It doesn't matter if you only play modern 7 string, multiscale, high output pickups with crazy preamps, carbon fiber guitars. One day, everyone gets their mind blown by a tele, a strat, a LP, an sg special etc. Those guys back in the day cracked the code and found the perfect recipes, and those models and brands are never going away as long as guitar players exist
I'm in the country music business, and I will tell you that Gibson is alive and well in our world. Older and younger alike. Gibson acoustics are synonymous with country music and Nashville. I personally have a 1980 Gibson Dove, Kalamazoo build. You see a lot of J45s and J200s. Then the electric players (while mostly dominated by the Tele and Strat), almost always have a LP or 2, and maybe a ES335 in their arsenals. Great video.
What proportion of global Gibson sales are professional musicians and even more specifically, American country music musicians? It’s not the American country music musicians that Gibson need to worry about.
love this- I'm probably around the same age / same music taste and I remember the massive effect bands like Green Day & MCR had on my interest in guitars and Gibson guitars in particular. Fast forward to now and that's not gone away- even if I spend more time practising songs from earlier eras. It ended up being a gateway drug to buying vintage Gibson guitars from the 50s/60s too so I think there's something to this argument as well when it comes to the pricing/addressable market of 'golden era' guitars.
I find it interesting that you associate Green Day with Gibson. I’m probably older than you and recall GD making the rounds on TV in the mid 90s and think of Billy Joe playing his strat copy with the strap duct taped on; I think it’s a Fernandez strat copy with humbuckers. I know that BJ usually just plays Les Paul juniors but I don’t associate him with that guitar when I think of GD
@@honkytonkinson9787 Yeah- 'old blue' was obviously super iconic but I along with most of my friends got into Green Day when American Idiot landed and then worked our way backwards in time. A '58-60 TV Yellow DC Jr like the one in the video clip for 'Waiting' is still on the list :P
@@honkytonkinson9787 And yet Billy sounds like Billy and Green Day sounds like GD no matter what Guitar he straps on. I bet he could play a $129 Hohner on stage and it would still sound like Green Day.
I agree, mcr specifically is why i bought a white les paul in the first place… they made a mistake in not investing in them, especially with their reunion. Frank ieros pansy guitar is iconic asf and rays standard burst with the toggle re-routed to the tone nob of the neck pup is beautiful. Bands like that dont come around very often, i mean ffs they left for 8 whole years and come back outnof nowhere and sold out arenas. they made a mistake in not investing in them, but instead marketing towards the older rock legends who already had their time in the spotlight
@sgt.gruhnn Yeah, especially when it comes to high gain, the guitar you use really doesn’t matter that much tone wise. For high gain sounds, especially if there’s a PA or you’re recording, it’s all about speaker choice and mic placement, the amp and mic being the next in line of importance to your tone. Now for cleans, it’s a different story, the character of the guitar (almost entirely the pickups and pickup placement) comes through. I won’t touch the Gibson debate though, not good enough value for money for me to consider (mostly due to QC, searching for “the one” is not appealing), especially when you can get MIA and MIJ Neckthrus for the same prace, that’s just my $.02 though.
You'd probably see more Gibsons amongst young players if they did a budget range rather than use the Epiphone brand. Also, guitar trends change with each generation. Johnny Marr talked about how when he was growing up in the 70s, it was all Gibsons, Marshalls & Hiwatts. I remember as a kid in 90s england that most of the Britpop bands seemed to be on Gibsons.
People like to bash on Gibson to make clickbait content. Most non content creators with the same "it's irrelevant" opinion are the consumers of that very content. Professional musicians rely on Gibson just as much as they rely on PRS and Fenders for their craft. Actually, one of my friends just returned from a Nashville trip and was very surprised by the lack of Fender guitars in that scene, opposed to the overwhelming presence of Gibson and PRS instruments.
well would Gibson be content selling to these two to three hundred dudes in Nashville, most of who probably haven't bought a factory new Gibson in their lives, then they would be a-ok. They are not tho, are they?
Really great points here. Also it’s cool that you mention mcr using Les pauls, I’ve never heard anyone else in the guitar community mention that and they’re the band that made me want one back in the day
I agree that Gibson being irrelevant is nonsense. They may not have as much market share with the younger crowd, but they are still very appealing to a wide range of players. You can't knock the vibe, and you certainly can't knock the tone. My complaint about Gibson is that for the price that they are charging, which is HIGH by any measure, they do not have the fit and finish they should. Yes, any builder will have guitars with issues. But Gibson is a whole other level. You can pick up 10 brand new Les Pauls and maybe 3-4 of them are great and the other 6-7 are dogs. That is unacceptable for a Guitar at that price. I am a big Gretsch guy and have owned multiple high-end, Japanese Gretsch guitars and have played tons of them. I can't think of a single one where the fit and finish was not flawless! Gibson needs to do better with quality control. Period.
That and the fact that Gibson also owns Epiphone, which produces the exact same guitars just without the Gibson logo. Epiphone = actual value of the guitar while Gibson = Ferrari lifestyle wannabe.
One anecdote about the limited market Gibson has chosen: With all of the musical acts during the Olympics' closing ceremony, how many Gibsons did you see? ...it was like an advertisement for Fender. Fender has gone full-court press after the up and coming musicians market; while Gibson has priced itself out of it. Epiphone recently has earned escalating credibility with quality and, except for its 'Inspired by Gibson' and 'Inspired by Gibson Custom Shop' lines, has maintained its guitars' affordability, making them the biggest competitor to Gibson's market share. Those three factors - Gibson's pricing structure, Fender's targeting the younger musicians, and Epiphone's growth - are the biggest threats to Gibson; and Gibson has control over two of them. The wildcard and 600 lb gorilla in the room is, of course, the glut of used instruments from the COVID lockdown. IF Gibson's corporate strategists make the right decisions, you may be right. If not, its pricy, weighty products with antiquated features will go the way of the dodo. Their main advantage, tone, will soon become more available with any guitar due to advancements in modeling. Gibson has, perhaps, 5 years to make and act on the decisions needed for it to survive. Otherwise, its detractors will be proven correct. (Bias check: I own two Squiers, two Fenders, two Epiphones, and no Gibsons - with difficulty justifying their expense being the main reason for the last category.)
