The other day I was eating breakfast in Embassy Suites in Orlando and I pulled up musicradar.com as I always do. It’s the best site for daily music news. Anyway, they had a headline about the latest Gibson bonehead move, and all I can do is shake my head. According to some guitar stores, Gibson sent out cease and desist letters threatening the stores with legal action unless they stop selling any guitars shaped like a V. Meaning Dean guitars. There I sat, in my Gibson t-shirt, reading about the once great company who has been reduced by greed to a patent troll. OK, maybe that’s a little harsh, but I was embarrassed to have their t-shirt on. I went back to the hotel room and changed.
I own two Gibson Les Paul Tribute series guitars and I love them both. I’m not going to stop playing them. But I hate what the company has become. Gibson gets a new CEO who promises to improve things, and all the big YouTubers (cough cough Antertons) were kissing Gibson’s ass and saying how wonderful things would be. Then Gibson comes out with a video saying they’re going to sue the pants off of everyone making a guitar shaped like a V (or Explorer.) There’s outrage, so they take it down… while they’re sending cease and desist letters to bully music stores. Oh, and they jack up all of their prices and decrease features while doing it (note the dot fret markers on the new Gibson Les Paul Tribute.) It’s true that Gibson already had lawsuits in the works before the new CEO. But so far the changes at Gibson have been pretty nasty, and all of the YouTubers will likely stop kissing their ass at this point.
At this point, retailers have already dropped prices on the new Gibson line, because the prices were too high to begin with. Sheesh!
Gibson is making worse decisions now than before, when the company almost went bankrupt. You can’t fight the Flying V battle now – it’s decades too late. Gibson already lost this case in Europe – here’s hoping they lose it here. I see dark times ahead for Gibson. They don’t get that this is 2019. Younger players care more about social issues. They’re anti-corporate greed. They’re already not going to buy a $2,500 guitar. They’re going to buy a $700 guitar from South Korea. Gibson has become the grumpy old man guitar company. Get offa my lawn!!!
Until recently, I would have pointed to Fender as the example of how to do things. They have the Squier line, which offers very good bang for the buck (unlike Epiphone, which is a bit overpriced. And they had Fender guitars made in Indonesia for around $399, and Fenders made in Mexico for around $500, and Fenders made in the US for around $900. But all of those prices have gone up, and now you have high end Fenders coming out of Mexico for almost a grand. Not that I object to that. But Fender seems to keep increasing their prices each year at a rate higher than inflation, and if they’re not careful they’re going to price themselves out of the market.
Again, younger players don’t care so much about where a guitar was made. Guitars made overseas is the bulk of the market now. The two big guys (Fender and Gibson) seem to be all about raising prices. Actually, so does PRS. But Fender and PRS both make relatively affordable guitars that say Fender and PRS on the headstock, which I think is extremely smart. PRS has slowly been improving the quality of the SE line, and they’re great instruments.
Anyway… Lee Anderton once said in a video that Gibson should start rebranding Epiphone Les Pauls as Gibsons, and I agree very much. It might hurt Gibson Les Paul sales, but how many are they selling now? It’d send Epiphone- made Gibson Les Paul sales through the roof.
Or Gibson could jack up their prices and sue everyone.
