Posted on 02/24/2018 7:23:02 AM PST by rktman
Hopefully not the same sort of fiasco cbs did with Fender.
That raid was abusive, and I can’t say there was something legitimate behind it.
However, the sums and damages cited are not of a scale that five years later would cause a default on a half billion dollars of debt that comes due within a 7 day period. That seems more like a company that spent too much money with too low a return over a long period of time.
The guitars will still be made, the company will survive out of BK, the debt holders will write down some of this money, and Henry J. may retire, I would guess.
Trump needs to step in and save Gibson Guitars, just another Obomba political attack.
Goddamn that bastard!
I met Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz at the '98 NAMM show and walked away amazed at what a narcissistic jerk he was. The next year, I dropped the line due to incessant quality control issues, overpricing, and unrealistic inventory requirements.
There is a lot more to this than just rosewood confiscation.
Yes, the feral grubbermint is a very real problem for Gibson but so is their CEO Henry Juszkiewicz.
Juszkiewicz mgmt philosphy has completely ignored their customer base gearing the company toward building ‘innovative’ new guitars.
Innovation is not what guitar players want or expect from Gibson.
What they want, and what Gibson can provide at the prices they’re charging, is Exact replicas of Gibson production from the 1950s.
They are not interested in Chinese made crap with innovative tuning gears on them that tune the guitar for you.
It’s so bad there’s actually a name for Gibson’s top dollar, phony, imported “made in the USA” copies from China.
Players are furious at being charged $4K or more for a “Chibson”.
Their Epiphone brand used to be the low end, low cost look alikes.
Today it’s considered a better made instrument than the real thing.
“I think Gibson is really facing bankruptcy because they are trying too hard to sell $500.00 guitars for $4,000.00”
Many other competitors are using China to manufacture. The low end is gone.
<><>Solyndra Scandal – The Obama administration provided ths failing solar company with a $535 million stimulus-funded loan, courtesy of the American taxpayer. Taxpayer money kept pouring in despite the fact that the Office of Management and Budget warned that Solyndra was not a profitable or viable company. But it gets worse. The family foundation of billionaire George Kaiser, an Obama fundraiser, was one of Solyndra's main investors. Can you say quid pro quo?
<><> Veterans Affairs Scandal - Over 40 veterans needlessly died while waiting to be seen by doctors at a Phoenix VA facility. Another 1,700 veterans were forced to wait for months before being seen by medical personnel. An audit of the VA confirmed that VA officials systematically altered records and appointment schedules in a deliberate and methodical VA scheme to manipulate data to meet fabricated goals.
<><> Operation Chokepoint Scandal – The Obama DOJ utilized the power of big government to pressure banks to cease doing business with industries with which the administration had ideological differences. Gun manufacturers and gun stores were prime targets even though they had not violated any laws. Eventually, the FDIC admitted to misconduct, bowed to pressure and significantly curtailed the discriminatory regulations after affected businesses threatened legal action.
<><> Gibson Guitar Scandal – Armed federal agents executed four search warrants on Gibson Guitar Corp. facilities in Nashville and Memphis, Tenn., seizing guitars, electronic files and other inventory including wood that was purchased in India and Madagascar. The DOJ alleged that Gibson’s had violated an obscure law known as the Lacey Act which made it a crime to violate the environmental laws of another country. Gibson produced an affidavit from government officials in Madagascar stating that Gibson had violated none of that nation’s laws. Gibson also alleged that the DOJ was misinterpreting Indian law. Gibson’s CEO was a major donor to the GOP but his competitors, who purchased the same materials and were not GOP donors, were untouched by Obama’s DOJ. As part of a settlement to drop criminal charges, Gibson was required to pay a $250,000 fine and was required to donate $50,000 to an environmental group. Gibson was eventually able to retrieve its inventory from the clutches of the DOJ.
<><> Fast & Furious Scandal – A scheme concocted by the Obama administration that went horribly wrong. The administration lost track of some 1,400 guns that made their way into the stream of criminal enterprises including those of the Mexican drug cartels. Two of the guns were found at the scene of the shooting of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. Attorney General Eric Holder was cited for contempt of Congress for failing to turn over documents relating to the scandal. It was the first time Congress had taken such an action against a sitting Cabinet official. Seventeen Democrats joined Republicans in voting in favor of the criminal contempt resolution.
<><> Eric Holder's DOJ-James Rosen Scandal – FOX News journalist, James Rosen became the target of Obama’s DOJ in yet another example of extreme government overreaching. Believing that Rosen was responsible for a leak concerning a policy decision on North Korea, AG Eric Holder sought a subpoena for Rosen’s emails claiming that Rosen had broken the law “at the very least, either as an aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator.” The government’s affidavit also accused Rosen of possibly violating the Espionage Act. It appeared that the DOJ was acting like the East German Stasi in chasing fictitious enemies of the state. In a rare instance of bipartisanship, Holder was roundly criticized from all sides of the political spectrum and Holder himself was later forced to acknowledge that he regretted the episode.
<><>Gruber-Obamacare Scandal – To establish Obamacare’s validity, Obama hired economist and academic Jonathan Gruber to give the plan his seal of approval. Gruber was later caught on video and audio making several disparaging remarks about Americans, stating that Obamacare’s passage rested on the “stupidity of the American voter.” Democrats later tried to distance themselves from him and tried to minimize his role in formulating Obamacare but there was no debating that he was one of Obamacare’s chief architects and was paid nearly $400,000 for his services. Gruber confirmed what most of us already knew; that Obamacare passed as a result of a concerted effort by the administration to deceive the American people.