It’s relative.. I’m in my 20s, (still consider young guitarist) and my favorite brand is Gibson, the same as most of my friends… Not all the younger players want a Fender to play some indie/alternative stuff… some of us are looking again for heavier sounds and genuine hard rock tones… Fortunately, as you said, Epiphone is scaling up the line, making much of the Gibson iconic models affordable to the new projects..
The issue is there’s going to be a lot less newbies picking up ANY guitar, in the 70s 80s and into the 90s, It seemed every other teenager dreamed of being in a rock band, today only a fraction of 17 yr olds want to learn guitar and form a band.
There are so many great value LP types out there that are way better value, lower price and higher quality. For the vast majority of young players I teach buying a Gibson is not something they associate with, why? Because they’re way out of their reach. When I got my first guitar I bought a Japanese copy, my second guitar? A Gibson LP standard. After a couple of months I regretted getting rid of my LP copy. I’ve bought and owned numerous Gibson’s, I still have three, but as a gigging artist they’re not something I’d take it on the road.
I'm in the 34-50 age range. Other than Page, I think of Slash, Rich Robinson, Tom Kiefer.... And I always have a place reserved for Clapton and Peter Green in my mental Les Paul Hall Of Fame 😂
when i think of a les paul (my dream guitar) i think of jimmy page..the reason i pickup up a guitar in the first place back in 94.. then gary moore, peter green and even slash.
Some of the 2000s/2010 guys that come to mind are Jade from AFI (Les Paul), Gary Clark Jr. (SG & Epi Casino/330), Reignwolf/Jordan Cook (SG & 335), Nick Valensi of the Strokes (Epi Riviera & Les Paul Custom), Ben McLeod from All Them Witches (Les Paul), and Kevin from Black Pistol Fire (Casino & Firebird). I'm sure there's a ton more that I'm forgetting right now
@@lancere00 2010s/2020s guitar players of bands such as Rival Sons (Firebird), Greta Van Fleet (SG 61), Dirty Honey (Les Paul standard), The Band Feel (Les Paul custom)… and the list goes so far…
Adam Jones. I finally bought my first Gibson style guitar. And it was an Epiphone Adam Jones Signature. I was born in the early 80s. Page is the first Les Paul association. Then Slash. Then Adam Jones. I'd never buy a Slash guitar. I'd maybe buy a Page guitar. I bought an Adam Jones. I'd honestly possibly buy a Gibson Adam Jones in the future. I'm more of a Fender guy to be honest. I have several Fender style guitars. Mostly Squiers. But I own a Fender Mustang Special and a Fender Jazz Bass. I'd definitely own more Fenders. Adam Jones sold me a "Gibson". I wanted a Silverburst because of him. Most of my "Gibson" mental associations are players from before I was born. But you're right....I damn near bought a Dave Grohl Signature Epiphone. I would love a Mike McCready strat. Because Pearl Jam was one of my favorite bands. But I'm old enough that Hendrix hooked me on Strats before anyone else. But there were obviously many. Like I strangely predominantly associate Kurt Cobain with Strats. Because I was into Strats so I noticed the Strats. I really don't care for "mordern" guitars. To each their own. I think the Tosen Abasis Kaisen (sorry of I miss spelled) us a super cool guitar. But it's not my vibe. But I actually really think that one is cool.
It's important to understand context here. Gibson is not being under heavy shade currently because it's trendy. Their new CEO did several questionable things like making a video telling people placing Gibsons in movies and media to stop tapping them knowing very well Gibson has to pay to have their brand as a placement ad (video was removed later). They also had that whole tirade of going after counterfeit versions of their guitars only to have their warehouse raided by the FBI because they had suspicions the ebony they had in stock was sourced illegally (ebony is an endangered wood due to it being harvested irresponsibly over the years). They also recently bought Mesa Boogie and kicked Randall Smith out of it (only the guy that created the company). And when you go "it's not like this brand is only attached to 60s and 70s guitar players" I ask if you've ever looked at what they now offer in terms of instruments. For many years, their primary produce was overly expensive limited runs of replica guitars from guys like Ace Frehley, Don Felder, etc. while Epiphone had the more interesting lineup of models. Then Gibson took over and made the current Epi line as boring as what they offer. To answer your question, when I think of a Les Paul, I think of Zakk Wylde, which no longer uses Gibson guitars and has his company of tacky replicas in Wylde Audio. SGs make me think of Frank Zappa, whose mainstay SG was a Gibson copy gifted to him by a fan.
Virtually no virtuoso under 30 or 40 years old plays Gibson, at least in genres like Rock, metal or alternative. And that trend is more marked with consumers outside the US. But without a doubt it is still the best option if what you want is an instrument that maintains its resale value. At least for now.
most "hated" because they don't sell for 3 hundred bucks or the commentor is a Chinese trolls. Gibson has a long line of innovation that no one cares about. Robo Tuners for example, the MLIII. Most metal guys play Schecters or ESPs
Even the most serious Gibson fans are the ones will tell you that the robo tuners were a terrible idea though. There’s innovations, and then there are gimmicks that someone comes up with to try to make sales. The most innovative guitar in my lifetime was probably the Steinberger GL2 (headless, double ball-end strings that can all be changed in a minute, and a *perfect* Trem system) but guitarists panned it because it wasn’t shaped enough like a traditional guitar (aka, a Les Paul).
