"...one of the most widely recognized brand names on planet Earth" Files For Bankruptcy
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The maker of the Gibson guitar, omnipresent for decades on the American music stage, is filing for bankruptcy protection after wrestling for years with debt.
A pre-negotiated reorganization plan filed Tuesday will allow Gibson Brands Inc. to continue operations with $135 million in financing from lenders.
Gibson guitars have been esteemed by generations of guitar legends. After Chuck Berry died, his beloved cherry-red Gibson guitar was bolted to the inside of his coffin lid. David Bowie favored the 1989 Gibson L4 when he fronted Tin Machine. Slash swears by them.
"It is one of the most widely recognized brand names on planet Earth," said George Gruhn of Gruhn Guitars, a world-famous vintage instrument store.
Founded in 1894 and based in Nashville, Tennessee, Gibson has the top market share in premium electric guitars. It sells more than 170,000 guitars a year in more than 80 countries, including more than 40 percent of all electric guitars that cost more than $2,000, according to a bankruptcy filing.
The company has already sold off some noncore brands, acquisitions that contributed to its burdensome debt load. Gibson has begun the liquidation process for its debt-plagued, struggling international Gibson Innovations division, which sells headphones, speakers, accessories and other electronics.
"The decision to re-focus on our core business, musical instruments, combined with the significant support from our noteholders, we believe will assure the company's long-term stability and financial health," Henry Juszkiewicz, Gibson chairman and CEO, said in a news release.
Gruhn, an expert on guitars of all kinds, said the company's bankruptcy was predictable after it expanded into the home electronics business. But that doesn't mean the Gibson brand will simply go away, Gruhn added.
"The brand name and company's reputation for making guitars is tarnished, but not dead by any means, and it's very much capable of being resuscitated," Gruhn said.
In the hands of musicians from B.B. King to Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Duane Allman and Slash, Gibson's electric guitars have been a foundational element of blues and rock. King's signature guitar, "Lucille," was a Gibson.
Legendary jazz guitar player Charlie Christian made history playing a Gibson ES-150 — one of the first ever electric guitars — through an amplifier with the Benny Goodman orchestra. The later big-bodied Gibson jazz guitars have been in the arsenal of many great players since then, such as Wes Montgomery and Joe Pass.
One of the only known photographs of iconic Delta blues pioneer Robert Johnson shows him with a Gibson L-1 guitar.
And the folk-revival of the 1950s and 1960s wouldn't have sounded quite so mellow without battalions of steel-string Gibson acoustic guitars among the Martins and Guilds.
In 1952, the company enlisted the services of popular recording artist Les Paul to introduce his namesake signature guitar. Les Paul remains one of the most familiar names in guitar models today.
Elvis Presley didn't start out with a Gibson but owned and played many of them, according to the website for Graceland, his Memphis home.
Eric Clapton played the solo on the Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" on a Gibson guitar he borrowed from George Harrison, according to GuitarWorld.com. And Jimmy Page, the legendary guitarist for blues rockers Led Zeppelin, was and remains a longtime Gibson loyalist.
"It's hard to name any guitar players who play electric or steel-string acoustics who don't own a Gibson," said Gruhn, the Nashville guitar expert.
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Guitar-legend-Gibson-seeks-bankruptcy-protection-12877661.php
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Jimmy Page talking about the recording of Whole Lotta Love
Iconic company and guitar. Seems that the purchase of companies not in the guitar business was their downfall. Hopefully now they can regroup and get back to what they do best...Guitars.
If Robert Johnson (king of the bluesman) played a Gibson, you know the quality of the instrument.
You definitely know the quality of the instrument 60 years ago for sure.
I believe that Johnson is playing the gibson L1 in this recording. Wish I found find out for sure.
It's still playing in a bedroom, echoing softly throughout the house.
I think the possum in the back yard even stopped to listen for a few minutes before continuing his nightly forage.
Another piece of the puzzle,,,it's all about the wood nowwa days. The thing this article doesn't talk about are Gibson's acoustic guitars, among the finest in the world; and, generally speaking (no matter the crafter) top line acoustic are more expensive than top line electrics. For quite a few years now luthiers have been having a harder and harder time finding the a lot of the rare woods used, at it's now a full blown global race by manufacturers to stockpile as much now as possible. A few years back Gibson was raided and have been struggling since.
I saw something similar on a documentary and the EPA or Fish & Wildlife confiscated Gibson's rarer wood stocks because they were in violation of some treaty with the UN, India and Madagascar.
It was a few years ago when they were already on the rocks financially and didn't think they could
A make the same quality guitars with different wood
b recover financially from the hit.
Rosewood was the prized wood for use on Martin guitars, not sure about Gibsons. Before I left for China I gave both my guitars and a number of other instruments, autoharp, mandolin, banjo and Appalachian dulcimer to my son. My Martin was a 1950s vintage D28 and my Gibson was a 1950s vintage B45 12-string. My first guitar was a Spanish classical I picked up in Spain, but it turned to shit in Canada's climate. Then my next guitar was a fabulous Gibson, much easier to play than a Martin, as I discovered when I made the mistake of trading it with a cowboy for a Martin D18 - and in hindsight he got the better guitar.
Anyway, it's a good thing Gibson guitars will continue to be made.
Considering how much debt Gibson has accrued, this settlement is crazy. Gibson has been blaming brick and mortars for their issues (well, it's one of the directions they have gone in the blame game anyway), but this whole situation is their own fault, and I kind of object to this bail out. They should be handing the reins to different ownership if they are going to do that.
A) Gibson are typically priced no less than 2-3 times the price of the same guitars with the same body styles, pickups, wood, etc....made by other companies.
B) It is their arrogance in pricing their guitars for having the Gibson tag on them that took them there to begin with.
C) Their quality has dipped significantly over the last five or so years. Additionally, they revised the classic body styles which created quite the backlash. You pick up a Les Paul, you have a certain level of expectation, and Gibson's new designs failed to meet those expectations, but their pricing didn't reflect this at all.
D) Their quality control team is terrible. The last Gibson I bought (picture below) had to be replaced twice because they didn't bother setting the frets properly and in one, some of the wiring was loose. I found this aggravating, but also a little amusing because with each guitar you buy of theirs, you get a little card from the tech who was supposed to check everything ion the guitar before shipping out (along with a picture of your guitar on their workstation). This is not a one off experience.
E)They've definitely relaxed their QC for the actual parts as well. Some of the pieces on the newer Gibson's are of notably poor quality. Especially the real nuts and bolts parts.
It's sad. I've never really loved SG's or Explorers, but Les Pauls will always be a top tier guitar. I'd like to see Gibson start treating them that way again.
Maybe this is what happens when Ted Nugent endorses your product.