gibson bankruptcy discussion thread

[jimboyogi]

Mick Taylor? ^

[jimboyogi]

Robert Fripp?^

[sookwinder]

yes Mick Taylor!

Peter Green ?

[higgsblossom]

I will have to explain: I grew up in the 90s in a small town in southern Germany. We had a small punk/alternative scene, I was in a few bands. We were very strict with what we liked and what we hated. Today I would say, we were narrow-minded. We were very much into Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., Einstürzende Neubauten etc. and saw ourselves as the avant-garde of that small town world.

One thing was the enemy: Hard Rock cover bands. And we had an enormously large hard rock cover band scene. I don't know if those tribute bands are a thing outside of Germany, but it was and still is a thing here. Bands like "AC/ID" playing AC/DC, my favourite being "Lamettica" playing... guess what?

All of those bands favored Les Pauls. And being the narrow-minded avantgarde, we hated Les Pauls as much as we hated those bands. They had it all: more expensive guitars, larger audiences, larger amps (full stacks).

This is still a thing in my head. I know that it's not the guitars. It is me and my memories.

And Duane Allman = - you're right.

[sookwinder]

I just watch this : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOhr3_-yONk
(or at least up until the music started ... not a TOOL fan)

Are all you homeboys wearing the same red hat Mark wore during the introduction... (he puts it on at about 4 minutes into the vid)

[dylanafghjkl]

Uh oh.

[Grey]

Gibson is employing a new wildly successful* campaign called "the customer is wrong." https://www.musicradar.com/news/gibson- ... d-exciting


*[citation needed]

[Squirrel]

"Those guitars from the 50s are what the purists want, but we have to have something new and exciting.
“Imagine if the camera had never changed. Innovation is a part of every business to some degree, but [the guitar industry] hates it. The kids demand it, and if you don't have it, they walk.”

Let me guess, somewhere at Gibson HQ there is currently a whiteboard with a brainstorm chart on it, with "innovation" written in the middle. Branching out from that word are "weird shape" "translucent blue finish" and "active electronics" . Because that worked out really well the last time they tried it, as well as for all those guys you see at NAMM offering something described as "the guitar of the future" who you completely forget about a week later and never hear from again. £50 says their next attempt will have a fucking offset waist as "that's what the kids like".

[mgeek]

"The kids demand it, and if you don't have it, they walk.”

Lucky the kids have got a 104 year old man to tell them what they want

[mizbiz]

£50 says their next attempt will have a fucking offset waist as "that's what the kids like".

What is he holding in that picture?

[shoule79]

"The kids demand it, and if you don't have it, they walk.”

Lucky the kids have got a 104 year old man to tell them what they want

If the kids wanted it, they’d be buying it.

[Gordon]

What is he holding in that picture?

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/U3vUw ... 320-80.jpg

It's a Firebird X: http://www.gibson.com/Products/Electric ... ird-X.aspx

[mizbiz]

What is he holding in that picture?

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/U3vUw ... 320-80.jpg

It's a Firebird X: http://www.gibson.com/Products/Electric ... ird-X.aspx

...and here I was under the assumption they couldn't possibly screw up worse than the firebird zero.

[Grey]

The "Firebird X" was Juszkiewicz's brainchild and you can tell he's still sour that it turned out to be a total failure. He called Gibson's customers "luddites" and blamed them for the poor sales of the guitar, which always reminded me of the car Homer designed on The Simpsons.

[Larry Mal]

And yet: the Firebird X was at least new thinking, an all new product, from the ground up. Sure, no one liked it, and it flopped, but I'll still have far more respect for that than what Fender does.

To me, what Fender does is pretty much the same as what Taco Bell does, rearrange the same dozen or so ingredients over and over and pretend it's something new each time.

Henry J. might be a total douchebag, and he might have run Gibson into the ground, but he isn't wrong about guitar players being a bunch of Luddites who refuse to tolerate any kind of change.

So, what was the Firebird X? Basically a guitar that interfaced more directly with a computer and added a lot of digital effects along the way. Was it good? You don't know. You never heard it. What you are doing is sweating from your balls wondering if your guitar is accurate enough compared to what they made in the 50's and if you aren't it's because you are actually playing a guitar from the 50's... and still recording all that to a computer, where it will have effects applied to it and mixed and mastered.

But apparently all that is fine as long as you can surround yourself with some kind of analog fantasy or something. It reminds me of how Ozzy Osborne makes his keyboardist play backstage behind a curtain so that no one thinks he rocks less hard.

Like, you wouldn't want to drive Jimi Hendrix' car. You wouldn't want to have Jimi Hendrix' computer because he didn't have a computer. But God forbid your guitar is different in any way from what he played, or your amp, or your effects.



*(not you you)