Another point that supports the idea that Gibson isn’t going anywhere is the fact that many of their designs have become archetypes, and that archetypal status will always carry the story of their historical origins as Gibson-branded instruments. Many manufacturers make Les Paul-style guitars, ES-335-style guitars, Flying Vs, Explorers, SGs, etc. These designs are basically public goods at this point (or at least should be thought of so, imo). They’re classic, timeless, ubiquitous designs in the same way the 4-door sedan is in the world of cars. How many car manufacturers make at least one model of 4-door sedan? Literally all of them LOL it’s become the archetype of “car” that forms the bedrock of everybody’s conception of what a “car” even is. That said, imo Gibson’s extreme litigiousness is fairly obviously ruining their reputation more than the actual guitars themselves. The Flying V, for example, was introduced in 1958 but the trademark wasn’t registered until 1997! They simply do not have a leg to stand on with their “Play Authentic™️, everything else is a counterfeit” argument because they didn’t enforce their trademark for DECADES. The idea that every Gibson-style guitar that isn’t itself a Gibson is a “counterfeit” speaks volumes to me about how they feel about their consumers. Deception is crucial in the idea of a “counterfeit,” so they’re basically saying that anybody who buys, for example, an LTD-branded Les Paul-looking thing is being deceived: they THOUGHT they were buying a Gibson Les Paul, but LTD deceived them with a counterfeit. In order to make that claim, you’d have to assume the buyer is so fucking stupid and illiterate that they were literally INCAPABLE of reading that the headstock did not say “Gibson” but rather “LTD.” I don’t believe Gibson actually thinks we are (all) that dumb, so the argument is just in bad-faith. If they really do believe that, then they’re just assholes LOL. My Les Paul is my most prized possession and has been since I got it mid-December 2009. I’d also love to own an ES-339, ES-175, and Flying V one day. I WANT to love Gibson, but it’s clear that they’re just corporate bullies corrupted by greed now, and I simply can’t support them as a business out of moral disgust. From my perspective, the most I’m willing say is that the guitars themselves (or at the very least their archetypal design principles) certainly aren’t going anywhere, but tbh I really can honestly see a not-too-distant future where their mean-spirited, bad-faith legal action has left such a bad taste in everybody’s mouth that their reputation has completely eroded, nobody wants anything to do with them, and they finally close for good. I would hate to see that happen. Also Fender are a bunch of greedy corporate pigs now too, so industry ruined LOL thanks, Capitalism 🥰
Tonni Ionmi and Angus Young were two of the biggest Guitar influences in my childhood with Gibson SGs. Then you have guys like Zakk Wylde Adam Jones and Matt Heafy
Every company makes some dud guitars even in a good model range. I think people latch on to that with a Gibson. To me it makes no sense buying an Epiphone (especially the new higher priced ones) when you can get a good used Gibson from someone or even a guitar store. They always retain higher value if taken care of. Phil from Know Your Gear always says "You don't lose money on a Gibson". Sure you may need to hold it for 20 years but an Epiphone or even most Fenders almost halve in value for resale. Not saying resale is the only thing either, I am just saying you can find a good one and you won't regret it, even if you have to sell it. I just sold a Gibson LP standard and I made about $800 bucks on it from what I bought it at, literally today. May it enjoy its new home!
I think the problem that a lot of people have is that for a 1500-3000 dollar guitar, there really should be no such thing as a "dud". When you pay THAT much for a guitar (and that's Gibson's standard/low-end range) you expect the quality of the instrument to be top notch. But the reality is that a lot of Gibsons leave the factory with defects and quality control issues right out of the gate, meaning that buying one is kind of like playing the lottery. Will you get a good high-quality guitar, or will you have to spend the next couple of weeks or months playing the "send it back and give me a new one" game until you finally find one that's up to snuff? Which i think is fair criticism. When you pay that much for a musical instrument, you should be able to feel safe knowing that the instrument you'll be receiving will be as pristine and immaculate as humanly possible. You shouldn't have to worry and stress about whether or not the frets will buzz, or whether or not the binding will be done correctly, or whether or not there will be paint trapped in places where it shouldn't, or whether or not the neck will be warped, or whether or not the guitar will stay in tune, or whether or not the pickups will be wrapped properly, or any of the other myriad of things that you have to kind of go through and check when you buy a new Gibson these days. Does that mean that Gibsons these days are "worthless and stupid" like some people claim? No, absolutely not! Gibsons are still by far some of the best guitars that money can buy, IF you can find a good specimen. But actually FINDING that good specimen is far too much of a faff when you consider what you pay for them, and when you also then consider that far cheaper brands can deliver much better consistency for a much lower price. And that is something that Gibson genuinely can and should work on.
@@Fraggr92 this isn’t a Gibson issue, that’s my point. I’ve played many guitars in that price range from many companies and they have had issues. Fenders, Ibanez, Epiphones, etc etc. Shitty plastic nuts on PrS Se’s. No price range and brand is safe from these issues.
I'm a real player and I go out of my way to not be broke-poor, so I never feel the need to sell my guitars. Epiphone makes the same guitars as Gibson for a fraction of the price, and those new expensive higher-end Epiphones you speak of "Inspired by Gibson Custom" are the exact same guitars the custom shop makes, design materials and hardware. So if I have guitar A and guitar B and both are exactly the same, except one has a Gibson logo on the headstock and the other an Epiphone respectively, which is the more intelligent purchase? Obviously the cheaper one. Brand loyalists. You guys troll the guitar forums with this same crap, I've read this about 1000x before over the years.
36. Have 2 gibsons. They make mistakes and cost a lot, a 2K guitar can have binding errors or tooling marks or a bad nut for sure. But the quality is there, you do get 2K worth of guitar. My first LP purchased in 2023 for 1.8 K and I took it to my luthier to describe some of the factory errors I noticed. He looked at me like I was crazy and said, “you’d have to spend over 10k to guarantee none of these issues would be present in the new guitar” needless to say I was tripping because of its cost. U really need to know what your buying, expensive doesn’t mean perfect, it’s dead wood
Brent and Bill from Mastodon, and their whole flock of silverburst Gibsons, although Bill is with ESP now. Those guys made me want to get a birth year silverburst LP Custom back in the early 2000's. Really should have gotten on it sooner. Since I was born in 79, I've now got to wait a bit and hope the market cools down after all of the Adam Jones hype sent the price for a '79 silverburst Custom through the roof. It's gone down a LITTLE bit since all those Jones models launched, but it's still more than I'm willing to pay for a Norlin era boat anchor of a Gibson, lol. Odds are it wouldn't get much play time anyway, considering I have an 8lbs even R9 that more than satisfies my Les Paul needs.
nah, i'm just a little older than you on the tail end of the millennial generation, i've been proud of the Gibsons I own, LP and a G45, They're like the wand shop in Harry Potter, the wand chooses the wizard. I've held, and tried many in shops over the years, some 50k some mid level epiphone. some were amazing, some flat out sucked. I love my Schecter, fender, Kramer, Samick"greg Bennet",and Alvarez the same way I love my Gibsons. but the les Paul gets a lotta love. When you find "that one" you just know. Much love man!
It’s the type of people who sit online commenting. Just a few broke (few = hundreds) but the majority aren’t online. We have 333 Million people in the US. Gibson has 1/3 of all guitar sales in the US. $1.3 B sales in 2020 and it kept rising. This growth is expected to continue in the coming years, with the global guitar market projected to reach $19.9 billion by 2025. In the US, electric guitars make up the largest share of the market, accounting for 58% of all sales. Acoustic guitars are the second most popular type of guitar, accounting for 36% of sales.
