What the hell is going on here - Gibson destruction

WezV

Philtre said:

Just to be clear, it's not a PR stunt from Gibson. Listen to what the guy who made the video says.

there can be more than one reason for doing something.   

We know the guitars needed to be scrapped and apparently evidence of this was required.  Not disputing that.

We know, and its referred to in the vid, that the standard industry practice is to cut up the rejects.  Its the process Gibson have always followed before... normally with parts removed.  PRS says all his builds get cut up as rejects from the factory, on the rare occasion he is let on the shop floor.   A guitar that's been cut in half across the grain is almost impossible to repair (you will still find some examples of people doing this to cut up guitars though)

Here they decided to go to the effort of unboxing/casing them,  laying them all out in neat rows, driving over them (i assume) multiple times.   This was not done for efficiency. the damage inflicted varies to the point some of these will be easily salvageable (who would??)    It was only done to one model as far as the vid shows.  A very unpopular one that the previous CEO effectively made a fool of the company with.

The effort, method and history of this model does suggest they may have considered using the vid for something else, even if they later decided not to

WezV

Philtre said:

New video of destruction here. No Sherman tanks this time, just feet:

yeah, that's the standard practice.  you sometimes see them for sale like that.

OilCityPickups

WezV said:

Philtre said:

Just to be clear, it's not a PR stunt from Gibson. Listen to what the guy who made the video says.

there can be more than one reason for doing something.   

We know the guitars needed to be scrapped and apparently evidence of this was required.  Not disputing that.

We know, and its referred to in the vid, that the standard industry practice is to cut up the rejects.  Its the process Gibson have always followed before... normally with parts removed.  PRS says all his builds get cut up as rejects from the factory, on the rare occasion he is let on the shop floor.   A guitar that's been cut in half across the grain is almost impossible to repair (you will still find some examples of people doing this to cut up guitars though)

Here they decided to go to the effort of unboxing/casing them,  laying them all out in neat rows, driving over them (i assume) multiple times.   This was not done for efficiency. the damage inflicted varies to the point some of these will be easily salvageable (who would??)    It was only done to one model as far as the vid shows.  A very unpopular one that the previous CEO effectively made a fool of the company with.

The effort, method and history of this model does suggest they may have considered using the vid for something else, even if they later decided not to

This 100% ...

guitars4you

Philtre said:

crunchman said:

If that guy is telling the truth, then Gibson were lying about when that happened when they said it was 2009 - 2011.

No, they said the guitars were built in 2009-2011.

Surprised no one as yet asked why did they build so many in the first place 

OilCityPickups

An alternative headline for the video could be: 'Sausage fingered excavator driver gets revenge on narrow necked guitars.'

NelsonP

Play authentic or we'll crush you to death with an excavator motherf***ers!

Whitecat

Philtre said:

New video of destruction here. No Sherman tanks this time, just feet:

Remember back in the R8 thread John @ Peach said that if they return anything to Gibson that's failed their own shop QC, it gets destroyed... wonder if this is what's going on here. Salvage the electronics/hardware and destroy the woodwork...

NelsonP

Philtre said:

New video of destruction here. No Sherman tanks this time, just feet:

Ooooh - this is like those videos they used to have in a Question of Sport, where you have to guess the celebrity sportsperson.

Is it J Masics?

tony99

NelsonP said:

Philtre said:

New video of destruction here. No Sherman tanks this time, just feet:

Ooooh - this is like those videos they used to have in a Question of Sport, where you have to guess the celebrity sportsperson.

Is it J Masics?

I think it's David Crosby you know

NelsonP

Looks like they have another pr disaster on their hands....

https://www.nme.com/news/watch-gibson-smash-hundreds-guitars-with-construction-truck-2534722

Bellycaster

This is actually previously unseen footage from an episode of Mythbusters that was never aired. They were trying to bust the Myth that the Headstocks of the Guitars would survive better with a completely shaved Jamie driving over them as opposed to him driving over them with his Goatee untouched.

It turned out that the weight of his Facial Hair was a significant factor in the results of how many broke. This was the unshaved run. They had to use a stunt double for the following 6 months while Jamie grew his Goatee back.

stephen.wood125

It's either 1. The taste police stepped in to save the world from ugly, or 2. Those Strontium pickups and the ricin finish they used.


OK in case anyone liked these guitars, it was a joke. I do feel like _something_ should have been salvageable and the letter was just a copout.

Whitecat

I see Gibson legal has caught up with both of the original videos...

NelsonP

Too late though....


Also, instructing them to take down the videos doesn't really limit the damage. It just makes them look like they are trying to cover it up.

Tough one for them to manage. It's almost like there is some kind of plot to damage the brand?

sweepy

Iirc PRS just take a bandsaw to their rejects 

ICBM

What a completely stupid stunt.

Actually more pointless and wasteful than making them in the first place, and I thought that would be difficult to achieve...

Even if they needed to 'be seen' to be destroying them, they could have removed the hardware and filmed a guy throwing the necks and bodies into a woodchipper.

LastMantra

ICBM said:

What a completely stupid stunt.

Actually more pointless and wasteful than making them in the first place, and I thought that would be difficult to achieve...

Even if they needed to 'be seen' to be destroying them, they could have removed the hardware and filmed a guy throwing the necks and bodies into a woodchipper.

I don't see someone taking the time to remove the frets and everything just to put them through a wood chipper. 
A couple of people have mentioned an incinerator but not everyone has an incinerator handy.

ICBM

LastMantra said:

I don't see someone taking the time to remove the frets and everything just to put them through a wood chipper. 

A couple of people have mentioned an incinerator but not everyone has an incinerator handy.

You wouldn't need to remove the frets - an industrial woodchipper will easily cope with small amounts of metal like that, and getting the truss rod out is actually very easy if you just snap the neck in half first, which just takes a big guy and a couple of bricks.

Much less effort than going to all the trouble of laying them out in neat rows and the cost of driving an excavator up and down over them, anyway - which is a just a stupid 'boys with big toys' stunt.

crunchman

LastMantra said:

ICBM said:

What a completely stupid stunt.

Actually more pointless and wasteful than making them in the first place, and I thought that would be difficult to achieve...

Even if they needed to 'be seen' to be destroying them, they could have removed the hardware and filmed a guy throwing the necks and bodies into a woodchipper.

I don't see someone taking the time to remove the frets and everything just to put them through a wood chipper. 
A couple of people have mentioned an incinerator but not everyone has an incinerator handy.

They could have employed a temp for a few weeks to strip them and sell the pickups and tuners on Feebay.  It would have more than covered the wages of the temp.  You could easily strip out the tuners and pickups in 15 minutes.  Even if you only get $50 per guitar that's still way more than the wages of a temp. 

LastMantra

Tbh I'd have thought that the guitars would be out of Gibson's hands by this point and the guys at the landfill would be thinking f**k doing this one at a time get Jimmy up with the digger.