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Post by vikingblues on Oct 4, 2014 19:48:05 GMT
I've been seeing info on the internet about major changes to Gibson guitars in 2015. Increased prices and changes in specifications. So if anyone's thinking of one maybe better to see what they're doing and perhaps think of buying sooner rather than later? Gibson Prices Info linkGibson Chages - a techs viewpointA 29% price increase sounds a bit eye watering. No satin finishes sounds bad news for those looking at the cheaper models. The Mini-tune (rebranded as G-Force  ) as standard seems odd - most of us can tune a guitar. Why enforce payment for something we may well not want? The adjustable zero fret could be good if it's mechanically sound. But it does seem like an admission of failure that their workforce can't cut a nut to an adequate quality. Also odd if all models are to have a Rosewood fretboard as suggested might be the case. I do notice the tech is rather critical of dried out Gibson fretboards in recent times - that was certainly the case with the SG I got last year (drier than the Sahara), one of it's many failings. So much of what Gibson do these days seems to be geared up to more standardised production and less workforce skills - sad to see. |
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Akquarius
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Post by Akquarius on Oct 4, 2014 20:09:01 GMT
Increased prices and changes in specifications. Increased prices ? On Gibsons? This is probably something for the "Guitar Humour" section. I had always thought that they are already ridiculously overpriced. Making them even more expensive seems like a bad joke to me. |
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Martin
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Post by Martin on Oct 4, 2014 21:54:19 GMT
I had read about that, Mark. The price increases seem crazy as does the use of the tuning system as standard, although I can understand streamlining their products (the range of Les Paul guitars has become mind-numbing!). I suppose they know their business best, though! When I was in my teens, I always used to want a Les Paul Standard and Marshall stack - now I am happy to go the Fender route for my electric impulses, and thankfully no longer have the Gibson bug  |
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Post by pnut on Oct 4, 2014 23:23:24 GMT
How sad, but typical of what happens these days when all the sh.t floats to the top of many companies and ends up in the boardroom! Seems to be the way of the modern world.........hey where's the curmudgeonly old gits thread gone when you need it!
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Post by grayn on Oct 5, 2014 5:37:26 GMT
Both Gibson and Fender have have an overpowering share of the electric guitar/bass market.
But "sensible" buyers still buy their gear because the re-sale is always going to be better than other makes.
I think Gibson have tried to copy Fender by having a vast array of models, that are basically, variations on their most well known models. Les Paul, SG and 335. And they have Epiphone, as Fender have Squiers. Trouble is, the top end Epis are pricier than the bottom end Gibbos. Now it's certain that a high end Chinese or Korean Epi will be a far better made instrument than a US made, £500 Gibbo. But people will want a "real Gibson" over an Epiphone, any day. I've played a few of these low-end US Gibsons and they are mostly, very shoddy.
With the min-e-tune, or whatever they are calling it now, Gibson have spent a fortune developing the technology and so have to justify it by literally forcing folk to have one, with every new guitar. I suppose that is one benefit of the low-end Gibsons. They don't come with a min-e-tune.
I know a couple of shops, who have been Fender dealers for years, who are now having to give up the dealership because the amount of stock they have to carry has been vastly increased recently, with a very small mark up on prices. Makes it next to impossible for the small/medium sized shops to carry Fenders. Fender have bought up most of their opposition and in some cases, stopped production.
For me, it's a shame that companies who started the whole thing, have become corperate bullies. Though, to be honest, they still produce some great guitars, at times.
Even more of a shame, is the buying public are so conservative. There are some amazing guitar makes out there, that the majority of the guitar buying public, either know or care nothing about.
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007
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Post by 007 on Oct 5, 2014 18:27:20 GMT
I have always hankered after a Taylor or a Gibson never a Martin as I felt always that they are trading on the badge
after reading this it makes me appreciate what luthiers like Dave and Adrian are trying to do and if I could ever afford it I would get Dave to make me a guitar.
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Post by michaelm on Oct 5, 2014 18:44:00 GMT
Both Gibson and Fender have have an overpowering share of the electric guitar/bass market. But "sensible" buyers still buy their gear because the re-sale is always going to be better than other makes. I think Gibson have tried to copy Fender by having a vast array of models, that are basically, variations on their most well known models. Les Paul, SG and 335. And they have Epiphone, as Fender have Squiers. Trouble is, the top end Epis are pricier than the bottom end Gibbos. Now it's certain that a high end Chinese or Korean Epi will be a far better made instrument than a US made, £500 Gibbo. But people will want a "real Gibson" over an Epiphone, any day. I've played a few of these low-end US Gibsons and they are mostly, very shoddy. With the min-e-tune, or whatever they are calling it now, Gibson have spent a fortune developing the technology and so have to justify it by literally forcing folk to have one, with every new guitar. I suppose that is one benefit of the low-end Gibsons. They don't come with a min-e-tune.I know a couple of shops, who have been Fender dealers for years, who are now having to give up the dealership because the amount of stock they have to carry has been vastly increased recently, with a very small mark up on prices. Makes it next to impossible for the small/medium sized shops to carry Fenders. Fender have bought up most of their opposition and in some cases, stopped production. For me, it's a shame that companies who started the whole thing, have become corperate bullies. Though, to be honest, they still produce some great guitars, at times. Even more of a shame, is the buying public are so conservative. There are some amazing guitar makes out there, that the majority of the guitar buying public, either know or care nothing about. I was in a guitar shop earlier this year, the guy I dealt with was telling me prices were going up, mini tune as standard etc. Apparently the Gibson sales rep had told them this was going to happen - Gibson wanting to be seen a premium brand, so there will be no more Les Paul Junior etc, only the standard. i.e. there will be no low end Gibson. |
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Post by chris501 on Oct 5, 2014 19:06:03 GMT
They're doing the Junior and a double cut with 2 P90's, but they'll have proper gloss finishes instead of satin or 'Vintage Gloss' as they liked to call some of them. Not all the prices are going up. The LP Studio goes up in spec and down in price, looks really good and I'm looking forward to them coming in. Min-etune on everything........well, the thing is, if you really don't like it the whole thing will come off and you can stick some regular machine heads on without any drilling or modification at all. I must admit it seems wrong on acoustics, not so much on the electrics once you get used to it, but a J45 or Hummingbird?