The bottom was a copy/paste, I lost some typing from my phone. My point is volume and numbers. Social media is limited to a sample size of the market. There are also Gibson and Fender and PRS and Ibanez fan pages with tons of positive support. Gibson is iconic bc that’s what the original guitar hero’s played, can’t escape history
The guys from Coheed and Cambria play mostly Gibsons too, and they’re not exactly ‘dinosaur rock.’ I personally love classic rock, 60’s & 70’s, and I don’t know anything more R&R looking than a Les Paul guitar.
Thanks for the video. I am a boomer. I will be 69. I can buy a Gibson. I won’t do it. I have a Les Paul, but it’s an Epiphone. My most fun guitar to play is my Epiphone SG Special. It has a bolt on neck. It’s a hundred and fifty dollar guitar. I can say that because I am irrelevant. I would like to have a Gibson. I just can’t justify the price. I actually had a Gibson Les Paul. It was disappointing, so I sold it kinda cheap. Recently I tried to buy one that had been in the store for seven months. They wouldn’t budge. It was a 2011 Studio. I won’t be here forever. It doesn’t matter what I think. I believe the future will be unimaginable. Based on what I have seen in my lifetime. It was a different world when I was young.
If you haven't yet, check out Eastman. Across the board incredible guitars. I picked up a very slightly used sb59 recently for a little over $1k that's absolutely gorgeous in every way. One of the very few times that, "even better than a x for half the price" things turned out to be true.
You made some great points. Personally don’t like Gibson electric but ive only had a Les paul and an explorer. I’ve always wanted to try a double cutaway Les Paul special with p90’s. One day I will have a hummingbird too. I still think of older guys like slash and iommi when I think of Gibson.
They put the frets on the fret board before the fret board goes on the neck, watch Andertons factory tour. Maybe that’s not a big deal; Prs does that for the S2 models. You just wouldn’t think they would do that
Being 58 now and have owning over 100 Gibson guitars over 40 years with the rest totaling 650 guitars of various brands from high to low. This is the thing, when we started watching MTV and all the metal guys playing all these great guitars some played 4 or 5 in one video all different, so at some point I wanted to get my hands all all of them because those were what the pros were using, and now having had to get to experience every guitar that I ever wanted to play or own ever, I can say that the major brands vs some of the lessor brands there is really not much difference, it boils down to wood and metal, yes set up, parts ect I understand all that, but when you have saved and saved or traded and traded and finally get your dream guitar and it just doesnt do what you thought it would and it cost you so much time effort what ever you get to know that they really aren't all that in the end, and that as long as it plays and sounds the way you want it to there really is no reason to pay outlandish prices for something with a name on the head. I mean Gibson's are great guitars, USA Jacksons, USA Fender you name it we all want to reach for those but at 58 I realize now that a Squire can play just as smooth and easy as a USA Fender for 175 bucks is just a no brainer. The other thing is that if its your tool that you are making cash with then that is different also, but just sitting at home playing what should be the end all be all of a guitar in your room and being out hundreds or thousands of dollars, I dont think so anymore. Maybe if I was rich beyond, then having 6 Gibson's would be cooler than having 6 low to mid grade guitars .. I know this, an expensive guitar does not make you sound or play better, the real test is that are you good enough to pick up the cheapest junk and make it sound just as good as a high dollar guitar.
It's not that Gibson is irrelevant, but the facts on the ground are they have had SERIOUS QC issues. Especially for the price of the instruments, I have owned and loved Gibson guitars. In the 1980's I owned a 1968 ES-345 and I still miss it today. But PRS is hands down in my experience a better value for the dollar.
I think you are wrong. Gibson is gonna die off with boomers. Now ask what are my favorite guitars….. Gibson. I actually prefer my SG and Explorer over the LP but I do like my LP. Problem is thickness and weight. The reason they will die off or be forced to come way down in price has more to do with inflation and wage stagnation than “being irrelevant “ (although irrelevance will soon take hold). Also, import guitars like Schecter and ESP LTD and even Epiphone have really stepped up their game making phenomenal instruments. Gibson refusing to add modern appointments like SS frets and modern bridge options or something that wasn’t designed in the 1950/60s will make themselves undesirable to younger and future guitarists. Simple thing, they will age out. My $.02
I think you’re sort of right. I think young people right now probably associate Gibson guitars with old people. The next generation will want to stand out so they might adopt the Gibson aesthetic to be different. Whiskey is like that, goes through a surge in popularity every 20 years or so; each generation wants to be cool so they don’t do things the generation before them did, instead do what next older generation was doing
I recently heard about a music festival where the lions share of the guitars played were fenders so in that aspect, I think they may be losing some relevancy and maybe they’re just not capitalizing on being the guitar of choice for a lot of the bands you mentioned. as far as them being overpriced goes, I think that claim holds more water today than it did in the 50s because we’ve come along way with manufacturing guitars to the point where Gibson guitars don’t blow cheaper guitars out of the water. If you looked at a cheap guitar from the 50s and compared it to a Gibson, it would be night and day in 2024 so many guitars can be almost if not as good as a Gibson. My Schechter solo custom is a great example. I played a Gibson and I didn’t think I was missing out on anything.
Billy Joe from Green Day was actually more synonymous with his beat up Fernandes Strat than his LP Junior, at least when they were considered more underground and cooler,
I agree. I think it’s an age thing. If you were young in the 90s you picture Billy Joe with the beat up punk stickers strat copy, baggy clothes and bleached hair. If you are 10 years younger you think LP jr, beetlejuice suit and black hair
I like them they are just out of my price range. I did get a Les Paul lite for $800 and love it. I call it a Les G. Thin like a sg but single cut like a Les Paul
I'm personally use fenders but if you like alternative rock/emo music in early/mid 2000s, so many bands were mainly using les pauls. I only associated it with boomers when I started watching guitar youtube videos.
Though I now prefer playing a strat or tele, I will never give up my LP. it simply has a different sound. I think a lot of the complaint was when Gibson had some quality issues for the price they were asking. Randy Rhoads was the LP guy that first came to mind.
To be fair, I first encountered this argument from boomers/gen x folks on youtube. I think since Gibson has corned the market on boomer/Gen x nostalgia, they've grown to despise the company a little bit lol. But I'm 31 and have always wanted a Les Paul or SG. Like you, i associate these guitars with punk and emo bands; Sunny Day Real Estate, Jawbreaker, My Chem etc. These bands are the reason I want to own a slick ass Gibson someday! I'll probably get one for my 40th birthday.
