Gibson Guitars are on the verge of bankruptcy per an article in the Nashville Times. The famed company is currently in a shitload of debt and its bondholders are panicking as their CFOs are abandoning ship. Despite bringing in a billion dollars last year, the prospects of Gibson are uncertain which begs the question: What future do high-end guitar brands have in a world that’s gravitating towards electronic music? And more importantly- is the death of electric guitar closer than we think, like many are claiming?
If Gibson- the most famed and widely used high end guitar brand- is having trouble of this magnitude despite a healthy revenue stream and a plethora of suits investing, this may be warning shots for similar brands like Paul Reed Smith Ltd and Taylor Guitars. Guitar sales in general have been in massive decline: over half a million less were sold in the past 10 years than the decade prior. Deep State propaganda outfit The Washington Post declared it was “the death of the electric guitar” although in fairness, they also claim Democracy is dying in darkness. Still, many are waking up to grim and ugly truth: for the masses, playing guitar has lost its luster.
Let’s face it: DJs and rappers are the new normie rock stars. Meanwhile, retail is being obliterated in America and online shopping is taking its place. Now think about it: in this environment, who’s to scam clueless parents out of buying a cheaper Korean model for little Johnny’s first guitar? Why will the youth pay more for an instrument that’s lost its luster in the eyes of most? How can guitars survive when guitar heroes are no more and mainstream outlets have left guitar based music for dead?
We will keep a close eye on this situation, but make no mistake- for high end guitars, guitar retail stores, and guitar sales in general: a full collapse is imminent.
Tags: bankruptcy, death of the guitar, decline, doom, Gibson, guitars, high end guitars, Korean guitars, news, panic, Paul Reed Smith, Taylor Guitars, trends
Instead of red blooded brands like Gibson it’s shemale brands like Ibanez or ESP that reign. BC Rich and Jackson became the Slipknot guitar brand and became tranny music enablers. Rape’em! Rape’em all!
High end guitars are and always have been massively overrated, even moreso than high-end tube amps, but Gibson is perhaps the worst of them all. Gibson is going bankrupt because they charge too much for “high-end guitars” that in reality have serious QC issues, have overly thick necks and uncomfortably heavy bodies (and they gain little to no sustain from it due to poor design). Combine this with an environment that, as mentioned, reveres the guitar less, and it’s easy to see why Gibson is having issues. The truth of the matter is no metal guitarist needs a guitar that costs more than $500 new, and that’s if you want one equipped with a decent floyd rose. If you don’t need that, which is most of us, there’s no reason to spend over $300. Get one of the shemale brands above instead, or even better, buy used.
I’ve been playing the same used electric I bought at a yard sale for 25 years now. It’s beat to shit and sounds gritty as hell. I’ve thought about cleaning it up and maybe restoring it completely, but then it wouldn’t have that dirty, grimey feel that fits perfectly with the music being played. Fuck it. Unless it craps out completely, it’s staying like it is.
Indeed. I’m satisfied with my Ibanez but make no mistake – if that faggot from Slipknot came into my hood I’d fucking rape his ass!
Gibson has been making shit guitars and overpricing them for decades now. Their gig is up and I say good riddance.
They lost it the 60’s. Typical cost cutting practices and gimmicky bullshit. I owned too many Gibson’s when I was younger but now I have an aftermarket LP that’s made better than most that come out of that factory.
The high-end guitar market as a whole is far from dying, as brands like Skervessen, Mayones, and Kiesel are proving. What is over are the days when you could market sub-par guitars to boomers by putting them in Eric Clapton’s (and, later, Slash’s) hands.
Gibson has been dying for a very long time, though. It’s only by sheer accident they didn’t go out of business in the ’80s; the only reason they’ve been around this long is because they were inflated by a pump-and-dump scheme from the time when they were owned by Bain Capital. It was inevitable that they’d go under when all of the debt Bain saddled them with came due, but it’s not Bain’s problem, since those shares have long been sold to other suckers.
On “she male” and “tranny” brands, how are their sales going? The other thing that I think would be of interest is how Fractal and Kemper are doing for sales.
Gibson are ancient when it comes to design. They neckdive, the headstocks bend the strings past the nut too much, no XJ frets, old ass pickups that don’t give you enough distortion, stupid bridge designs that don’t give you the playing dynamics necessary for metal, no floyds or kahler trems, SET NECK CONSTRUCTION which is the most fragile way to build a guitar, and a million other factory defects which have been discussed elsewhere. Don’t underestimate the importance of a bad guitar on musical creativity.
Don’t overestimate it either
Right. The big companies think you need “tonewood” or some super expensive neckthru construction to have a pro instrument. Both claims are nonsense when put under the lens of science.
All music gear is a fucking scam. People spend thousands for fucking toys that will take them nowhere, most albums that matter were recorded with what are perceived to be shitty solid state amps that cost next to nothing. Unless you are playing extremely clean tones, tourist trap BB King blues, or old country music to 7 people in some rockabilly fetish bar, you don’t need class A high end tube amps and $3000 guitars, it’s all a bunch of fucking bullshit.
Guitars are also a durable good. I’ve had my 30-year old American-made Kramer for 20 years and it is the only guitar (other than the acoustic) that I play, despite having a very nice Rickenbacker. I expect that my son will get my Kramer when I die or can no longer play. The increasingly small market for guitars is flooded with excellent guitars built when there was still such a thing as QC and craftsmanship.
Real distorted electric guitar will never go completely away, just like the grand piano. There are so many undertones and harmonics generated by those two instruments that music lovers will always want to hear music played on these particular instruments.
There are better manufacturers selling at a more reasonable price. Good riddance.
Sell your guitar and learn piano!
Just buy a shit thrift store guitar and play your shitty rip off music for other braindead morons on it. Hai Shatn!
I think underground hip hop is dying. It’s been a long time since I’ve encountered an audience at a performance which wasn’t just pompous jerks pompously jerking for the sake if it, showing off for their peer group (and presumably, closeby women) without any regard for the music. Of late, even performers seem to have gotten infected with karaoke disease — they’re no longer performing, just imitating a performance “for fun”.
NB: This is both exaggerated and invalid as it’s a random anecdote. I just felt like providing counterpoint to the stereotypical “hip hop has so won“. Starts to get a bit old.