Dry fretboards as mentioned above are really down to the shop it was bought from, a couple of minutes of attention before hanging it on the wall is all that's required (not just Gibson), and the whole guitar looks and feels better.
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Post by grayn on Oct 6, 2014 10:09:11 GMT
Looks like the Gibson rep doesn't know what he's on about. There are some nice looking, budget Juniors, in the 2015 line up.
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Post by earwighoney on Oct 6, 2014 22:13:54 GMT
Gibson seem to be a really confused company. At times they seem to be set to make really affordable guitars, then they decide they don't want to do that and be a higher end maker.
I can't remember which company owns Fender, but they own a slew of other music companies as well. Fender in the States anyway are seeking to cut out the middle man and supply directly which is putting even more pressure on retailers.
For electric guitars anyway, it's really sad a few brands dominate the landscape so much; it can't be healthy in the long run and if Fender take out retailers in the process it'll do a lot of damage to an industry already in a vicarious situation. I've heard murmurs that Taylor guitars in the USA anyway are putting retailers under a lot of pressure to carry their entire line or not at all.
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Post by vikingblues on Oct 7, 2014 7:51:32 GMT
Agreed EWH - Gibson do seem confused at times - anyone remember the short lived Gibson Hedrix "inspired" Stratocaster that after being being announced rapidly disappeared amidst on-line ridicule. The Famous Gibson Hendrix StratI think Fender are owned by a number of individuals and investors, mainly it's own company officers/managers - I seem to recall they tried to go public but it didn't take off. Certainly they seem to own so many guitar brands now including Guild, Gretsch, Jackson, Ovation, Charvel, Hamer and obviously Squier. I'm afraid the big corporations will by the nature of the beast be focussing on maximising shareholder returns. Customer satisfaction only matters to the extent of being able to sell enough to make that money and the retailers are just there to be screwed to minimum margins and to take on all the difficulties of the sales to the end user. For that matter product quality only matters to the extent of being able to continue to sell enough to keep shareholders happy - they're really not bothered if a lot of customers are upset if there's enough new ones coming along or enough existing ones that are OK with the status quo. A production process is all about minimising costs and maximising profits. I take that earlier point Chris about being able to replace the min-Etune with regular machine heads with no drilling / modification. But I also recall that recently the min-Etune was something like £200 as an optional extra. So there's a fair chunk of money will be spent by the customer on the thing being included that's then going to be thrown away and wasted. Mark |
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Post by grayn on Oct 7, 2014 10:14:23 GMT
If I wanted to buy a new Gibson, I wouldn't be too put off by the min-etune.
I don't mind the idea of it, at all. Though it would be nice to have a choice.
I wonder how heavy it is. As some Gisons, like the SG, can be prone to a neck heavy balance.
So any more weight, up that end, may be a bad thing.
I sometimes wonder how these smaller guitar muanufaturers survive. But survive they do and I am very pleased about it.
As a frequent buyer and seller of guitars, I should stick to Fender and Gibson but I just love those smaller makers.
It can be a pain to sell them on but it doesn't seem to deter me.
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Post by chris501 on Oct 7, 2014 12:31:36 GMT
It doesn't weigh very much at all, hardly makes any difference from that point of view. It's difficult for the bigger more traditional names as well, if they don't change anything people moan, if they do change something they get "That isn't how they did it in 1956". The smaller makers don't have this weight of heritage tying them into what people traditionally expect from them.
Funny buggers guitarists!
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Post by earwighoney on Oct 7, 2014 12:40:22 GMT
Fender no longer own Guild, they were sold and bought by Cordoba. They sold Guild but at the same time I think they dissolved Ovation guitars; a lot of very unsatisfied Guild and and Ovation fans, as the most recent factory to build Guild guitars were building some of the best guitars they had made in a while.
I agree with you VB, companies of such a stature exist to maximise returns for shareholders and their position in the guitar market seems to create products for the interests of the shareholders opposed to players and Gibsons Robot Tuners being standard on all guitars seems to be such a policy; I just can't imagine that many guitarists would actually want such a feature.
Grayn, I think the availability of small manufacturers is a great thing. Even in the world of pickups, it's great to see a company like Bare Knuckle going from a tiny company to being one of the more well known names in a very short timespan.
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Post by earwighoney on Jan 8, 2015 19:14:45 GMT
I've seen some reviews of the new 2015 Gibsons and they actually look pretty decent.
Aside from the Robot Tuners which seem to be a polarising feature, they have some interesting features. The adjustable brass nut/zero fret looks an amazing feature for playing with a slide. What I find most interesting is how wide the neck is, 46mm nut width with a 60mm width at the body join; that's wider than a lot of acoustics!
I'm tempted, will wait til the end of the year; fairly sure they'll reduce things when they bring next year's models!
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) as standard seems odd - most of us can tune a guitar. Why enforce payment for something we may well not want?
Jo whoever he is.
