Gibson Authorized Partnership Program announced

Musicman20 · July 2019

This whole situation has changed from 'excellent positive changes' to 'wtf'....in a few months.

Henrytwang · July 2019

What a load of nonsense. If Gibson listened to their present and potential customers and produced well built production guitars that they actually wanted the boutique market would be a lot smaller. The new bloke seems a clueless as Henry.

jeztone2 · July 2019

There is no guitar in the current Core range with jumbo frets.

Fender, Yamaha, PRS, Ibanez, Dean etc all do this.

p90fool · July 2019

Henrytwang said:

If Gibson listened to their present and potential customers and produced well built production guitars that they actually wanted the boutique market would be a lot smaller.

I doubt it, Gibson know that the "boutique" market would be unaffected by them making perfect production line replicas - people want the story about the guy who trudges through the forest looking for the perfect fallen tree, building a one-off, once-in-a-lifetime guitar just for them which has magical properties, or would have if they's learned to play instead of hanging around the golf club talking about their fucking 911s.

No large corporation can fill that child-like need for these "because I'm worth it" types, no matter how good the guitar is.

OilCityPickups · July 2019

p90fool said:

No large corporation can fill that child-like need for these "because I'm worth it" types, no matter how good the guitar is.

Did you license that phrase from L'Oréal or is it a counterfeit?

Danielsguitars · July 2019

IvisonGuitars said:

Danielsguitars said:

The high end replica makers won't make a blind bit of difference to Gibson's bank balance, it's a small but completely different market imo, Gibson doesn't have the resources to build them properly to vintage spec, they take too long to make money

I don't really agree with this, I have to say. If anyone has the resources and buying power to make a dead on '59 Burst replica cheaply, it's Gibson.

It's the finishing Neil they haven't got time to get it right imo, i know how long it takes me, i spent 6 months on a dc junior alone, same as fading bursts etc, takes too long

Clive brown takes months as well or you go down the fake looking rubbish

One reason why I'm going to scale back vintage spec stuff and finishing

Stevepage · July 2019

Can Gibson seriously not have their Fender moment an look at all these guitars from overseas, built better than theirs and think “oh shit we need to get our act together”.

Just look at what Feline do with the Lion, best single cut you can find.

DeeTee · July 2019

In the first half he seems to be talking about fakes:

“There’s a spectrum that occurs. And the spectrum can be wide, but it can also be definitive or grey depending on how you look at it, and the definitive part is the known counterfeit/knockoffs. They truly, they see a brand that’s iconic, they see it has momentum, and they want to take – just frankly – illegitimate leverage on that momentum through counterfeit product, and you have to hit that hard, you have to stop it fast, or it gets out of control, and quite frankly, it damages your brand. But not just your brand and your business, it puts guitars out there that confuse guitarists, thinking they bought a real Gibson, so that’s this spectrum here, you really have to be tough on that.”

If that's where he left it, I'd be on board with that. I don't like to see people who aren't aware thinking they're getting a good second hand Gibson and receiving a badly made knock off. The problem is he then talks about boutique builders.

I don't think anyone orders from a boutique builder thinking they're getting a Gibson.

Conflating those two things is just disingenuous nonsense. I get going after the fakes. That's good. But someone handmaking a replica of a '59 Junior with a different headstock and different name just isn't the same thing.

digitalscream · July 2019

The higher-ups at Gibson aren't really all that bright, it seems, and they're definitely not students of history.

The "forced licensing and lawsuits" business model is exactly what SCO tried to do to Linux, culminating in possibly the most disastrous lawsuit in computing history against IBM and Novell. The main problem they had (other than not having a leg to stand on) was the fact that they alienated the entire Linux community - with the follow-on result that all of those alienated parties began to unite against them. They ended up trying to conduct suits against Novell, IBM, SuSE, DaimlerChrysler, Autozone and Red Hat simultaneously, and went bankrupt as a result of it - but they listed the amounts that they were suing all of them for as assets, before losing against Novell on all claims.

The other suits were dismissed without prejudice, but SCO can only resurrect their claims (even though most in every suit were ruled against) if they pay all of the parties' legal fees, which they can't afford. Ironically, the right to appeal and resurrect the suits is now the only asset that SCO has, because all of its other assets were sold off to satisfy Chapter 11.

In other words...it's hardly a winning strategy. Gibson basically tick all the boxes for exactly the same outcome at this point.

stuagu · July 2019

terada said:

Philly_Q said:

Come back Henry, all is forgiven. This "JC" bloke is like Mike Ashley.

I just cant stop seeing geoffrey from "rainbow"

IvisonGuitars · July 2019

Danielsguitars said:

IvisonGuitars said:

Danielsguitars said:

The high end replica makers won't make a blind bit of difference to Gibson's bank balance, it's a small but completely different market imo, Gibson doesn't have the resources to build them properly to vintage spec, they take too long to make money

I don't really agree with this, I have to say. If anyone has the resources and buying power to make a dead on '59 Burst replica cheaply, it's Gibson.

