Official Luthiers Forum!

So... I just noticed something really weird...

Posts just like this popped up on a bunch of Guitar forums... All within a day or two of eachother.... By different authors... All "bash gibson" themed...

I suppose it could simply be that Genius thinks alike and all...

BUT.....

I also know enough about marketing/PR to understand that this sort of thing is a technique/vehicle used by competitors and prospective hostile bidders seeking their own benefit.... I have also seen it used as a technique by "The Mother Ship" to reduce stock price when a merger/buyout was in process to make such thing more favorable to prospective clients... I have also seen it used by the mother ship when preparing for a major executive transition - as a way to make the outgoing guys look bad (They are destroying our business) and the incoming guys look good (This hero turned the business around).

So.... Whats the real game afoot guys?

Competitor running chicanery to boost sales in the runup to Christmas?
Gibson Board of Directors about to sack their executives and so all is doom and gloom because of Harvey?
Gibson trying to run share price down for a strategic merger/takeover?

Or...
All the stars aligned and all the Gibson haters somehow unintentionally coordinated?

Feels a little tin foil hat-ey. I would think it coincides with the Moody's article?

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No mystery - it's all a reaction to stories in the financial sections about Moody's downgrade of Gibson. That's all.

Just like a couple weeks ago that moron published an opinion piece about the electric guitar is dying.... Next thing you know, big traffic on all the music forums and counter-opinion pieces. Push and pushback. Ebb and flow.

NO FRICKIN MYSTERY AT ALL. Humans do this all the time.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Well, I for one started a thread in a different forum after reading the Moody analysis. I thought it would generate an interesting discussion but I'l admit that it isn't as knowledgeable as the one here. I also posted the picture of that Les Paul head plated at the other forum - again, different group of people, somewhat different discussion.

One reason for posting it there is that recently there have been several threads with the general idea "why would anyone buy a guitar that costs $2000". You then get the usual arguements "made in the US of A", "better woods", "better quality control", "name brand recognition", "history of the brand", "services, support.... yadda yadda". I keep hoping that stuff is true but when I look at the Lester on my bench I wonder.

One interesting sidelight is that the "other forum" happens to be owned by Gibson. I have been impressed that they don't seem to apply any editorial pressure on their moderators to intervene in discussions critical of the ownership - kudos to Gibson.

Chris, I'm going to argue that the electric guitar may not be dying but its certainly in limbo right now. I just finished the book Play it Loud by di Perna and Tolinski - one of their premises is that each advance of the electric guitar (and a genre of music) coincided with one or more guitar gods coming into vogue. Right now there isn't a Paul, Berry, Harrison, Clapton, Allman, Townsend, Hendrix, Van Halen, Vai..... taking the electric guitar to its next level.

As for me I'm just a current iteration of a G*bson hater almost entirely because of their Thriston Crapbag III CEO and what he's done to the company. I'm also not a fan of how Henry attempted to blame government for the fact that he got caught poaching endangered species.... Where's the "personal responsibility" in that?

Will he write another op ed piece in the WSJ attempting to blame others.....

I find any so-called Luthier who does not have great respect for our planet and it's bounty someone who does not understand what side of their sourdough has the Marzetti's Slaw dressing on it......

Most of all though G*bson guitars, the older ones are likely my all time favorites and I had many of them through the years. I long for the days when the build quality just sucked instead of what we see today when it TOTALLY sucks.....

I once drove 3.5 hours to the newly opened "mistake on the lake" to check it out hoping to see cool guitars. The place was brand new and didn't have much to show and I wondered why they even opened it up yet. Things such as Michael Jackson's Thriller coat.... who freaking cares???? They had an entire room of transistor radios and explained that rock and roll was listened to on the radio..... again... who cares....

As for guitars they had one Hendrix Strat but those are a dime a dozen since Fender gave them to him with sometimes up to three per show.

Toward the end it got better. They had the two Les Paul's played by the Allman Bros on the Filmore album. That made the drive all worth it for me and of course these were G*bson products.

So very much of the music that I love has been produced on G*bson products with of course the exception of Hendrix although he did use G*bson at times with the same being true for Clapton.

Harley Davidson is a good study in what G*bson could have become. Both companies were/are American icons that nearly tanked but were then managed by Harvard MBAs. One exceeded all expectations with Harley surpassing all previous greatness and the other is..... sadly..... G*bson.......

It's been my experience that if an organization stinks at the top it will stink all through the organization..... Maybe Henry needs start using deodorant....

That is a GREAT book, isn't it? Finished it about a month ago. Loved the history presented within... Don't necessarily agree with their conclusion... Doesn't really matter whether they are right or wrong. What will happen for electric guitar, will happen. I just wanna be around for whatever goes down.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince