Gibson Guitars is on the edge of bankruptcy…

I’ve had so many Gibson guitars in the last 5 years. From LPs to SGs and probably all the ES models. There were some really special ones, there were some “not-too-good” ones but hey it’s the same with every other mass made (approx 300-400 guitars a day) products.
But there weren’t any which were completely rubbish. Have you ever seen what your favourite stars play on? What were some of the most famous rock songs composed and recorded with? For instance just check what Slash was playing on when they composed and recorded the Appetite for Destruction album…
Some of those old guitars were really low quality with serious problems. Everybody is very fussy nowadays but the truth is that the quality control nowadays is 100X better than it was in the 70s, 80s, 90s…try to pop in to any major stores where there are 100x of Les Pauls available and try to find one which is a piece of cr@p…it won’t be easy…
They build amazing guitars, they’ve got amazing luthiers on board, all the original tools, they can source fantastic quality woods. OK they had some not too popular ideas but that happened with all of their competitors as well.

So why are they in this situation?
Well, I think it’s down to marketing. I mean the lack of marketing. Check the online and social media presence of Gibson guitars and then check their competitors! Have a look at the amazing websites, ultra high quality videos what some of their major competitors have…
Gibson doesn’t even have an updated bloody website, definitely not a proper mobile friendly one…they simply did a shit job on this side (the most important side) of the story. It’s like music and almost everything nowadays: unfortunately the marketing is more important than the quality of the product.

I reckon the other reason is the current music climate. Now that really sucks. I’m quite open to all genres but hey I think for music we need musicians and musicians play on instruments. For me good music is played by a good musician on good instruments. Unfortunately it’s a very old school way of thinking and most of the modern/current POPular (which reaches millions and millions of listeners) “music” never seen any real musicians or proper instruments. “Music” makers can buy a bloody midi keyboard, a DAW, some plugins and produce “music” in a few hours. Then they upload it to free websites and if they have enough marketing budget they can make massive “hits” simply because they reach enough people and from enough people they will have enough followers who appreciate their “music”. You can witness this every day just have a listen to Radio 1 or any of the top 40 stations… for a price of a LP Standard (£2K+) any “music maker” can buy a complete “studio” and production kit…and with these they don’t have to practice for decades to make good quality MUSIC.

Obviously it’s hard to tell what happened. It’s only my opinion, a musician’s opinion. I hope they survive the crisis as the world needs rock n roll and “only a Gibson is good enough”!