Gibson In Trouble... Options

[Mertay]

There is this really long report but this is much shorter;

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/indust...heyre_crap.html

This is the long one;

http://gawker.com/gibson-guitar-is-a-remar...pany-1713072808

Ouch...;

http://gawker.com/gibson-guitar-ceo-gets-e...a-da-1661598680

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This post has been edited by Mertay: Jun 24 2015, 12:33 AM

[fkalich]

No they are not in trouble. Looking at online financials, they are solvent. No serious financial risk in the reasonable future for the ongoing entity. Although I am not sure what the best corporate strategy for them is going forward.

I see that they purchased harmonycentral last month. interesting.

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This post has been edited by fkalich: Jun 24 2015, 04:58 AM

[Mertay]

No they are not in trouble. Looking at online financials, they are solvent. No serious financial risk in the reasonable future for the ongoing entity. Although I am not sure what the best corporate strategy for them is going forward.

I see that they purchased harmonycentral last month. interesting.

I remember reading their sales dropped somewhere on those links but it does have many branches, I took it more like bad things will happen in a more distant future.

A friend of me (who's doing a masters degree on marketing) harley davidson was losing 1% of its clients every year, as they simply die and not enough added. This has been happening to them for the last 20-30 years steadily. Started to feel that was for Gibson too although sure not as bad.

Every year I get that wtf moment when I see the changes on the guitar range. While they're doing such a good job with Epiphone, they took away so much vibe from specially the LP's.

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[Gabriel Leopardi]

Gibson is one of my all time favorite brands and my own Gibson is one of the best guitar I've ever tried. However, I've been at some Guitar Centers last year (at NYC) and honestly I tried many new Gibson guitar that were so bad! Bad tuners, bad calibration, bad feel, bad sound. There were also some good ones, but I can't understand how a brand like Gibson can let guitars like that be sold at the guitar stores. They should take more care of their quality...

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[Chris S.]

Gibson is one of my all time favorite brands and my own Gibson is one of the best guitar I've ever tried. However, I've been at some Guitar Centers last year (at NYC) and honestly I tried many new Gibson guitar that were so bad! Bad tuners, bad calibration, bad feel, bad sound. There were also some good ones, but I can't understand how a brand like Gibson can let guitars like that be sold at the guitar stores. They should take more care of their quality...

I tried a Gibson LP at my local guitar center that had a bit of fret over hang near the 12th fret

Blew my mind how guitar at a fraction of the price didn't have that issue but the Gibson did. I'm sure it was just "one of those few" but at that price I don't think there should be any issue with any of them.

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[Todd Simpson]

They are in trouble as a Brand IMHO, more so than their balance sheets. As you can tell from the posts in this thread, there is a general feeling that their prices are going up, and their quality is going dowwwwwwwwwn. It's been sliding down for a few years now and it's getting worse each year.

If they keep on this current path, increasing prices, reducing quality, they seem doomed to a slow death. They are a legendary brand and that has value by itself. But putting out pricey guitars that are cheap guitars in disguise is not a great plan. People are starting to look for older Gibsons since the new ones are starting to kind suck. This has very bad implications for future sales growth on new units.

Ibanez did something similar by making some very chintzy guitars but they didn't raise the price of the crap ones every year. Still, even their "prestige" models are now considered "mid range" guitars and mostly the J-Craft stuff is their top notch gear which is the equivalent of Gibsons USA range.

No they are not in trouble. Looking at online financials, they are solvent. No serious financial risk in the reasonable future for the ongoing entity. Although I am not sure what the best corporate strategy for them is going forward.

I see that they purchased harmonycentral last month. interesting.

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