Gibson - Henry interview Guitarist Mag

guitars4you

latest issue of Guitarist mag and a 30 min interview with Henry about the chapter 11 situation. Maybe nothing new or anything we've not heard. However a question and issue was raised over quality control and what improvements could be made. Henry's reply was more of denial. A few negative comments on a few forums he stated.  He pointed out instant access to an international help line to talk about such issues if required

maybe the reply we expected for a CEO who appears to believe in his own hype. 

Would have preffered something thing along the lines of ' yes we can tighten up and improve in a few key areas and are working at such improvements '

no one is 100% perfect all the time. But when you look at QC of say PRS over Gibson, then easy to see where improvements can be made. Granted, that as an overview their QC is better now than when Henry took over. Granted, there are not QC issues with all guitars, but it could be better, so to be in denial is a big issue IMO

Regarding QC, he said 'to quote a politician it is fake news,

Jonathanthomas83

He's still relatively prevalent isn't he, I thought the new takeover meant he had to leave his position, is that not the case?

octatonic

He's mad.

RandallFlagg

Gibson should adopt the PRS approach, pull some guitars from cases prior to despatch every Friday and open them in the board room and see for themselves what the quality is like.

Fuengi

There is a really interesting interview on Reverb from '92 with Dan Smith about taking over at Fender in the early 80s. He said that practically none of the guitars coming out the factory at that time met Fender's own QC criteria. 

They moved a lot of production to Japan, tried to retrain the Fullerton production staff - to much resistance - and also rewrote the QC criteria as a lot of it was no longer relevant.

Will be interesting to see how Gibson go about things. 

impmann

Hmmm, I can see both sides here.

To be fair Gibson's QC isn't as terrible as the internet will tell you. I agree that some of the set ups I've seen from the factory aren't quite as good as they could be but that is not QUALITY control - thats final set up and also, it may well have been perfect when it left the bench in the USA, but the effects of being warehoused, then at sea and then warehoused again can change things.

I also take great issue with the bollocks (and it is bollocks) about neck angles. My own Les Paul would be rejected by some as being "terrible", however, it plays superbly and sounds amazing (as many who have attended the jams will attest).

The finish on Gibsons has never been flawless - its got a lot of handwork in it, and handwork = more chance of irregularity. If you want a guitar that looks like its been dipped in liquid glass, then you probably don't want a nitro finish anyway (proper nitro that is...).

"QC" is a term used by many people who don't actually understand what it means. And in some cases, there is an agreed quality level for a given price point - you aren't going to get perfection at a low price, no matter what you may dream - what Gibson have done, is muddy their own waters by having guitars bearing the  same branding at too many price points, and some of those are too low.

Yes, we can all find horror stories - and some even have first hand ones (although the majority of stories are third person).

However, Henry is DAFT to ignore these stories. He is even more stupid to publically dismiss them, no matter what he privately thinks. Everyone needs to listen to customer feedback - if you don't, that arrogance (and it is arrogance) becomes magnified. You can ALWAYS learn from another company's successes and failures - if you don't, you don't stand, still you go backwards. But if you don't listen to customer feedback - and then actively cover your ears when it comes back - you lose touch with the very people who will buy your products.

I read the interview - and it does give an insight into his mindset. To be fair to Henry, he hasn't changed his and hence the interview doesn't tell us anything "new". However, in view of what has gone on perhaps it is time for him to change his mindset - even if its on a tiny scale.

The definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result.

OilCityPickups

impmann said:

Hmmm, I can see both sides here.

To be fair Gibson's QC isn't as terrible as the internet will tell you. I agree that some of the set ups I've seen from the factory aren't quite as good as they could be but that is not QUALITY control - thats final set up and also, it may well have been perfect when it left the bench in the USA, but the effects of being warehoused, then at sea and then warehoused again can change things.

I also take great issue with the bollocks (and it is bollocks) about neck angles. My own Les Paul would be rejected by some as being "terrible", however, it plays superbly and sounds amazing (as many who have attended the jams will attest).

The finish on Gibsons has never been flawless - its got a lot of handwork in it, and handwork = more chance of irregularity. If you want a guitar that looks like its been dipped in liquid glass, then you probably don't want a nitro finish anyway (proper nitro that is...).

"QC" is a term used by many people who don't actually understand what it means. And in some cases, there is an agreed quality level for a given price point - you aren't going to get perfection at a low price, no matter what you may dream - what Gibson have done, is muddy their own waters by having guitars bearing the  same branding at too many price points, and some of those are too low.

Yes, we can all find horror stories - and some even have first hand ones (although the majority of stories are third person).

However, Henry is DAFT to ignore these stories. He is even more stupid to publically dismiss them, no matter what he privately thinks. Everyone needs to listen to customer feedback - if you don't, that arrogance (and it is arrogance) becomes magnified. You can ALWAYS learn from another company's successes and failures - if you don't, you don't stand, still you go backwards. But if you don't listen to customer feedback - and then actively cover your ears when it comes back - you lose touch with the very people who will buy your products.

I read the interview - and it does give an insight into his mindset. To be fair to Henry, he hasn't changed his and hence the interview doesn't tell us anything "new". However, in view of what has gone on perhaps it is time for him to change his mindset - even if its on a tiny scale.

The definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result.

Have a wisdom ... 

'Customers drive a business ... even if the customer's an idiot, make sure he's a happy idiot, happy idiots have big wallets.' 

Blaendulais

I read the interview.  It made it perfectly clear why Gibson are in a hell of a mess.  

guitars4you

impmann said:

However, Henry is DAFT to ignore these stories. He is even more stupid to publically dismiss them, no matter what he privately thinks. Everyone needs to listen to customer feedback - if you don't, that arrogance (and it is arrogance) becomes magnified. You can ALWAYS learn from another company's successes and failures - if you don't, you don't stand, still you go backwards. But if you don't listen to customer feedback - and then actively cover your ears when it comes back - you lose touch with the very people who will buy your products.

I read the interview - and it does give an insight into his mindset. To be fair to Henry, he hasn't changed his and hence the interview doesn't tell us anything "new". However, in view of what has gone on perhaps it is time for him to change his mindset - even if its on a tiny scale.

The definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result.

Very much agree with this

Good post

Schnozz

RandallFlagg said:

Gibson should adopt the PRS approach, pull some guitars from cases prior to despatch every Friday and open them in the board room and see for themselves what the quality is like.

G&L & Furch etc do this with every Guitar.

Adamski

I don’t think PRS QC is all that these days either! When you compare to Knaggs, Collings, Xotic etc