Gibson Firebird X....why, oh why?

jimistone said:
The old Gibson guitars are simple and last several lifetimes.
If it ain't broke don't fix it I say.
Like lt boob says the ones with all the high tech additions will be junk in a decade while the old ones are still being played...refretted....played...refretted.... and highly desirable.
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yep ...... there are plenty of 60 year old Gibsons and Fenders that still play great and have no electronics issues. And they'll still be going 50 years from now.
This need for self tuning is just silly to me but I'm a geezer so what do I know?
 
Being in retail myself I understand the need to drive sales in order to get growth over last year. I understand the pressure coming from upper level management to make that happen. IMO fender has done a lot better job of driving sales in a tough market than Gibson. Fender has tried to keep good instruments affordable and they have basically taken every conceivable aftermarket strat and Tele player modification and turned it into another model. Sure, there are high priced strats and teles but the bulk of what fender produces is within reach of the average musician. Gibson on the other hand has almost priced themselves out of reach for the average musician. These fancy High tech axes are not the answer. High tech electronics heavy guitars don't drive sales...great guitars at an affordable price along with guitar heroes cooking on those very guitars is what drives sales.
There is no telling how many strats jimi Hendrix sold and likewise jimmy page sold a lot of les Paul's.

Gibson needs to get their prices back down to earth, find some up and comming players to develop and sponsor, and make the great instruments that made them a household name
 
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jimistone said:
Being in retail myself I understand the need to drive sales in order to get growth over last year. I understand the pressure coming from upper level management to make that happen. IMO fender has done a lot better job of driving sales in a tough market than Gibson. Fender has tried to keep good instruments affordable and they have basically taken every conceivable aftermarket strat and Tele player modification and turned it into another model. Sure, there are high priced strats and teles but the bulk of what fender produces is within reach of the average musician. Gibson on the other hand has almost priced themselves out of reach for the average musician. These fancy High tech axes are not the answer. High tech electronics heavy guitars don't drive sales...great guitars at an affordable price along with guitar heroes cooking on those very guitars is what drives sales.
There is no telling how many strats jimi Hendrix sold and likewise jimmy page sold a lot of les Paul's.

Gibson needs to get their prices back down to earth, find some up and comming players to develop and sponsor, and make the great instruments that made them a household name
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You're acting like Gibson is going out of business. I'd bet they're laughing all the way to the bank.
 
Greg_L said:
You're acting like Gibson is going out of business. I'd bet they're laughing all the way to the bank.
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I don't know exactly what their situation is...they're a privately owned company and lately they are very tight lipped about their finances. That being said its obvious that fender is mopping the floor with them in terms of merchandising, marketing, and vision of what musicians want and what they can afford to pay for it.
I LOVE Gibson les Paul's and I hope they make them for as long as I live but there are cracks forming in the foundation of that company and the CEO, who was once te savior of the company in the 1980's, is a big part of their problem now.

Here is a link that talks about the current state of Gibson:

Gibson Guitar CEO picks fight with lenders after alienating retailers and employees - FT.com
 
jimistone said:
I don't know exactly what their situation is...they're a privately owned company and lately they are very tight lipped about their finances. That being said its obvious that fender is mopping the floor with them in terms of merchandising, marketing, and vision of what musicians want and what they can afford to pay for it.
I LOVE Gibson les Paul's and I hope they make them for as long as I live but there are cracks forming in the foundation of that company and the CEO, who was once te savior of the company in the 1980's, is a big part of their problem now.

Here is a link that talks about the current state of Gibson:

Gibson Guitar CEO picks fight with lenders after alienating retailers and employees - FT.com
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I really don't care either way. I have no dog in the guitar fight. But my experiences are different from yours. I get the impression that Gibson has made a resurgence in the past decade. Gibson inventory is always moving at my local big guitar supermarkets. The one area that I see Fender making headway with young/modern players is with offset shape humbucking guitars like their pawn shop Mustangs and Jags/Jazzmasters. That kind of stuff is cool with the indie/hipster/punk rock crowd. No one in my world is trotting out authentic Strats or Teles though. Maybe the blues and country guys are still living with those guitars, but not many other people are in my world. Gibsons might be too expensive for some people, but they're still very much sought after. People aren't turning to Fender because of it though. A Strat or Tele isn't an alternative if someone wants a Les Paul.
 