If you look at the whole grunge scene it was a ton of gibsons with some fender and guild, then in England with oasis it’s all Gibson and epiphone, then you got guys like Jack white who play anything
Man i feel old af lmao. When i think gibson I think Jimmy Page for his 58 and 59 les pauls and the famous EDS1275, Alex Lifeson easily for playing a gibson ES335, sort of Randy Rhoades since he used jacksons and his custom pokadot V probably more than his LP custom, not a fan but Slash plays one and is wildly known for playing Gibson les pauls, Buckethead plays his baratone les paul, Angus Young with the Gibson sg, Tony Iommi with his Gibson SG, even James Hetfield plays his Gibson Explorer and is pretty know for it lol. Kirk Hammet plays a bunch of Gibson LPs, Joe Bonamassa has like every Gibson ever made and is known for playing gibsons lol.
You make a great point about generational associations regarding guitars and the bands they’re associated with. I wouldn’t bother addressing comments from teenagers on social media. There’s little basis in fact and social media is not the real world. If you’re typing, you’re not playing. In the end, any good guitarist who spends the bulk of his/her time touring and recording is going to end up playing instruments that sound and feel good to them. These are their tools, after all. Many Gibson models have stood the test of time because they’re the path of least resistance. Gibson isn’t going anywhere, at least as long as they are profitable to KKR, the Wall Street-based private equity firm that owns them. Rather than ruin the brand, this group invested significant capital to upgrading US operations. It’s anyone’s guess what they’ll do with their other brands (consider Mesa Boogie), but for now this is not a pump and dump (look it up).
(i'm 41) The thing is... I wanted a Gibson this year, I was searching for one, specially a Les Paul but I would be OK with an SG. On my hunt for my Gibson I discovered a Yamaha Revstar and saved 2000 USD and got a guitar that's just as well made if not better. I still want a Les Paul, but for someone that's not a professional working musician nor rich, Gibson seems like a nonsense luxury in 2024 with so many GREAT guitars to chose from.
Bro, I’ve had many guitars over the years. But I didn’t get my first “Gibson” until I was 35. The fact is they are a true instrument, so they’re expensive, and my fenders are like a toy to me.
Everyone hates them on the internet. Every time I gig my double neck there are no haters lol Joe bonnamassa is pretty crazy if you’ve never actually watched him. Just from a pure talent stand point. Good video man.
The Les Paul in my opinion is a so so guitar. They are heavy and expensive, which I feel like is a turn off for young guitar players. The 335 on the other hand, is a guitar everyone needs. Yes it is expensive and perhaps that is a major reason why young people don’t buy them, but it is an incredible instrument.
I think it depends on what sound you want. Those LPs have humbuckers that squash sound for a compressed big rock sound as opposed to Strat/Tele single-coil pickups with clarity. The 335 meets the two with humbuckers in a semi-hollow body. People will hate a LP if they want clarity or vice-versa. Old as time to say, “my guitar is just as good as yours and I’m smarter because I paid less.” Maybe they are sometimes. It is a tool. Some like their tools a little shinier without needing modification. Either is cool so long as it inspires people to play more and not do AI-quality music.
I am 60. I have owned over a hundred guitars and played hundreds more. I currently own a dozen or so including Gibsons at every price range. My TV yellow special is probably my number one and has been for quite awhile. It was bought new for under 1500 bucks. Not dirt cheap but not a bank buster either. 13 year olds and their friends dont often have that kind of cash for a guitar and if they do they are gonna buy something more flashy at that age. They simply don't have the experience and knowledge to tell an experienced player anything about a Gibson. When they get old enough to decide that telecasters will always be God's gift and to have a little money in their pocket they will suddenly find that a fat Les Paul with PAF'S isn't far behind that Tele.
Gibson is a great example of conspicuous consumption, is not about generations is about buying a brand and holding it over those who can't afford it, like people who buy iPhones
@@Randolphguitarsobviously not everybody who buys a Gibson does it to lord it over other people, but while they are very good tools there is only one reason why a luxury brand that has received a bad quality control reputation in its later years is still one of the most imitated and popular ones even though other brands are steadily gaining on it in terms of quality.
Gibson will always be around but much like Marshall Gibson will never be remembered as the company it is today and 9 times out of 10 people aren't after modern Gibson guitars unless they are reissues of the classics. They want the Korina V's, they want the 59 LPs, etc. outside of legacy and non-rock acts it's difficult to find someone who plays a Gibson in the modern age honestly. They aren't really targeting the average aspiring guitar player or shredders, they are an investment brand and that's fine and if you can afford them there's no shame in buying one but I think the reality is that brand and country of origin doesn't matter as long as you enjoy playing it. Gibsons are absolutely incredible guitars 95-98% of the time and there's no reason not to buy one, they always retain or increase in value and will always be saught after even if you can get guitars that have better specs on paper for a cheaper overall price. Nothing in the guitar world holds value like a Gibson or American Fender.
I love Gibson I have 3 Les Paul , there are great guitars iconic and a great Americana company. ❤❤❤❤nothing but good thing about them never had an issue
Gibsons biggest competitor are used Gibsons. Most used Gibsons are located in the US. Because of that the international market is of critical value for Gibson, just because there the used market isn't as saturated. Right now they lean heavily into Gibsons as "non-depreciating assets" for boomers with a bunch of cash laying around. That's the whole limited signatures north of 10k thing. Meanwhile international market is getting saturated by the plethora of different brands, from budget up to really nice, sometimes doing a better job at what Gibson does than Gibson for less money (like the Japanese or Maybach from czech republic). Gibson tried to (and failed to) cash into their brand recognition with lifestyle products pre-bancrupcy, in fact the bancrupcy was caused by acquisitions of consumer electronic companies. Think Marshall Bluetooth speakers and headphones. Or Harley Davidson jackets and belts.That was what Gibson wanted to achieve. They didn't, instead they trashed their reputation in guitars - so much so that I bought several 2018 and 2019 guitars for 400 bucks.
Very interesting points you've touched. Gibson guitars are more expensive because they are actually harder to make than a bolt-on guitar, you need quality woods that not only look good but are stable and sound good. The design is roughly same as old as a Tele or Strat but no one complaints of a Tele, Strat, Jaguar being outdated. Haters are gonna hate.