<><> Skolkovo Scandal – While serving as secretary of state, Clinton oversaw a program meant to “reset” relations with Moscow and improve ties. The program centered around the Russian city of Skolkovo near Moscow with the stated aim of “identifying areas of cooperation and pursuing joint projects and actions that strengthen strategic stability, international security, economic well-being, and the development of ties between the American and Russian people.”
Hillary's State Dept program transformed Skolkovo into a technology hub akin to a Silicon Valley. Sensitive American technology was transferred to the Russians, substantially enhancing their military and cyber capabilities. The US Army and the FBI concluded that Russia had exploited the program for military applications. The FBI warned American technology companies doing business in Skolkovo that the Skolkovo project was a means by which the Russians would acquire dual use technologies and apply them for military ends. According to investigative author Peter Schweizer, Russian and American companies and individuals involved in the Skolkovo fiasco “had major financial ties to the Clintons.”
Moreover, during the Russian reset period, those entities provided the Clintons with “tens of millions of dollars” in the form of “contributions to the Clinton Foundation, paid for speeches by Bill Clinton, or investments in small start-up companies with deep Clinton ties.”
Benghazi Scandal - U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed during an attack on the American consulate office. The Obama administration initially denied that the attack was terror related and instead peddled the now false and discredited narrative that it was triggered by a reaction to an anti-Muslim film. However, emails later confirmed that administration officials were well aware that it was a well-orchestrated, premeditated attack planned by Islamist terrorists and had nothing to do with an internet film. In addition, a congressional committee found that the delay in deploying military assets to the theater, which it attributed to needless bureaucratic bungling, almost certainly cost those men their lives. (hat tip frontpagemagazine.com)
Why would you even consider any Gibson, when you could have a Strat?
Electric guitars made by World Musical Instruments in South Korea (PRS SE, Michael Kelly, ESP) are of amazing quality and can be had for well under $1000.
Tweeted DT. Occasionally he looks at my tweets and Don, Jr. follows.
Gibson’s real problem is that their higher end guitars are made in the USA and involve a lot of hand labor. Fine guitars they are, but the ever increasing prices mean fewer and fewer people can afford them.
Henry J. is not without his faults. He forced a bunch of crap nobody wanted like his robo-tuners fiasco and then forced dealers to stock the shelves with them. He pulled authorized distributions away from a lot of mom and pop stores, essentially putting them out of business, for not playing ball. Prime example; Center City Music in San Diego had a thriving business selling nothing but Historic-collection Les Pauls, and for prices significantly less than GC/MF/SA. The owner didn't want to hang a bunch of robo-tuner garbage on his walls so Henry pulled his license. This means no more warranties.
Henry J. did a lot of great things for Gibson. Gibson Guitars today are putting out the best instruments they've ever made (if you're willing to pay Custom Shop prices for them). A problem however is, Gibson players don't want much innovation. They want the classic guitars that were made during the Ted McCarty era. They don't want robo-tuners. They want sunburst Les Paul Standards, black Les Paul Customs, and wine red 335s and SGs. They want them made to McCarty-era specs and sold at inflation-rated prices.
And there's fewer and fewer of this demographic each year.
Thanks rktman. Gibson was one of the companies that refused Obama's shakedown, and has been under attack ever since. An FR search should turn up more info.
Why would you even consider any Gibson, when you could have a Strat?
Because of the magnetic inductance from Fenders 3 single coil pickups pulling the basses in different directions at the same time, causing all manner of out of tune harmonics to run up and down the strings.
That’s why.
That's like saying why would you use red paint when you could use green paint or why would you drive a Tacoma when you could drive a Mustang? You have both.
Gibsons and Fenders make entirely different guitars.
It’s not the federal attacks. It’s Henry Juszkiewicz. The quality sucks while prices are sky high. There are defective truss rods in their electric guitars and the company knows it, but won’t change them because it would open them up to a lot of warranty claims. The guy who does all my guitar work here in Nashville tells me they have a large warehouse of nothing but “returned” acoustic guitars at their Bozeman, Montana facility. The quality that used to be in Gibsons is now over in their Epiphone Division which is under different leadership. The “politics” of this problem are not the great factor people are being led to believe here.
I prefer my US made Gibson Les Paul, myself.
(Followed closely by my 3 US made banjos, a US made dobro and *then* my foreign made Epiphone accoustic guitar.)
The quality is still there. Gibson players don't want PRS or Kiesel guitars. Those aren't what Jimmy Page played. They want Les Pauls.
Gibson's biggest competitor are used Gibsons. If Henry J. could figure out how to keep them off the market, he would.
It's about to get even worse. Wait until these Baby Boomers start dropping like flies and "dad's old guitar that I never learned how to play" wind up all over Craigslist and eBay for half the cost of a new one.
Aka ‘Chibson’
I hear the fit and finish are very good, wood is mahogany,maple tops are thick with the right supplier/maker.
Swap out the pick-ups and pots and voila, 3,000.00 Gibson.
I have my dad’s old Gibson acoustic. He took it with him in the Army during WWII. Sounds beautiful even with the little crack it has in the wood. He bought it used for like $8.
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