I guess we'll never understand why Gibson went bust....

Philly_Q

darthed1981 said:

Travisthedog said:

CasperCaster said:

@darthed1981 was there a guitar in that Una Healy video? Somethings must have distracted me, because I didn't see the 335 at all. As for semi's, well........

Yeah I didn't see the 335 as I was too busy checking out her puppies 

Yeah there's a guitar in there somewhere, took me a few views through to spot it myself

Gosh you guys are easily pleased.  You must be younger than I realised.

Or I'm older than I realised...

Grangousier

AAGH! MY EYES!

WezV

axisus said:

Because rock guitarists the world over asked for butterflies on the fretboard ...

Are they the only genre Gibson are allowed to build for?

darthed1981

Philly_Q said:

darthed1981 said:

Travisthedog said:

CasperCaster said:

@darthed1981 was there a guitar in that Una Healy video? Somethings must have distracted me, because I didn't see the 335 at all. As for semi's, well........

Yeah I didn't see the 335 as I was too busy checking out her puppies 

Yeah there's a guitar in there somewhere, took me a few views through to spot it myself

Gosh you guys are easily pleased.  You must be younger than I realised.

Or I'm older than I realised...

Possibly a little of both?

CHRISB50

Garthy said:

I don't like the inlays but love the rest.

Yep. I’m with you. I’d never buy it, but quite like the look of it. The inlays are really bad though. 

Jalapeno

Bigsby said:

Travisthedog said:

CasperCaster said:

@darthed1981 was there a guitar in that Una Healy video? Somethings must have distracted me, because I didn't see the 335 at all. As for semi's, well........

Yeah I didn't see the 335 as I was too busy checking out her puppies 

I must be getting old... I loved that 335, but I didn't notice she had puppies. 

Me too - that 335 neck looks like it needs some Lemon Oil !

Phil_aka_Pip

"mint condition" - seems reasonable, I wouldn't play one like that either.

Snags

Boring sods. Don't rate the tuners particularly, but I quite like the thing in principle. Not at that price though.

Hattigol

Snags said:

Boring sods. Don't rate the tuners particularly, but I quite like the thing in principle. Not at that price though.

How many days a week do they let you out for, buddy?

GuitarZero

axisus said:

Because rock guitarists the world over asked for butterflies on the fretboard ...

I'm not really sure they asked for birds either, but PRS got away with it.

stickyfiddle

WezV said:

axisus said:

Because rock guitarists the world over asked for butterflies on the fretboard ...

Are they the only genre Gibson are allowed to build for?

Massively this. A handful of shiny special editions are exactly the sort of thing they should be doing. It doesn’t hurt anyone, and you’ll get a handful of nutcases love them and buy them. 

Snags

Hattigol said:

Snags said:

Boring sods. Don't rate the tuners particularly, but I quite like the thing in principle. Not at that price though.

How many days a week do they let you out for, buddy?

Supervised or unsupervised?

drippycat

Proof of reincarnation. Barbara Cartland came back as a guitar so handsome dentists could run their fingers all over her.

bingefeller

How many extractions of upper right 8 would pay for that?

manicguitarist

Why did Gibson go bust? Crappy business practices that's why. Let me give you an example:

Way back - I wanted a Gibson Explorer Pro (kind of like a 7/8ths size explorer for us compact sized people) - so I ordered one from a main UK dealer. Quite pricey it was too. But hey - you know how it is with guitars. Anyways, this was in the May time - come July I get a call from the dealer telling me that Gibson had cancelled the order as they were stopping making them - but they kept the ad for that model on their website until the January after.

So - TL;DR - they had a customer who had handed over money but they couldn't be assed to make it. So yeah - not surprised they went bust.

It was all good in the end - I got one off of eBay and then had it painted gold glitter flake candy apple red.

Oh, btw - hi everyone!

Bigsby

manicguitarist said:

Why did Gibson go bust? Crappy business practices that's why. 

The funny thing is, despite this, the guitar manufacturing part of Gibson is widely claimed to be profitable - it's the electronics side that Henry invested in that's caused the financial problems. I guess the guitar market is pretty robust at the moment, especially for a long established brand.

But I agree, Gibson has some strange policies when it comes to selling guitars. The way they treat their dealers is a great example of this; Gibson seem to be wilfully driving high street retailers out of business, and forcing most customers to buy online, unseen and unplayed. Not a popular policy with many guitarists. And with returns so easy from online sales, that doesn't even help them with their dodgy QC.