Gibson have already filed for bankruptcy once. Of course demand is going to fall dramatically once the boomers have gone. There will still be a demand, but if it can’t support the business, the business will either cease to exist or have to dramatically downsize. Im always shocked that there’s a market for £8000 plus Gibson Murphy Labs, I think some people think they’re an investment like a vintage guitar until they try to sell them and can only get 50% of what they paid (unless they wait 20 years for inflation to catch up).
Never heard of Chemical Romance but I was born in 1951! Ya, I’m old… The Jimmy Page #2 Gibson LP is my favorite LP. I don’t know of any guitars manufactured today that offer so many tones! Just wondering, which guitar is the favorite of people in their teens today?
That’s only cuz chibson has people fooled to thinking they’re actually comparable to Gibson. They do charge to much, but what chibsons are doing is only ruining future Gibson growth
I started on a fender strat. Thought I’d always be a strat player. Bought an sg as a back up for messing around. Ended up an sg player and haven’t looked back.
Hate to say it and it ain’t exactly the spirit of Rocknroll but Taylor swift is another but perhaps we can keep that quiet 😮 mix it up with fender and Gibson it’s the way to go been doing this for many years . No one can argue that tele Strat and Les Paul are the holy trinity when it comes to classics .
I thought she was with Taylor guitars? Like, I know Taylor guitars aren’t owned by her at all, but I remembered she had a guitar with them at some point
I own 3 gibsons and atleast to me and my friends they are the best, idk why people decide to hate on the brand but basically every song you hear from every old and new band is using either a Gibson or fender, and most of them do both
theres a reason there has been copies of gibson and fender for half a century. not saying you cant get a good guitar for less than a gibson price these days but, see above statement
I think it's the classic case of the haves vs. have nots. I have a number of Gibsons and love each one of them. I think they are worth the money, at least for the Gibson USA stuff. I don't have any experience with the Gibson Custom Shop stuff, which is out of my price range (well, my wife's price range :). If the people have a Gibson and then want to bash them, that's one thing. But the haters just spouting crap when they don't own a Gibson or wouldn't buy one anyway, who cares what they have to say? And why the heck do they spend so much time watching videos about stuff they can't afford and commenting on them. I don't watch Ferrari videos because it would be pointless. 😀
I'm a guitar player in my 60s, and I prefer Fender (and Fender-style) instruments. I will likely never own another Gibson, for a few reasons. Gibson represents to me the Dixie Southern mentality of the good-ol'-boys, the KKK and the racists of the south. Other guitar brands do not have this baggage. In addition, Gibsons sound like crap.
Nah. Granted, I’m almost middle aged and I find a lot of Gibson products useful. Are they expensive? Sure, but they’ve a rich heritage and will probably always be relevant.
You're right about a lot, but you're wrong about the possibility of a Gibson instrument being made outside of the USA. They already have this, and it's called Epiphone. The Gibson brand would be tainted if they ever moved production out of this country. They might move the factories out of Nashville and Bozeman, but they won't be moving internationally. If that happened, Gibson would actually become irrelevant.
I've always been playing Gibson since a teenager. I've tried fender guitars from strats and I absolutely hated them. I'm a hard rock rhythm guitarist and Gibson is by far the best choice for me.
Austin I think that eppiphone is not as expensive as gibson and more affordable for younger players to get in their Hands they can be great deals when bought used.
Every 15 year old should automatically be awarded a Prince Anhk looking axe and a wall of Soldanos to grow out of. Individuality is all they seek, not mass produced items that carry past baggage, good or bad. Since there is no way to match that paradigm, their answer is to complain but offer no solutions; At least Van Halen tried. Hence (pickaBrand) is a failure because I'm not famous NOW. Take up the glockenspiel, as the field is wide open, and you can still run it through the Soldanos.
Being an old fart, I think of Jimmy, Slash, Noel G, BB and Dave G. But I also listen to enough newer artists and think of BlackBerry Smoke, Red Clay Straws, Kingfish, Marcus King, Joanna Conner, Emily Wolfe. There’s plenty of Gibson/Epiphone players out there. But, Gibsons are expensive and the QC is variable at times. Epiphone is better value for money.
I have many high end guitars. My number one is a Gibson R9 and it’s not even close. On top of that I can sell it for more than I paid for it any day I want. You should consider Gibson like Rolex is compared to Apple Watch. Apple Watch may have better features but it certainly doesn’t feel nothing like a Rolex.
The problem is more that electric guitar is currently becoming irrelevant. Machine Gun Kelly has multiple signature models. That's the current state of the electric guitar in popular music. Mainstream Pop/alt guitar has gone the way of the cassette player. Sure, they still make them, but it's an awful experience when you try to listen. There are rumblings that Shoegaze is coming back. This could potentially revitalize electric guitars. Even though Sigur Ros has been carrying on that legacy for three decades, I'd like to see some young people who just discovered Cocteau Twins and Slowdive make something new.
It doesn't matter if you only play modern 7 string, multiscale, high output pickups with crazy preamps, carbon fiber guitars. One day, everyone gets their mind blown by a tele, a strat, a LP, an sg special etc. Those guys back in the day cracked the code and found the perfect recipes, and those models and brands are never going away as long as guitar players exist
What's the difference between an old man yelling at a cloud and a 13-year-old yelling at market value? Nothing. Same guy just later.
Lol
Wrong. The 13 year old doesn't have the money or experience to know what he is screaming about.
I'm in the country music business, and I will tell you that Gibson is alive and well in our world. Older and younger alike. Gibson acoustics are synonymous with country music and Nashville. I personally have a 1980 Gibson Dove, Kalamazoo build. You see a lot of J45s and J200s. Then the electric players (while mostly dominated by the Tele and Strat), almost always have a LP or 2, and maybe a ES335 in their arsenals. Great video.
I have the J45. It's my main go to Acoustic.
What proportion of global Gibson sales are professional musicians and even more specifically, American country music musicians? It’s not the American country music musicians that Gibson need to worry about.
Gibson really doesn't need to worry at all. And BTW, gibson is alive and well with flat pickers and blue grass players as well.
Greg Tribbett, the Mudvayne music video for Dig. Crazy heavy out of this world looking stuff for the day 😂. And a Les Paul was onsite 😂😂
love this- I'm probably around the same age / same music taste and I remember the massive effect bands like Green Day & MCR had on my interest in guitars and Gibson guitars in particular. Fast forward to now and that's not gone away- even if I spend more time practising songs from earlier eras. It ended up being a gateway drug to buying vintage Gibson guitars from the 50s/60s too so I think there's something to this argument as well when it comes to the pricing/addressable market of 'golden era' guitars.
