufacturing, I'd say it sounds like a "setup sample" used to test and calibrate some of the equipment like the fretter, the buffer, the body jigs, etc. and was never intended to be for sale.)
So my personal experience tends to reflect what Juszkiewicz says are current policies, and your personal experience reinforces the horror tales I've also read - unplayably bad basses at NAMM, etc. I haven't found anything remotely like that.
I've read (in some of those discussion groups) some interesting debates among business-oriented people, as to whether Gibson's policies make sense. Juszkiewicz wasn't asked this directly, that I could find. But indirectly, he said he is trying to position his "top line, no seconds" brands as being both expensive and worth the money, and he can't do that by selling below cost. So it's a gamble, just like his digital guitar gamble. He's gambling that people will give the instruments a chance, that the Tobias-by-Gibson reputation isn't a total loss, that his select internet outlets can move as many instruments as he can produce. So far, it seems to be working.
Like you (I think?), I'm not real happy with the claim of a "hand-crafted" instrument selling for $2K-$6K, but made by a large faceless corporation, and by anonymous individuals not available to the buying public. And of course one doesn't order these instruments or specify anything about them.
Nonetheless, I've played a lot of different Tobias basses and a lot of other brands, and in my opinion the Tobias basses are as good as anything out there, and worth the high price. And finally, based on what you and others have said, I wouldn't dare order any Gibson-made Tobias over the internet, that I had not personally examined and played. Juszkiewicz's claim of 100% excellence seems to have some holes in it...
OK, I'm not an employee of Gibson in any way. The sources I've used are multiple published interviews with Michael Tobias, Henry Juszkiewicz and David H. Berryman (this is where they laid out Gibson's current policies and practices), my own personal experience playing these and many other basses, and some many-page discussion threads on maybe a dozen forums on the net (a great deal of which was negative also). I can't vouch for the reliability of what any of these people said anymore than I can vouch for my own (or for yours).
And from this reading, I think Juszkiewicz would dearly love to lay hands on the gawd-awful bass you describe. He does sound entirely serious about maintaining highest quality standards. He says that the "bone pile" of discards at one time was depressingly large. (This was in an April 2006 interview).
If you do a search on Henry Juszkiewicz, you should be rewarded with a good many hits, both good and bad. But I also read whatever I could find searching for Tobias bass, and for Gibson guitars, including discussion groups like this.
What triggered all this was stories like yours. I wondered whether Gibson had abandoned all quality control, so you might get a great bass if made on Wednesday, or something like what you describe made on Monday or Friday. So I paid close attention to Tobias basses sold by Gibson dealers from Austin Texas to Nashville to Atlanta. I confess I haven't found any trace of the problems you list. I find it hard to believe (just as you do) that anyone would try to sell such an instrument - it does sound like an unfinished bass that should have been rejected fairly early in the build process.
(In fact, from other experience I've had in manufacturing, I'd say it sounds like a "setup sample" used to test and calibrate some of the equipment like the fretter, the buffer, the body jigs, etc. and was never intended to be for sale.)
So my personal experience tends to reflect what Juszkiewicz says are current policies, and your personal experience reinforces the horror tales I've also read - unplayably bad basses at NAMM, etc. I haven't found anything remotely like that.
I've read (in some of those discussion groups) some interesting debates among business-oriented people, as to whether Gibson's policies make sense. Juszkiewicz wasn't asked this directly, that I could find. But indirectly, he said he is trying to position his "top line, no seconds" brands as being both expensive and worth the money, and he can't do that by selling below cost. So it's a gamble, just like his digital guitar gamble. He's gambling that people will give the instruments a chance, that the Tobias-by-Gibson reputation isn't a total loss, that his select internet outlets can move as many instruments as he can produce. So far, it seems to be working.
Like you (I think?), I'm not real happy with the claim of a "hand-crafted" instrument selling for $2K-$6K, but made by a large faceless corporation, and by anonymous individuals not available to the buying public. And of course one doesn't order these instruments or specify anything about them.
Nonetheless, I've played a lot of different Tobias basses and a lot of other brands, and in my opinion the Tobias basses are as good as anything out there, and worth the high price. And finally, based on what you and others have said, I wouldn't dare order any Gibson-made Tobias over the internet, that I had not personally examined and played. Juszkiewicz's claim of 100% excellence seems to have some holes in it...
sounds every bit as good as my '00 warwick thumb bolt-on which i love too.
i have tried newer '04-'05 growlers & have really liked them as well. the most noticable difference i have found is that the necks from '00 on are much slimmer. (p.s.-anyone have a great deal on a 4 string fretless growler or war corvette?)
:
