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Interesting chat from a gear store owner from another country (Holland). Turn on CC's for captions.
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WHAT IS GOING ON WITH GIBSON??? - Unfiltered
- Thread starter LeftyLoungeLizard
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paisleywookiee
Rock Star
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Apparently there's no Dutch word for "leveraged buyout".
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metropolis_4
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Yeah I’m not gonna watch 23 minutes of subtitles to find out what’s going on with Gibson
Byrdman
Shredder
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We'll find out soon enough, Fo Sho
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Word on the street is that Randall basically squeezed out and bled the company dry with his shifty dealings in the sale, hence his untimely exit
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(Just to clarify that is sarcasm/entirely made up)
Byrdman
Shredder
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paisleywookiee
Rock Star
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All I got was “leveraged buyout” and Henry juszkiewicz”. My Dutch is really rusty.Cliff notes please
Byrdman
Shredder
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Thanks, so nothing new here other than rich guys that dont know how to tune a guitar?
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Haha, I honestly don't know -- i stopped after a few minutes. They were getting into the business side of Gibson.
Jarick
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I have no idea about anything so just wild speculation here.
Gibson to me seems like they are in a bit of an identity crisis. They seem to be far more popular in the higher end market which is great for selling expensive things, but those tend to be low volume so overall sales won't be as high. They don't seem nearly as popular in the low end market, which is where they could capture the high volume sales AND grow the brand with newer/younger players.
So they're caught in a weird space...Gibson buyers want high quality guitars that are often built to vintage specs...newer players want something that's affordable which will have to come with build quality compromises. Of course neither Fender nor Gibson make cheap guitars, they outsource that production and put a different name on the headstock.
The other issue...right now Fender has been seen as pretty cool for the last several years in younger indie bands. That just plain isn't happening with Gibson. I read an article about a bunch of teenagers in Chicago who started their own music scene over Covid, and some of the younger teens were in awe of the older ones who had real Fender guitars. Made a specific point about saying Fenders.
One thing, and it may sound silly, but Gibson may not physically be appealing for girls who are getting into guitar. A 10 pound Les Paul or a massive ES-335 just plain won't be comfortable for smaller teenagers. That's where the SG can really be highlighted...look at Grace Bowers who mostly plays an old SG.
If I were Gibson, I'd lean into that a bit. Keep the Les Paul and 335 for where they are at, but introduce more guitars at/under the $1000 mark. Bring out more Juniors and Specials, and play around with some offset body shapes. Develop bolt on models that have more of a Fender build, with a maple neck and solid color finishes on the body. You can keep the small scale length and use humbuckers or P90's. I think that would build a pipeline of new players who may then get interested in the higher end stuff like they did 30+ years ago.
Gibson to me seems like they are in a bit of an identity crisis. They seem to be far more popular in the higher end market which is great for selling expensive things, but those tend to be low volume so overall sales won't be as high. They don't seem nearly as popular in the low end market, which is where they could capture the high volume sales AND grow the brand with newer/younger players.
So they're caught in a weird space...Gibson buyers want high quality guitars that are often built to vintage specs...newer players want something that's affordable which will have to come with build quality compromises. Of course neither Fender nor Gibson make cheap guitars, they outsource that production and put a different name on the headstock.
The other issue...right now Fender has been seen as pretty cool for the last several years in younger indie bands. That just plain isn't happening with Gibson. I read an article about a bunch of teenagers in Chicago who started their own music scene over Covid, and some of the younger teens were in awe of the older ones who had real Fender guitars. Made a specific point about saying Fenders.
One thing, and it may sound silly, but Gibson may not physically be appealing for girls who are getting into guitar. A 10 pound Les Paul or a massive ES-335 just plain won't be comfortable for smaller teenagers. That's where the SG can really be highlighted...look at Grace Bowers who mostly plays an old SG.
If I were Gibson, I'd lean into that a bit. Keep the Les Paul and 335 for where they are at, but introduce more guitars at/under the $1000 mark. Bring out more Juniors and Specials, and play around with some offset body shapes. Develop bolt on models that have more of a Fender build, with a maple neck and solid color finishes on the body. You can keep the small scale length and use humbuckers or P90's. I think that would build a pipeline of new players who may then get interested in the higher end stuff like they did 30+ years ago.
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I think Gibson hitting up the metal guys in the last couple years was their way of staying with the times. I don’t get the idea they even want to appeal to younger millenials and I don’t think they’ll be able to appeal to GenZ until GenZ goes through their own “Oh, now I see why people love these guitars” phase, which generally occurs once one can afford the entry price into $3500+ guitars.
Or in other words, I don’t think they want to appeal to a lower tax bracket. Spiffing up Epiphones with an open-book headstocks is as close as they probably want to get to that.
Or in other words, I don’t think they want to appeal to a lower tax bracket. Spiffing up Epiphones with an open-book headstocks is as close as they probably want to get to that.
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