5 ms·

This is a pet theory but the guitar hero/rock band craze seemed to prop up the real guitar industry for a bit, suddenly kids everywhere knew who Slash is and go

This is a pet theory but the guitar hero/rock band craze seemed to prop up the real guitar industry for a bit, suddenly kids everywhere knew who Slash is and got a $150 guitar for Christmas, when it declined around 2010 I think they lost some of that market.

chasedehan 8y ago
No way you could get a Gibson for anywhere near $150 - the demographic looking for the toy guitars isn't the same as the one that would buy a Gibson. Doubtful this had anything to do with it.
- Finnucane 8y ago
  Epiphone is Gibson's entry-level brand.
mikestew 8y ago
Word on the street is that kids just don't want to play guitars anymore. Throw some samples into GarageBand, and have at it. One young lady describes herself as being considered "weird because I play a guitar". I am a long way from childhood, but the impression I get is that the age of the guitar-playing rock god might be taking a breather for a bit. But in Gibson's case, it's debt-laden acquisitions. They might sell fewer Les Paul's than they used to, but probably enough to stay in business (Fender and Martin don't seem to be going anywhere). One additional point of data is the Nashville flood from around ten years ago. The mandolin business came back to life, but IIRC Gibson just gave up on making banjos after that. How the flood affected the rest of the business, I don't know.
- s2g 8y ago
  They are also a notoriously bad company to work for. They have a bad rep for quality control. They don't really seem to listen to the market all that much. Apparently the CEO is just a horrible boss.
  - mikestew 8y ago
    They are also a notoriously bad company to work for. They're also a notoriously bad company to be a dealer for. "Here, have a bunch of musical instruments that might or might not be saleable in your area. It matters not, you're stocking them if you want to remain a Gibson dealer." So they lost a lot of mom n' pops. I dunno, can Guitar Center keep them in business? Oh, forgot that GC is in trouble, too. I don't argue that Henry J., the current CEO, is a great guy and a wonderful businessman. However, point in his favor is that he and his fellow financiers bought Gibson for five million dollars in the 80s. Five million bucks: that's how low Gibson had fallen (and rightly so, given the shit they turned out in the 70s). Henry is just some banker that played guitar on the weekends who spotted a potential bargain. However, had that purchase not taken place, we might not even be having a conversation about a guitar maker that went out of business thirty years ago.
- squarefoot 8y ago
  "Word on the street is that kids just don't want to play guitars anymore." This pretty much started during the early 80s when everyone and his cat would want to impress girls playing a keyboard or a sax, then glam rock happened, followed by grunge and guitar became appealing again. Time changed since then, as did the interest for guitars, but it's not going away anytime soon; let's hope Gibson manages to survive the period. Today I'd say there's more interest for drums than guitar or bass: in my band a while ago I was among the 4 people who could play drums and we had only one guitarist, way different from say the 70s. What surely changed since the early days of guitar factories is the quality of unknown brand guitars; today it still requires some good work to manufacture a good guitar, but it's definitely much much easier than it was decades ago, and the quality difference doesn't reflect anymore the price delta.
  - freedomben 8y ago
    What are some good manufacturers that are less expensive? I haven't bought a guitar in about 15 years but I'm ready to buy a new one. No idea what the landscape looks like these days.
    - reason-mr 8y ago
      Electric - best bank for the buck by a mile : a base level fender MIM or USA made guitar; with the advantage that it's like hot-rodding cars in that you can take it apart and put it back together backwards. Acoustic - consider a Larrivee or a Taylor. If that's too expensive, go with a Seagull or Takamine. All of the above are decent instruments and not junk.
    - reason-mr 8y ago
      Oh an please, if buying new, support a decent, local, guitar shop (not a chain!) and get a "setup" done on your new guitar. Your fingers will thank you and so will the local guitar shop + you will have somewhere to go back to when things stop working for you.
      - freedomben 8y ago

chasedehan 8y ago

No way you could get a Gibson for anywhere near $150 - the demographic looking for the toy guitars isn't the same as the one that would buy a Gibson. Doubtful this had anything to do with it.

Finnucane 8y ago
Epiphone is Gibson's entry-level brand.

mikestew 8y ago

Word on the street is that kids just don't want to play guitars anymore. Throw some samples into GarageBand, and have at it. One young lady describes herself as being considered "weird because I play a guitar". I am a long way from childhood, but the impression I get is that the age of the guitar-playing rock god might be taking a breather for a bit. But in Gibson's case, it's debt-laden acquisitions. They might sell fewer Les Paul's than they used to, but probably enough to stay in business (Fender and Martin don't seem to be going anywhere). One additional point of data is the Nashville flood from around ten years ago. The mandolin business came back to life, but IIRC Gibson just gave up on making banjos after that. How the flood affected the rest of the business, I don't know.

s2g 8y ago
They are also a notoriously bad company to work for. They have a bad rep for quality control. They don't really seem to listen to the market all that much. Apparently the CEO is just a horrible boss.
- mikestew 8y ago
  They are also a notoriously bad company to work for. They're also a notoriously bad company to be a dealer for. "Here, have a bunch of musical instruments that might or might not be saleable in your area. It matters not, you're stocking them if you want to remain a Gibson dealer." So they lost a lot of mom n' pops. I dunno, can Guitar Center keep them in business? Oh, forgot that GC is in trouble, too. I don't argue that Henry J., the current CEO, is a great guy and a wonderful businessman. However, point in his favor is that he and his fellow financiers bought Gibson for five million dollars in the 80s. Five million bucks: that's how low Gibson had fallen (and rightly so, given the shit they turned out in the 70s). Henry is just some banker that played guitar on the weekends who spotted a potential bargain. However, had that purchase not taken place, we might not even be having a conversation about a guitar maker that went out of business thirty years ago.
squarefoot 8y ago
"Word on the street is that kids just don't want to play guitars anymore." This pretty much started during the early 80s when everyone and his cat would want to impress girls playing a keyboard or a sax, then glam rock happened, followed by grunge and guitar became appealing again. Time changed since then, as did the interest for guitars, but it's not going away anytime soon; let's hope Gibson manages to survive the period. Today I'd say there's more interest for drums than guitar or bass: in my band a while ago I was among the 4 people who could play drums and we had only one guitarist, way different from say the 70s. What surely changed since the early days of guitar factories is the quality of unknown brand guitars; today it still requires some good work to manufacture a good guitar, but it's definitely much much easier than it was decades ago, and the quality difference doesn't reflect anymore the price delta.
- freedomben 8y ago
  What are some good manufacturers that are less expensive? I haven't bought a guitar in about 15 years but I'm ready to buy a new one. No idea what the landscape looks like these days.
  - reason-mr 8y ago
    Electric - best bank for the buck by a mile : a base level fender MIM or USA made guitar; with the advantage that it's like hot-rodding cars in that you can take it apart and put it back together backwards. Acoustic - consider a Larrivee or a Taylor. If that's too expensive, go with a Seagull or Takamine. All of the above are decent instruments and not junk.
  - reason-mr 8y ago
    Oh an please, if buying new, support a decent, local, guitar shop (not a chain!) and get a "setup" done on your new guitar. Your fingers will thank you and so will the local guitar shop + you will have somewhere to go back to when things stop working for you.
    - freedomben 8y ago