What the hell is going on here - Gibson destruction

absolutpepper

I agree with the sentiments here, a waste, a PR disaster, all of the above.  Yes they shouldve went to schools, or held an auction for charity or stripped them, saved what they could and recycled the rest.  The whole thing is just bad from start to finish.  I've already tweeted them asking for a free Les Paul X before they meet the same fate ;-) although I suspect i'll be on to plums.

Philtre

Having done some quick research on the Firebird X model, I think this was probably a good move.

JayGee

My understanding is that this was a bunch of non-functioning examples with dead electronics.

Handing them out to worthy causes would be problematic, at the very least you’d be looking at stripping out all the existing electronics, replacing them with a conventional wiring loom and controls, removing and replacing the robot tuners, and then covering up the holes left by the absent controls, battery holders, extra sockets, etc, etc. When you’d done that you’d be left with an oddly shaped guitar with a lot of cavities and a very unusual set of non-standard pickups. That’s a lot of work and I imagine it would be cheaper (and better) to just hand out a bunch of entry level Epiphones...

SlopeSoarer

I hate waste... that is terrible!

crunchman

SteveRobinson said:

Phineas T Barnum: "There is no such thing as bad publicity"

Gibson: "Hold my beer..."
 

Brilliant.  Wish I could give LOL and Wis at the same time.

OilCityPickups

JayGee said:

My understanding is that this was a bunch of non-functioning examples with dead electronics.

Handing them out to worthy causes would be problematic, at the very least you’d be looking at stripping out all the existing electronics, replacing them with a conventional wiring loom and controls, removing and replacing the robot tuners, and then covering up the holes left by the absent controls, battery holders, extra sockets, etc, etc. When you’d done that you’d be left with an oddly shaped guitar with a lot of cavities and a very unusual set of non-standard pickups. That’s a lot of work and I imagine it would be cheaper (and better) to just hand out a bunch of entry level Epiphones...

Destroying anything by running over it with an earth mover will make it far more difficult to recycle anything. Also it's crass and to be honest offensive. The Firebird X had three conventional pickups: respectively Alnico V, Ceramic, and Anico II plus a piezo pickup ... I see no reason the conventional pickups couldn't have wound up in other Gibson models. Never mind pickup surrounds, tail pieces etc. Gibson used to be very good at re purposing hardware ... an example being using up P90 routed Les Pauls by using Epiphone sourced mini humbuckers mounted in modified P90 covers (with their centres cut out) to make the Les Paul Deluxe.

It may be common corporate policy, it may have made economic sense to the bean counters at Gibson, but that doesn't make it 'right' or in step with public thinking ... or indeed anything other than harmful to Gibson's image.

Funkfingers

Is there date information for the (alleged) crushing event?

It smacks of a messy divorce or something that a failing business would do to spite its creditors.

The Firebird X was somebody’s flight of fancy. It probably should have been designated a signature model and sold to order only. 

ADP

Neil said:

It's normal practise in business to destroy stock, they can then write it off for its true value.

Giving away stuff that may still be on dealers walls for sale is not an option and selling stuff off cheap can devalue the brand.

Burberry destroyed over £28 million of goods last year.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44885983

It's just the way large brand businesses work.

A Burberry t-shirt costs £250. In that case, they probably destroyed less than £100,000 worth of over-priced crap that nobody wanted to buy for 28 million pounds. Greed is good.

ESBlonde

When you compare this action to the stories of Leo Fender using cardboard from the packaging of the parts he bought to insert under reverb tanks in combos as the ultimate in recycling. Some said he was tight/frugal but he thought about cost in everything so he could make a sell good value instruments to musicians (and make a profit  although he was not short of a bob or two).

:-(

AntonHunter

RichardT said:

"It's just the way large brand businesses work. " Do they all turn the process into a fatuous, embarrassingly inefficient spectator sport? btw, Peavey are currently selling off huge stocks of forgotten warehoused NOS guitar components, necks, bodies etc. dating back to the '70s. Build your own T-60 (barring a few bits of unobtanium).

Corrupt, contemptuous corporate culture.

Got a link to the Peavey stuff...?

roberty

So the Firebird X had a lithium ion battery... erm, pretty sure they can explode if you run them over in a tank?

Funkfingers

Yes but, to paraphrase Douglas Adams, how much damage would the tank suffer?

None at all.

57Deluxe

I think Gibson should rethink their Ad strategy - being indestructible is not on my options list... or Pete Townsend's.

jpttaylor

A stupid guitar disposed of in a stupid way. Fitting, but so very depressing.

Philtre

I think it may be an "excavator" not a "tank".

OilCityPickups

Philtre said:

I think it may be an "excavator" not a "tank".

This may be re purposed to dig them put of the PR hole they are currently in ... or not ...

Kittyfrisk

AntonHunter said:

RichardT said:

"It's just the way large brand businesses work. " Do they all turn the process into a fatuous, embarrassingly inefficient spectator sport? btw, Peavey are currently selling off huge stocks of forgotten warehoused NOS guitar components, necks, bodies etc. dating back to the '70s. Build your own T-60 (barring a few bits of unobtanium).

Corrupt, contemptuous corporate culture.

Got a link to the Peavey stuff...?

https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/161361/peavey-to-auction-off-12-million-worth-of-old-unsold-guitars-amps-and-raw-materials

AntonHunter

Thanks @Kittyfrisk .

paul_c2

How is this any different to a vintage guitar that hangs on a wall and is never played?

Or someone owning 2+ guitars, some of which they never play? Those would have been manufactured at some point too, with the same environmental etc concerns.

DaevidJ

So to make a Gibson truly authentic do we now need to run them over with a large track vehicle?