I find it interesting that you associate Green Day with Gibson.
I’m probably older than you and recall GD making the rounds on TV in the mid 90s and think of Billy Joe playing his strat copy with the strap duct taped on; I think it’s a Fernandez strat copy with humbuckers.
I know that BJ usually just plays Les Paul juniors but I don’t associate him with that guitar when I think of GD
@@honkytonkinson9787 Yeah- 'old blue' was obviously super iconic but I along with most of my friends got into Green Day when American Idiot landed and then worked our way backwards in time. A '58-60 TV Yellow DC Jr like the one in the video clip for 'Waiting' is still on the list :P
@@honkytonkinson9787
And yet Billy sounds like Billy and Green Day sounds like GD no matter what Guitar he straps on. I bet he could play a $129 Hohner on stage and it would still sound like Green Day.
I agree, mcr specifically is why i bought a white les paul in the first place… they made a mistake in not investing in them, especially with their reunion. Frank ieros pansy guitar is iconic asf and rays standard burst with the toggle re-routed to the tone nob of the neck pup is beautiful. Bands like that dont come around very often, i mean ffs they left for 8 whole years and come back outnof nowhere and sold out arenas. they made a mistake in not investing in them, but instead marketing towards the older rock legends who already had their time in the spotlight
@sgt.gruhnn Yeah, especially when it comes to high gain, the guitar you use really doesn’t matter that much tone wise. For high gain sounds, especially if there’s a PA or you’re recording, it’s all about speaker choice and mic placement, the amp and mic being the next in line of importance to your tone. Now for cleans, it’s a different story, the character of the guitar (almost entirely the pickups and pickup placement) comes through. I won’t touch the Gibson debate though, not good enough value for money for me to consider (mostly due to QC, searching for “the one” is not appealing), especially when you can get MIA and MIJ Neckthrus for the same prace, that’s just my $.02 though.
You'd probably see more Gibsons amongst young players if they did a budget range rather than use the Epiphone brand. Also, guitar trends change with each generation. Johnny Marr talked about how when he was growing up in the 70s, it was all Gibsons, Marshalls & Hiwatts. I remember as a kid in 90s england that most of the Britpop bands seemed to be on Gibsons.
Laufey, a rapidly rising artist on the billboards uses various semihollow Gibsons for her signature jazzy sound
My chemical Romance got me onto les Paul’s as well. Specifically the white custom Frank iero played.
People like to bash on Gibson to make clickbait content. Most non content creators with the same "it's irrelevant" opinion are the consumers of that very content.
Professional musicians rely on Gibson just as much as they rely on PRS and Fenders for their craft.
Actually, one of my friends just returned from a Nashville trip and was very surprised by the lack of Fender guitars in that scene, opposed to the overwhelming presence of Gibson and PRS instruments.
well would Gibson be content selling to these two to three hundred dudes in Nashville, most of who probably haven't bought a factory new Gibson in their lives, then they would be a-ok. They are not tho, are they?
Andrew Stockdale of Wolfmother. Big SG player, early 2000 until today
I live in Nashville. The Gibson Garage sells a ton of guitars.
Grace Bowers is the next up-and-coming young artist who will push the brand.
Matt heafy from Trivium. Along with Justin Hawkins and frank Iero, I wanted a white les Paul custom because of them.
Really great points here. Also it’s cool that you mention mcr using Les pauls, I’ve never heard anyone else in the guitar community mention that and they’re the band that made me want one back in the day
Hell yeah
Last time I checked, pansy was an epiphone (pansy is iero’s guitar)
Still cool nonetheless
@@AwkwardHypernerd413 ya pansy is an epiphone Les Paul
I agree that Gibson being irrelevant is nonsense. They may not have as much market share with the younger crowd, but they are still very appealing to a wide range of players. You can't knock the vibe, and you certainly can't knock the tone. My complaint about Gibson is that for the price that they are charging, which is HIGH by any measure, they do not have the fit and finish they should. Yes, any builder will have guitars with issues. But Gibson is a whole other level. You can pick up 10 brand new Les Pauls and maybe 3-4 of them are great and the other 6-7 are dogs. That is unacceptable for a Guitar at that price. I am a big Gretsch guy and have owned multiple high-end, Japanese Gretsch guitars and have played tons of them. I can't think of a single one where the fit and finish was not flawless! Gibson needs to do better with quality control. Period.
Bullseye.
That and the fact that Gibson also owns Epiphone, which produces the exact same guitars just without the Gibson logo. Epiphone = actual value of the guitar while Gibson = Ferrari lifestyle wannabe.
One anecdote about the limited market Gibson has chosen:
With all of the musical acts during the Olympics' closing ceremony, how many Gibsons did you see?
...it was like an advertisement for Fender.
Fender has gone full-court press after the up and coming musicians market; while Gibson has priced itself out of it.
Epiphone recently has earned escalating credibility with quality and, except for its 'Inspired by Gibson' and 'Inspired by Gibson Custom Shop' lines, has maintained its guitars' affordability, making them the biggest competitor to Gibson's market share.
Those three factors - Gibson's pricing structure, Fender's targeting the younger musicians, and Epiphone's growth - are the biggest threats to Gibson; and Gibson has control over two of them. The wildcard and 600 lb gorilla in the room is, of course, the glut of used instruments from the COVID lockdown.
IF Gibson's corporate strategists make the right decisions, you may be right. If not, its pricy, weighty products with antiquated features will go the way of the dodo. Their main advantage, tone, will soon become more available with any guitar due to advancements in modeling. Gibson has, perhaps, 5 years to make and act on the decisions needed for it to survive. Otherwise, its detractors will be proven correct.
(Bias check: I own two Squiers, two Fenders, two Epiphones, and no Gibsons - with difficulty justifying their expense being the main reason for the last category.)
It’s relative.. I’m in my 20s, (still consider young guitarist) and my favorite brand is Gibson, the same as most of my friends… Not all the younger players want a Fender to play some indie/alternative stuff… some of us are looking again for heavier sounds and genuine hard rock tones… Fortunately, as you said, Epiphone is scaling up the line, making much of the Gibson iconic models affordable to the new projects..
The issue is there’s going to be a lot less newbies picking up ANY guitar, in the 70s 80s and into the 90s, It seemed every other teenager dreamed of being in a rock band, today only a fraction of 17 yr olds want to learn guitar and form a band.