Greg_L said:
I really don't care either way. I have no dog in the guitar fight. But my experiences are different from yours. I get the impression that Gibson has made a resurgence in the past decade. Gibson inventory is always moving at my local big guitar supermarkets. The one area that I see Fender making headway with young/modern players is with offset shape humbucking guitars like their pawn shop Mustangs and Jags/Jazzmasters. That kind of stuff is cool with the indie/hipster/punk rock crowd. No one in my world is trotting out authentic Strats or Teles though. Maybe the blues and country guys are still living with those guitars, but not many other people are in my world. Gibsons might be too expensive for some people, but they're still very much sought after. People aren't turning to Fender because of it though. A Strat or Tele isn't an alternative if someone wants a Les Paul.
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I don't have a dog in the fight either. I have a Gibson LP and a vintage strat. I'm buying parts to put together a Tele partscaster and I doubt I will ever buy a brand new Gibson or fender in the future. I'm a dinosaur and I like old strats, teles, and les Paul's. It just my opinion that these electronic self tuning guitars are not going to catch on and they will not hold up. When they break they will have to be sent back to Gibson...and it will cost a fortune to fix if it's even economically feesible to do so. Resale on those guitars will not hold up like Gibsons of the past.
Once people get hosed on them Gibson as a whole could suffer IMO.
It dosen't make sense to me that they would go in that direction that's all.

Also, the reason Gibsons are moving in the big stores like guitar center is because small stores can't afford to stock the full line of Gibson and epiphone guitars which is a requirement now to be an authorized dealer

Meanwhile the smaller stores are selling fender and Ibanez
 
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jimistone said:
I don't have a dog in the fight either. I have a Gibson LP and a vintage strat. I'm buying parts to put together a Tele partscaster and I doubt I will ever buy a brand new Gibson or fender in the future. I'm a dinosaur and I like old strats, teles, and les Paul's. It just my opinion that these electronic self tuning guitars are not going to catch on and they will not hold up. When they break they will have to be sent back to Gibson...and it will cost a fortune to fix if it's even economically feesible to do so. Resale on those guitars will not hold up like Gibsons of the past.
Once people get hosed on them Gibson as a whole could suffer IMO.
It dosen't make sense to me that they would go in that direction that's all.

Also, the reason Gibsons are moving in the big stores like guitar center is because small stores can't afford to stock the full line of Gibson and epiphone guitars which is a requirement now to be an authorized dealer

Meanwhile the smaller stores are selling fender and Ibanez
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I agree that the "robot" guitars are retarded. It's so dumb. Self tuning? Please. I'm not crazy about the less tech wild tricks they do either. Boost buttons? Straight-to-jack pull pots? Come on. Coil splitting is about as much as I'm willing to tolerate. :laughings:

I don't know about the "small stores" thing. Here in Houston several small stores stock Gibsons. Maybe a "small store" in Houston is bigger than other city's small stores, I don't know. But around these parts, the small stores that don't stock Gibsons are the ones that go out of business. There was one by my mom's house called "Smack Guitars". He wouldn't stock Gibsons on principles. He was very vocal about refusing to cave to their demands as a retailer. Okay that's fine. He had a bunch of Ibanez and some Fenders and bunch of Schecters and other stuff like that. He went out of business in about a year. I don't know what role Gibson directly played in that, but I do know that people went in there looking for Gibsons and he didn't stock any. Down the road the people went.

Edit - I take that back, they didn't go out of business. The rumors were false. They moved. Apparently smack guitars is doing okay.
 
Greg_L said:
I agree that the "robot" guitars are retarded. It's so dumb. Self tuning? Please. I'm not crazy about the less tech wild tricks they do either. Boost buttons? Straight-to-jack pull pots? Come on. Coil splitting is about as much as I'm willing to tolerate. :laughings:

I don't know about the "small stores" thing. Here in Houston several small stores stock Gibsons. Maybe a "small store" in Houston is bigger than other city's small stores, I don't know. But around these parts, the small stores that don't stock Gibsons are the ones that go out of business. There was one by my mom's house called "Smack Guitars". He wouldn't stock Gibsons on principles. He was very vocal about refusing to cave to their demands as a retailer. Okay that's fine. He had a bunch of Ibanez and some Fenders and bunch of Schecters and other stuff like that. He went out of business in about a year. I don't know what role Gibson directly played in that, but I do know that people went in there looking for Gibsons and he didn't stock any. Down the road the people went.

Edit - I take that back, they didn't go out of business. The rumors were false. They moved. Apparently smack guitars is doing okay.
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having worked in some decnt sized private stores I gotta say that not many of them could afford to stock 100 grand worth of Gibsons a year.
 
IMHO, Gibson is all about just sellin' guitars for as much as they possibly can, and any gimmick is fair game. Riding on their reputation, it seems. Innovation is does by other companies- I think Line 6 and Peavey are doing that better than Gibson, keeping the tradition alive is handled better by acoustic makers like Martin and Taylor, and LaSiDo showed the way towards making reasonably- priced guitars in North America (I am sure I missed several- flame away!) Gibson... and Jimmy Buffett- mining old veins for all they are worth.

Sigh.
 
As has been said, all the bells and whistles in that POS will be what fails in short order. I'm not against innovation but I'd NEVER buy one of these (and I have bought some VERY expensive guitars in my time).
 
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