Uh.

[BCR Greg]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...niversal_gibson

[DavidE]

Oy... so what happens when someone wants to play a Hamer, Fender or PRS at the Gibson Ampitheater? ;-)

I guess if you can't keep up your quality standards, you just spend more on marketing your crap.

[cmatthes]

Here's yet another indicator that Gibson could cut out the dealer network entirely and sell direct!

http://www.gibsoncustom.com/flash/products/byo/byo.html

Still, it's a cool feature - I'd love to see something like this at Hamer, but then again, the imagination can run wild as it is...

[Guest pirateflynn]

Wow that's crazy.......the Universal Amphitheater is 10 minutes from my house and my 2nd favorite venue. The Greek Theater is #1!

[Steve Haynie]

I wonder if more people will start wearing guitar related T-shirts to the venue to promote anything but Gibson.

[Buzzy Fretts]

IF they must become the Budweiser of guitars, then they will no longer be the "old vintage that was here back when the greats all had their day." Not that they have been the old, quality stuff for a long time. But they've riden those coattails for quite some years now. People's perception WILL change. Perhaps they have finally jumped the shark.

[Stike]

Oy... so what happens when someone wants to play a Hamer, Fender or PRS at the Gibson Ampitheater? ;-)

I guess if you can't keep up your quality standards, you just spend more on marketing your crap.

I'm sure there will be a stage manager with a BIG roll of black electrical tape.

[adferreira]

Here's yet another indicator that Gibson could cut out the dealer network entirely and sell direct!

http://www.gibsoncustom.com/flash/products/byo/byo.html

Still, it's a cool feature - I'd love to see something like this at Hamer, but then again, the imagination can run wild as it is...

Hamer dosen't need to add the feature.

Just playing with the gibson one have me a cool idea for an awesome Hamer.

[Guest galejt]

Here's yet another indicator that Gibson could cut out the dealer network entirely and sell direct!

http://www.gibsoncustom.com/flash/products/byo/byo.html

Still, it's a cool feature - I'd love to see something like this at Hamer, but then again, the imagination can run wild as it is...

Hamer dosen't need to add the feature.

Just playing with the gibson one have me a cool idea for an awesome Hamer.

Nuh-uh. It don't have BCR burst available. Thbppppt!

[Jeff R]

This custom guitar builder program is much better.

http://www.nymphusa.com/kisekae/kisekaee1.asp

[JohnnyB]

From that press release:

"...Its pianos were featured in the Universal Studios Ray Charles biopic 'Ray.'"

I just saw "Ray" this weekend and noticed that. I noticed it for two reasons. One, Ray Charles was a Steinway artist (at least when I was selling Steinways in the early '90s), and the logos on the Baldwin pianos were not period-correct. It was jarring to see the 1970's-and-later logo on otherwise meticulously crafted scenes set in the '50s when the Baldwin logo should have been in Old English Text.

The movie was fastidious in its capture of the '40s, '50s, and '60s -- the clothes, hairstyles, architecture, etc. Even the drums were period-correct from one decade to the next -- something I always notice and something the movies almost never get right. Then in the middle of it Gibson f**ks it up with its hamfisted product placement.

[tomteriffic]

Funny, I notice that kind of stuff too. I was watching for wrong cars, gear, etc. and caught the fact that they were Baldwin pianos, and no self-respecting recording studio or concert artist of the day used anything but a Steinway. Didn't catch the wrong logo, though.

The gig in St. Louis, where the house announcer morphs into Ray's new manager appears to be an attempt at re-creating the Fabulous Fox. OK, but not quite. Even pre-restoration, the room shape is wrong. To see it in it's full glory (post cleanup and restoration) check out Chuck Berry's "Hail, Hail Rock and Roll".

[LarryC]

It's only a name on a venue. I don't see anything more to it except another marketing scheme...look at all the major sports arenas around the country. "Qualcom Park" "Minutemaid Park" "NexTel Stadium"...many of which have replaced the names of some very important people in the history of sports...like Joe Roby. And "The Stick" (Candlestick Park...site of the Beatles last concert). I say if the telecommunications companies can do it, WHY NOT a guitar maker? I think it's cool to have a guitar theme myself...and the fact that I've been playing Gibson guitars practically all of my life doesn't have much to do with that...it could have been Fender and I'd feel the same...or Gretsch...or even Hamer.

As to the discussion of movies...go figure, it's Hollywood. They go to great lengths to be accurate in many of their films...right cars, archetecture, etc...but there will ALWAYS be SOMETHING they've either overlooked or just didn't seem to care about, or won't be correct because of contractual obligations or something. I am a commercial helicopter pilot and I have a very difficult time watching movies involving helicopters because they will INEVITABLY have the wrong helicotper sounds. Does your average Joe Citizen know this? Most likely not, and only someone who is really into music and Ray Charles would pick up on the Baldwin piano thing.