Also, they have a habit of discontinuing models just at the point when the public has noticed them, accepted them, and started buying them... only to introduce something else in it's place that no one has heard of. 

fandango

Bigsby said:

manicguitarist said:

Why did Gibson go bust? Crappy business practices that's why. 

Also, they have a habit of discontinuing models just at the point when the public has noticed them, accepted them, and started buying them... only to introduce something else in it's place that no one has heard of. 

For example?

Bigsby said:

manicguitarist said:

Why did Gibson go bust? Crappy business practices that's why. 

... only to introduce something else in it's place that no one has heard of. 

Nobody heard of the iPhone until Apple made their announcement for a mobile phone nobody said they needed. 

Nobody had heard of the ‘casters (read Esquire) until Leo gave it to the masses back in 1950. How did that work out?

Yes, Apple made failures too. Ever heard of the Apple Newton? You won’t be alone. But you know what? Released in 1993 Apple Newton was the ancestor of what we now know as the iPad (introduced in 2010). The Newton was so far ahead of it’s time (by 17 years), it was seen as too good to be true, so it flopped.

My point, just because something is unknown when introduced doesn’t make it a bad or wrong product or decision. It means the sales guys aren’t doing their job properly. Sure Gibson like most companies have their failures. But without failures, we wouldn’t have the success stories. Oh yes, the Les Paul sold so poorly in 1960, Gibson pulled it in favour of what became the SG. Yet Gibson reintroduced the Les Paul about 9 years later. What gives, eh?

stickyfiddle

manicguitarist said:

Why did Gibson go bust? Crappy business practices that's why. Let me give you an example:

Way back - I wanted a Gibson Explorer Pro (kind of like a 7/8ths size explorer for us compact sized people) - so I ordered one from a main UK dealer. Quite pricey it was too. But hey - you know how it is with guitars. Anyways, this was in the May time - come July I get a call from the dealer telling me that Gibson had cancelled the order as they were stopping making them - but they kept the ad for that model on their website until the January after.

So - TL;DR - they had a customer who had handed over money but they couldn't be assed to make it. So yeah - not surprised they went bust.

It was all good in the end - I got one off of eBay and then had it painted gold glitter flake candy apple red.

Oh, btw - hi everyone!

Hello! Long time - hope all well!?  

Bigsby

fandango said:

Bigsby said:

manicguitarist said:

Why did Gibson go bust? Crappy business practices that's why. 

Also, they have a habit of discontinuing models just at the point when the public has noticed them, accepted them, and started buying them... only to introduce something else in it's place that no one has heard of. 

For example?

Bigsby said:

manicguitarist said:

Why did Gibson go bust? Crappy business practices that's why. 

... only to introduce something else in it's place that no one has heard of. 

Nobody heard of the iPhone until Apple made their announcement for a mobile phone nobody said they needed. 

Nobody had heard of the ‘casters (read Esquire) until Leo gave it to the masses back in 1950. How did that work out?

Yes, Apple made failures too. Ever heard of the Apple Newton? You won’t be alone. But you know what? Released in 1993 Apple Newton was the ancestor of what we now know as the iPad (introduced in 2010). The Newton was so far ahead of it’s time (by 17 years), it was seen as too good to be true, so it flopped.

My point, just because something is unknown when introduced doesn’t make it a bad or wrong product or decision. It means the sales guys aren’t doing their job properly. Sure Gibson like most companies have their failures. But without failures, we wouldn’t have the success stories. Oh yes, the Les Paul sold so poorly in 1960, Gibson pulled it in favour of what became the SG. Yet Gibson reintroduced the Les Paul about 9 years later. What gives, eh?

Not sure if you're intentionally trying to not get what I'm saying here... 

FWIW, Yes, I do indeed remember the Newton (didn't own one). Apple ended up dropping it, when it failed to sell. They didn't forget the idea, and got it right in the end... Sure, loads of products that have been introduced have been new... errr, isn't that bleeding obvious? That's why they're new... Doh! (But it's a bit pointless to compare tech products with traditional electric guitars).

What Gibson tend to do is revamp their range, often dramatically, each year. Thus the SG 50s 60s 70s Future tribute/SG Futura/SGJ/SG Supreme/SG Diablo/SG Supra and so on (just to look at SOME of the RECENT SG models) get discontinued just in time for people to be noticing them, or discovering a mate has one & liking it, etc., only to find it's no longer available. When introduced, they were all models no one knew anything about, but within one or two years they'd gone, replaced by another model no one is familiar with... I've certainly heard dealers expressing exactly this issue with Gibson's range.

SimpleSimon

Am i wrong to think Gibson havent gone bust at all but have filed for bankruptcy protection allowing them to re finance?