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 Post subject: Gibson facing bankruptcy ? - Article
PostPosted: February 18th, 2018, 11:51 am 
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Joined: March 30th, 2013, 12:58 pm
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Here's a link to an article on a possible Gibson bankruptcy. There appears to be a number of similar stores going around on a possible Gibson bankruptcy in the past few days. Here's a passage and a link to the full article. Hopefully it won't come to past . Would be sad!

https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2018/0 ... ankruptcy/


The issue of plunging guitar sales became glaringly apparent last year.

That’s when sales figures revealed a serious sales drop over the past decade. Specifically, guitar sales have dropped from approximately 1.5 million units annually to roughly 1 million — all in less than a decade. That’s still a million a year, though this is all heading in the wrong direction.

And buried beneath those top-line statistics is another problem: sinking prices. All of which is great for anyone on the market for a guitar — new or used. But it’s disastrous for a company like Gibson.

One obvious problem is that the guitar is just another toy for younger people today. Up until relatively recently, it was a must-have for a giant percentage of young Americans — all of whom were in love with rock & roll in some form or another. Now, the six-string is just as easily replaced by a turntable, videogame console, or simply a laptop.

And the ‘guitar gods’ of the past are fading, with their adherents downsizing. “I don’t know. Maybe the guitar is over,” Eric Clapton said last year when asked about eroding guitar sales.

“Good question though.”


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 Post subject: Re: Gibson facing bankruptcy ? - Article
PostPosted: February 19th, 2018, 8:27 am 
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Joined: December 20th, 2011, 11:42 am
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Location: Philly Area
So many thoughts but in short, not sure if the age of the guitar is dead, I remember in the 80's when they said that Keyboards and the drum machine were the future however guitars came back in the 90's. It will always be there but may never have the hey day of the 50's, 60's and 70's.

Now the guitar may survive but not too sure about Gibson in it's current shape, other companies such as Harley Davidson almost went feet up and made drastic changes. For me kids in High School or College do not want the Epiphone or Les Paul Studio guitar they offer but cannot afford $4K for a Les Paul.


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 Post subject: Re: Gibson facing bankruptcy ? - Article
PostPosted: February 19th, 2018, 11:37 pm 
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Joined: March 29th, 2011, 11:00 am
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Kids seem to be really into the Fender shapes these days, and the new bands are making the smaller body offsets pretty popular.

Gibson comes across like such a dad guitar in all formats of marketing that it really isn't helping, a lot of high school kids couldn't give a rats ass what Slash is playing.


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 Post subject: Re: Gibson facing bankruptcy ? - Article
PostPosted: February 20th, 2018, 4:39 am 
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Joined: April 28th, 2010, 10:59 am
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Location: Dover, NH
Not to mention that Pete Townsend doesn't smash as many guitars anymore, so there's more in the secondary market.

Which is a real question, I guess. How many guitars do we need? It's not like they're tossed out in the trash too often.
They don't really have a shelf life or "go bad" that often.

pete


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 Post subject: Re: Gibson facing bankruptcy ? - Article
PostPosted: February 20th, 2018, 4:28 pm 
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Joined: June 18th, 2009, 2:36 pm
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Location: Londinium
This might be a particularly Gibson thing, even with a permanent guitar-buying downturn. They haven't come across as particularly coherent with their models and prices for a while now.


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 Post subject: Re: Gibson facing bankruptcy ? - Article
PostPosted: February 20th, 2018, 8:15 pm 
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Joined: January 30th, 2010, 9:46 am
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They certainly are all over the place when it comes to basses! No cohesive brand identity there at all. The guitars are the same old standbys....which seems to work for Fender but I hear those LPs are shoulder killers.

I was in a GC recently and saw they had some brand new 2018 LPs with new translucent pink burst finishes. They really looked cool.

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 Post subject: Re: Gibson facing bankruptcy ? - Article
PostPosted: February 21st, 2018, 12:49 am 
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Joined: January 9th, 2009, 1:34 am
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Location: The Netherlands
This even made it to Dutch national radio last monday! There was an interview on the radio with the owner of a major guitar store, who claimed he is one of just two remaining Gibson dealers in our country, because Gibson is so demanding towards its dealers. Dealers were forced to meet al kinds of (expensive) demands, and to stock certain guitars (especially the ones with the Robot tuners). Many Dutch stores just couldn't meet their demands, because of financial reasons, and were apparently forced to drop Gibson sales alltogether.

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 Post subject: Re: Gibson facing bankruptcy ? - Article
PostPosted: February 21st, 2018, 3:10 am 
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Joined: July 5th, 2017, 2:36 am
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Well guys time to buy up on lefty Gibson's their value is only going to increase. Get them while you can at a reasonable price. :( :( :(


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 Post subject: Re: Gibson facing bankruptcy ? - Article
PostPosted: February 21st, 2018, 9:34 am 
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Joined: March 4th, 2008, 3:51 pm
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Location: Pacific Northwest
I see the lefty SG bass has hit the market but has anyone seen any other lefty basses from 2018 yet? I wonder if this won't cause them to drop some lefty basses they were planning to build in 2018. That happened a few years back, I had a bass on order and Gibson changed their mind on offering it lefty.


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 Post subject: Re: Gibson facing bankruptcy ? - Article
PostPosted: February 21st, 2018, 9:37 am 
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Joined: December 9th, 2014, 5:27 pm
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Location: Beantown
andrew wrote:
I see the lefty SG bass has hit the market but has anyone seen any other lefty basses from 2018 yet? I wonder if this won't cause them to drop some lefty basses they were planning to build in 2018. That happened a few years back, I had a bass on order and Gibson changed their mind on offering it lefty.

At least 2 members here bought 2 new Gibson basses recently.
Would be nice to see pics!


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 Post subject: Re: Gibson facing bankruptcy ? - Article
PostPosted: February 21st, 2018, 10:07 am 
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As long as I've been here, I've never figured out an easy way to post a picture. I have an 18 thunderbird. It's awesome.


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 Post subject: Re: Gibson facing bankruptcy ? - Article
PostPosted: February 21st, 2018, 10:08 am 
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This


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 Post subject: Re: Gibson facing bankruptcy ? - Article
PostPosted: February 21st, 2018, 10:08 am 
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Guess I finally got it


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 Post subject: Re: Gibson facing bankruptcy ? - Article
PostPosted: February 21st, 2018, 10:23 am 
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Everything about that picture is awesome.


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 Post subject: Re: Gibson facing bankruptcy ? - Article
PostPosted: February 21st, 2018, 1:04 pm 
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Killer!! .... wearing my 2015 Crue tour hat as I write this (and read Wolfs post) was icing on the cake

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 Post subject: Re: Gibson facing bankruptcy ? - Article
PostPosted: February 21st, 2018, 2:32 pm 
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Thanks guys!


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 Post subject: Re: Gibson facing bankruptcy ? - Article
PostPosted: February 21st, 2018, 2:33 pm 
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I have a flock of birds


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 Post subject: Re: Gibson facing bankruptcy ? - Article
PostPosted: February 21st, 2018, 2:35 pm 
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My current favorite


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 Post subject: Re: Gibson facing bankruptcy ? - Article
PostPosted: February 21st, 2018, 2:36 pm 
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Snowbird


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 Post subject: Re: Gibson facing bankruptcy ? - Article
PostPosted: February 21st, 2018, 2:40 pm 
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Oh yes!!!!


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