It's the finishing Neil they haven't got time to get it right imo, i know how long it takes me, i spent 6 months on a dc junior alone, same as fading bursts etc, takes too long

Clive brown takes months as well or you go down the fake looking rubbish

One reason why I'm going to scale back vintage spec stuff and finishing

True, the finishing can take a few months but they have the scale/production line/capital to work 6 months in advance of any orders or, better still for them, quote a 6 month build time, the potential market place would have no problem with that at all, in fact, it’d probably be part of the appeal.

IvisonGuitars · July 2019

DeeTee said:

In the first half he seems to be talking about fakes:

“There’s a spectrum that occurs. And the spectrum can be wide, but it can also be definitive or grey depending on how you look at it, and the definitive part is the known counterfeit/knockoffs. They truly, they see a brand that’s iconic, they see it has momentum, and they want to take – just frankly – illegitimate leverage on that momentum through counterfeit product, and you have to hit that hard, you have to stop it fast, or it gets out of control, and quite frankly, it damages your brand. But not just your brand and your business, it puts guitars out there that confuse guitarists, thinking they bought a real Gibson, so that’s this spectrum here, you really have to be tough on that.”

If that's where he left it, I'd be on board with that. I don't like to see people who aren't aware thinking they're getting a good second hand Gibson and receiving a badly made knock off. The problem is he then talks about boutique builders.

I don't think anyone orders from a boutique builder thinking they're getting a Gibson.

Conflating those two things is just disingenuous nonsense. I get going after the fakes. That's good. But someone handmaking a replica of a '59 Junior with a different headstock and different name just isn't the same thing.

Pretty much spot on here @DeeTee ;

Dan_Halen · July 2019

Seems like another step in the direction of pushing the agenda that any company using a vaguely similar shape is stealing their design.

If a number of established independent builders sign up to being Gibson shills, bound by whatever horrendous Ts & Cs Gibson chose to lock them down with and acknowledge they are indeed using a Gibson design, it would lend weight to the argument that the industry does indeed see the LP shape as Gibson's own and therefore any vaguely similar designs can be considered fakes. Then comes the legal action.

Shame that the interviewer didn't press them on what they consider counterfeit as that's the crux for me. If they just went after the China rip-offs then the public would probably be on board. However, they seem to be being deliberately vague when they allude to what constitutes a counterfeit product and, considering their actions against Dean, it's quite obvious where this is headed.

It's also quite funny that they're really just producing 'fakes' themselves. *Cough* Sorry... re-issues. If they were so fucking smart they wouldn't have dropped the design themselves in 1960.

Maybe just concentrate on making good guitars and looking after your workforce. What a horrible company they are.

terada · July 2019

stuagu said:

terada said:

Philly_Q said:

Come back Henry, all is forgiven. This "JC" bloke is like Mike Ashley.

I just cant stop seeing geoffrey from "rainbow"

So weird that you say that, because I found a pic of the Gibson leadership team earlier and thought exactly the same thing

Image: http://i68.tinypic.com/v80w36.png

stuagu · July 2019

Quality

NelsonP · July 2019

terada said:

stuagu said:

terada said:

Philly_Q said:

Come back Henry, all is forgiven. This "JC" bloke is like Mike Ashley.

I just cant stop seeing geoffrey from "rainbow"

So weird that you say that, because I found a pic of the Gibson leadership team earlier and thought exactly the same thing

No counterfeiting guys, or Big Geoff is coming to fuck you up!

Jez6345789 · July 2019

I am no legal expert in these matters but is this just not a case of by signing up licensee's do they not massively increase the validity of their Trademark and patent infringements as ISTR the fact that other builders recognise and acknowledge their claims is a power arguing point.

Frankly its the thin end of a very thick wedge for the guitar industry.

Kittyfrisk · July 2019

NelsonP said:

terada said:

stuagu said:

terada said:

Philly_Q said:

Come back Henry, all is forgiven. This "JC" bloke is like Mike Ashley.

I just cant stop seeing geoffrey from "rainbow"

So weird that you say that, because I found a pic of the Gibson leadership team earlier and thought exactly the same thing

No counterfeiting guys, or Big Geoff is coming to fuck you up!

For all those older members that can remember when a pixel was a real, tangible thing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgbcQIT7BMc

musicman100 · July 2019

All this is just putting me more and more off the brand......

p90fool · July 2019

OilCityPickups said:

p90fool said:

No large corporation can fill that child-like need for these "because I'm worth it" types, no matter how good the guitar is.

Did you license that phrase from L'Oréal or is it a counterfeit?

Hey, I made that phrase up, around the same time I invented double cream bobbins!

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Gibson Authorized Partnership Program announced

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