Gibson CEO Out of a Job

[Travis]

On 5/3/2023 at 2:18 PM, crunchee said:

Not quite...try an old early 2000s Jeep TJ with an AMC-designed straight-four engine, with the back seat removed.

Makes me miss my old ‘06 TJ with the 4.0L and 6 speed…

[crunchee]

6 hours ago, Steve Haynie said:

Is Gibson really the most iconic guitar brand?  Fender probably uses that line every now and then. 

Funny how Gibson in the past, despite their so-called 'iconic' status, tried to push (and overstep) it's boundaries into another brand's territory now and then, with predictable results:

https://reverb.com/news/remember-when-gibson-tried-to-market-a-hendrix-signature-strat

Love this excerpt from the Reverb article, especially with it's reference to 'upper-management level' : 

Think of Jimi Hendrix, and what guitar do you see him playing? I bet you said a Fender Stratocaster. He did play a number of Gibson models, now and then, but the Strat was without doubt his main instrument. With that in mind, you might have found a news item back in September 2009 rather baffling. Gibson Guitar Corp. announced a collaboration with Authentic Hendrix LLC to produce three Jimi Hendrix guitars. (Authentic Hendrix and Experience Hendrix are the related companies that today manage "the music, name, image, and likeness of Jimi Hendrix.")

Why baffling? Well, if Gibson had announced a remake of another Flying V, or an SG, or a Les Paul Custom, in the style of those played sporadically by Jimi, then it probably would have floated by as yet another routine piece of product news. In fact, Pat Foley, who was Gibson's Entertainment Relations representative at the time, recalls that the whole idea started with a plan to create a Jimi V or SG that might be produced at Gibson's Nashville factory, following the Custom Shop's successful Jimi Hendrix Psychedelic Flying V of 2006.

"Then it got bumped up to upper-management level, and I was no longer involved," Foley says. "When I saw that what was being proposed were super-low-end Fender copies, I was shocked. It was such a poor representation of Jimi's legacy as to be laughable."

[BruceM]

On 5/3/2023 at 8:33 AM, hamerhead said:

The last time I seriously considered buying a new Gibson was 1978.

Still have it, so there's that.

I bought a black Explorer reissue in 1979 and could not bond with it, so I sold it to a friend.  I used the cash from that sale to purchase my 1980 Sunburst, which I still have.  After discovering the HFC in 1996(or 7), I purchased the Hamer Standard equivalent of the black Explorer in 1999.  I sold that one too, as it's not my favorite body shape (I now own two of that body shape: a Standard and an Ultimate).  I'm waiting for the perfect-for-me Les Paul goldtop, and could be waiting for a long while.

[scottcald]

On 5/6/2023 at 11:05 AM, BruceM said:

I bought a black Explorer reissue in 1979 and could not bond with it, so I sold it to a friend.  I used the cash from that sale to purchase my 1980 Sunburst, which I still have.  After discovering the HFC in 1996(or 7), I purchased the Hamer Standard equivalent of the black Explorer in 1999.  I sold that one too, as it's not my favorite body shape (I now own two of that body shape: a Standard and an Ultimate).  I'm waiting for the perfect-for-me Les Paul goldtop, and could be waiting for a long while.

I just gave up on that.  Gibson isn't needed in my life. 

[django49]

On 5/6/2023 at 8:05 AM, BruceM said:

I bought a black Explorer reissue in 1979 and could not bond with it, so I sold it to a friend.  I used the cash from that sale to purchase my 1980 Sunburst, which I still have.  After discovering the HFC in 1996(or 7), I purchased the Hamer Standard equivalent of the black Explorer in 1999.  I sold that one too, as it's not my favorite body shape (I now own two of that body shape: a Standard and an Ultimate).  I'm waiting for the perfect-for-me Les Paul goldtop, and could be waiting for a long while.

If you can stumble onto a Monaco Elite Goldtop, that is worth considering. My memory might be faulty, but I continue to say this one (on the left) is better than my (long gone) original '56. And without the huge price tag.

(All three of these are great and none of them are going anywhere!)

 

BTW, my old Nash goldtop (57 style, second picture, an actual Gibson that Bill Nash repurposed) was really good too. Pretty sure I sold it to someone here.......

 

[BruceM]

12 hours ago, django49 said:

If you can stumble onto a Monaco Elite Goldtop.......

I've done a bit of stumbling in my day.  

I just snapped this photo on my back porch.  This is one of the better deals I've gotten on a Hamer, purchased from my local friend and fellow HFC'er Eric.  He got a good deal on this one from a local guitar shop, and after he grew disillusioned with it, he traded it to me for $750 and a Fulltone Choralflange pedal, IIRC.  It fits the cool goldtop bill, for sure.

I still need that certain Gibson, however.  When I find it, it won't be quite the deal I got on this one, I'm sure.

[hamerican gigolo]

On 5/9/2023 at 9:50 AM, BruceM said:

I've done a bit of stumbling in my day.  

I just snapped this photo on my back porch.  This is one of the better deals I've gotten on a Hamer, purchased from my local friend and fellow HFC'er Eric.  He got a good deal on this one from a local guitar shop, and after he grew disillusioned with it, he traded it to me for $750 and a Fulltone Choralflange pedal, IIRC.  It fits the cool goldtop bill, for sure.

I still need that certain Gibson, however.  When I find it, it won't be quite the deal I got on this one, I'm sure.

That for $750 & a pedal??? No Gibby could possibly compare... 😀