Gibson Facing Bankruptcy

There are alot of gibbies collecting dust in music stores around here.

Personally, I like the fit & feel of most Gibson's, especially the neck (big hands). A couple of observations:

a) The price tags have indeed put them out of reach for all but reasonably-successful professional musicians
b) For better or worse, today's concert crowd is less drawn to musicians, and more to recording artists
c) There are many more excellent brand options now than there were even 25 years ago
d) Retrofitting a decent quality off-shore guitar with quality components is much less expensive than buying a Gibson
e) Gibson's "historic reissue" strategy will burn out when all of us old people aren't around to recall them
f) Deficit financing does not work without a credible cash flow growth strategy

I really, really, really hope their Epiphone division survives, because it truly deserves to.

I have to disagree My LP has auto tuners and I have had no issues with it, as long as the battery is charged and the guitar is strung properly it works fine. Also you have to pay attention to the details when changing strings if they are another brand or gauge you have to do a reset on the tuners and they will work just fine.

Joe, the second link to the Washington Post has a $1.00 subscription charge to keep reading the article but the other links were very informative I didn't know about Gibsons problems and there CEO and Fender sales. It is true Rock is not as popular with younger audiences and the popularity of guitars seems to be on the decline times do change and electronic dance music and rap seem to be gaining the upper hand in the music business but I think there will always be an audience that enjoys Rock enough to support the industry as long as there are old geezers like me to keep thumping away   thanks for the info

I read that somewhere too.

There was a local concrete contractor that did the same thing. He bought a completing company,  took all the cement trucks to his place and parked them. They've been sitting   there idle for close to 20 years now.

It's a huge use of capital to purchase a company. Squandering the resources after spending all that money is something I can't wrap my head around. Not as a (usually) financially conservative individual nor as a business man who has worked on business acquisitions.

I can understand buying competitors, but then take advantage of their resources! Buying a competitor in order to shut down competition in a field as huge as guitar building is a fool's errand. It worked for GM back in the day, but differently. When they bought other car manufacturers, R.E. Olds, Pontiac, Fisher, etc., they incorporated them into the portfolio. Where they shuttered competition is competition through the broader industry, like cable cars for local transportation.

From what I read, there is a lot more to Gibson than guitars. It is their non musical interests that are causing the problem. Home electronics. Onkyo, TEAC and Cerwin Vega are owned by Gibson. Along with Philips Home Entertainment and Maybe Pioneer which is part of Onkyo. Guitar sales are still strong.  The fact that their guitars are expensive and out of reach for a lot of players doesn`t help matters.  My opinion is that they should have had an import line with the Gibson name a long time ago. Much like MIM Fenders and Martins. Their guitar sales are still strong. It is home electronics that are leading to their downfall.

EPI is the import line. An import line with the actual Gibson name is what I am talking about.