Gibson Is Dead--Who Is Going To Revive Them

It's a reorganization so the first action is to secure debtor in possession funding, which happened today.

As they work through the reorganization creditors will be called forward to negotiate a settlement or trading debt for an ownership stake. Usually, the largest creditor will end up being the controlling interest in the reorganized company. We'll see how this all shakes out over the next 3 to 6 months.
 
Been reading emotion & drama for too long to actually care and same for Fender, too. Both brands New and parts prices too high. Planning my parts tele's, realized looking at pg after pg of color schemes?..... boring. Need to rethink that.
 
They could build the legacy products without much difficulty. LP Custom, Standard, Special and Junior, Sg's, 335's J45's, J-100's, SJ's, L-5s Super 400's Johnny Smiths, Firebirds and a Thunderbird Bass. The rest of the bases were crap-tone mud anyways imo.

License Epiphone to make all of the LP Studios and disposable consumer/pro-sumer junk.

Sorry, I'm a snob. Luthiery is an art.
 
I saw this one coming and just knew in my heart that The Might G ought never to have replaced its Maurader and S-1 geetar lines circa 1980 with the Sonex series. :smoke:
 
I saw this one coming and just knew in my heart that The Might G ought never to have replaced its Maurader and S-1 geetar lines circa 1980 with the Sonex series. :smoke:
Hey now, I had a Sonex:mad:

...and I totally agree with you. :rolleyes: Had they never come out I would have saved my money for a better model.
Remember the Firebrand series? A friend had one and really liked it. I'm sure it beat a Sonex by a long mile.
 
There are rumors that Joe Bonomassa is organizing a group of investors...
The best thing would be if the employees bought Gibson and Epiphone and sold off the rest IMHO.
Actually I could not care less I am Fender guy
PQ
 
Hopefully someone who can build an instrument with accurate intonation,a decent finish,an action that can be played by someone that doesn't have vicegrips for fingers,at a price that a serious,but not wealthy,player can afford. The last Thunderbird basses that I tried out (and the absolute POS that I still own!) were clearly built by drunk,crack-smoking monkeys that were on a bender.

Never again.If that is the best they can do,goodbye and good riddance.
 
Gibson Is Dead--Who Is Going To Revive Them - second stringers? U.S. designs on Chinese CNC can make a great product.
 
Sell Epiphone and the licensing to make the import guitars. Probably 50 mil right there. Divest all of the electronic junk brands that they invested in.

Get Henry J as far away from there as possible.

Get rid of consumer electronics and Henry J. Epiphone is important to keep, to keep lower cost good instruments for their dealer network (and Epiphone helped keep Gibson afloat in reality). Simplify the guitar lines, we don't need 200 something Les Paul variants. 4 is plenty. Make the essential few core models, make them right, Focus on the core business of making guitars. Get a CEO which the underlings and workers can get along with, who stays out of the workers way.
 
Well,as far as Epiphone goes,I picked one up at a lawn sale for twenty buck,missing the high ''E'' of course. Epiphone Les Paul Special II. Perfect intonation,always stays in tune,really comfortable action,and it don't sound half bad either.Had to change the jack and clean the controls.A solid,well made daily beater that really outshines most of the high-priced canoe paddles in the ''Gibson'' lineup. Oh,and the fit and finish is absolutely impeccable.:)

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$20 canadian dollars! Not a pick up? more of a hold up!! :D Seller had no clue!

My 1st elec. guitar in my teens was a late 50's or early 60's epi les paul jr. sunburst. Was still a popular guitar and paid 150.00 for it. you could get a used Gib. LP for a few hundred needing some work or hard played.
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2017--Snatched an auction 2012 lp w/ bigsby vebrat & and surprising perfect finish w/kit bag. Didn't care for the bigsby. so swapped back tail, installed bone nut & new gibson gold bucks. night and day. Seller had set neck for slide action (badly), took a long gradual approach to get it back in as he skewed as well. I've auditioned a good share of gibson's and results of this epi caused me to buy a hard shell case. Yes finger action is as nice as that LP jr.
http://www.epiphone.com/news-features/features/2012/les-paul-standard-available-in-3-new-colors.aspx
This one is Pelham Blue. finish had/has no flaws.
 
The problem w selling a high-cost, legacy item that doesn't wear out or become obsolete is that sooner or later demand will be reduced to zero.

Couple this with the decline of rawk music and bankruptcy of Guitar Center and you can see what issues they'll have to overcome.
 
The problem w selling a high-cost, legacy item that doesn't wear out or become obsolete is that sooner or later demand will be reduced to zero.

Couple this with the decline of rawk music and bankruptcy of Guitar Center and you can see what issues they'll have to overcome.
Most companies learned this years ago that's why they introduced planned obsolescence.
Kinda hard to do with an instrument that barely changes from decade to decade.
Seems the problem with corporations is all they can understand is growth.
As soon as things slow down or they reach their apex all hell breaks loose.

OMG! we're not the multi-billionaires we got used to being! Where's the nearest window!

BTW, is Guitar Center seriously going bankrupt? We have one about a mile from here that I haven't been to yet. No need really, but I have a couple nephews that work there.
 
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GC has been circling the drain for awhile. They were bought out by Bain Capital and others in '07 and took on a ton of debt.

PS - I'd guess Nephews' jobs will be safe as GC won't vanish and the company will just become a smaller version of itself.
 
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We have a pretty extensive GCenter here in Raleigh serving a large area and they're usually advertising sales often.

IMO; Economics, both personal, family and national, affects affordability and interest. Growing up I had a circle of friends who took up various instruments and some went on to form bands to local levels etc. or just getting together to jam some. Hit a music store and audition some. I wasn't poor nor rich and my parents encouraged my classical guitar and later detested my electric lol. One friend was taking drum lessons and my mom footed a few bucks a lesson so my friend taught me what his instructor taught him that week. Quite a few families had a piano. I don't know what the youth interest in the USA is but in Japan there is a decline of youth given birth rates and less interest in playing an instrument. (japanese stats) plus a very dense population where privacy is golden. Although Yamaha in Japan is solvent and doing quite well, still is only selling about half of what their annual sales once were.
 
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