True but I think there is a sea change coming in the next few years ..
There are so many great value LP types out there that are way better value, lower price and higher quality. For the vast majority of young players I teach buying a Gibson is not something they associate with, why? Because they’re way out of their reach. When I got my first guitar I bought a Japanese copy, my second guitar? A Gibson LP standard. After a couple of months I regretted getting rid of my LP copy. I’ve bought and owned numerous Gibson’s, I still have three, but as a gigging artist they’re not something I’d take it on the road.
I'm in the 34-50 age range. Other than Page, I think of Slash, Rich Robinson, Tom Kiefer.... And I always have a place reserved for Clapton and Peter Green in my mental Les Paul Hall Of Fame 😂
Trivium, coheed and cambria, Hawthorne heights, Silverstein, 30 secs to mars, chiodos off the top of my head. There are so many
when i think of a les paul (my dream guitar) i think of jimmy page..the reason i pickup up a guitar in the first place back in 94..
then gary moore, peter green and even slash.
Gibson, like em or not, is basically the gold standard as far as tone and design. So many great designs!!
Some of the 2000s/2010 guys that come to mind are Jade from AFI (Les Paul), Gary Clark Jr. (SG & Epi Casino/330), Reignwolf/Jordan Cook (SG & 335), Nick Valensi of the Strokes (Epi Riviera & Les Paul Custom), Ben McLeod from All Them Witches (Les Paul), and Kevin from Black Pistol Fire (Casino & Firebird). I'm sure there's a ton more that I'm forgetting right now
Oooooooooo good picks
@@Randolphguitars Thanks! Oh and Jared James Nichols (Les Paul), of course ;)
@@lancere00 2010s/2020s guitar players of bands such as Rival Sons (Firebird), Greta Van Fleet (SG 61), Dirty Honey (Les Paul standard), The Band Feel (Les Paul custom)… and the list goes so far…
Adam Jones. I finally bought my first Gibson style guitar. And it was an Epiphone Adam Jones Signature.
I was born in the early 80s. Page is the first Les Paul association. Then Slash. Then Adam Jones. I'd never buy a Slash guitar. I'd maybe buy a Page guitar. I bought an Adam Jones. I'd honestly possibly buy a Gibson Adam Jones in the future.
I'm more of a Fender guy to be honest. I have several Fender style guitars. Mostly Squiers. But I own a Fender Mustang Special and a Fender Jazz Bass. I'd definitely own more Fenders.
Adam Jones sold me a "Gibson". I wanted a Silverburst because of him.
Most of my "Gibson" mental associations are players from before I was born. But you're right....I damn near bought a Dave Grohl Signature Epiphone.
I would love a Mike McCready strat. Because Pearl Jam was one of my favorite bands. But I'm old enough that Hendrix hooked me on Strats before anyone else. But there were obviously many. Like I strangely predominantly associate Kurt Cobain with Strats. Because I was into Strats so I noticed the Strats.
I really don't care for "mordern" guitars. To each their own. I think the Tosen Abasis Kaisen (sorry of I miss spelled) us a super cool guitar. But it's not my vibe. But I actually really think that one is cool.
It's important to understand context here. Gibson is not being under heavy shade currently because it's trendy. Their new CEO did several questionable things like making a video telling people placing Gibsons in movies and media to stop tapping them knowing very well Gibson has to pay to have their brand as a placement ad (video was removed later). They also had that whole tirade of going after counterfeit versions of their guitars only to have their warehouse raided by the FBI because they had suspicions the ebony they had in stock was sourced illegally (ebony is an endangered wood due to it being harvested irresponsibly over the years). They also recently bought Mesa Boogie and kicked Randall Smith out of it (only the guy that created the company). And when you go "it's not like this brand is only attached to 60s and 70s guitar players" I ask if you've ever looked at what they now offer in terms of instruments. For many years, their primary produce was overly expensive limited runs of replica guitars from guys like Ace Frehley, Don Felder, etc. while Epiphone had the more interesting lineup of models. Then Gibson took over and made the current Epi line as boring as what they offer. To answer your question, when I think of a Les Paul, I think of Zakk Wylde, which no longer uses Gibson guitars and has his company of tacky replicas in Wylde Audio. SGs make me think of Frank Zappa, whose mainstay SG was a Gibson copy gifted to him by a fan.
Virtually no virtuoso under 30 or 40 years old plays Gibson, at least in genres like Rock, metal or alternative. And that trend is more marked with consumers outside the US. But without a doubt it is still the best option if what you want is an instrument that maintains its resale value. At least for now.
most "hated" because they don't sell for 3 hundred bucks or the commentor is a Chinese trolls. Gibson has a long line of innovation that no one cares about. Robo Tuners for example, the MLIII. Most metal guys play Schecters or ESPs
Even the most serious Gibson fans are the ones will tell you that the robo tuners were a terrible idea though. There’s innovations, and then there are gimmicks that someone comes up with to try to make sales. The most innovative guitar in my lifetime was probably the Steinberger GL2 (headless, double ball-end strings that can all be changed in a minute, and a *perfect* Trem system) but guitarists panned it because it wasn’t shaped enough like a traditional guitar (aka, a Les Paul).
Another point that supports the idea that Gibson isn’t going anywhere is the fact that many of their designs have become archetypes, and that archetypal status will always carry the story of their historical origins as Gibson-branded instruments. Many manufacturers make Les Paul-style guitars, ES-335-style guitars, Flying Vs, Explorers, SGs, etc. These designs are basically public goods at this point (or at least should be thought of so, imo). They’re classic, timeless, ubiquitous designs in the same way the 4-door sedan is in the world of cars. How many car manufacturers make at least one model of 4-door sedan? Literally all of them LOL it’s become the archetype of “car” that forms the bedrock of everybody’s conception of what a “car” even is.
That said, imo Gibson’s extreme litigiousness is fairly obviously ruining their reputation more than the actual guitars themselves. The Flying V, for example, was introduced in 1958 but the trademark wasn’t registered until 1997! They simply do not have a leg to stand on with their “Play Authentic™️, everything else is a counterfeit” argument because they didn’t enforce their trademark for DECADES. The idea that every Gibson-style guitar that isn’t itself a Gibson is a “counterfeit” speaks volumes to me about how they feel about their consumers. Deception is crucial in the idea of a “counterfeit,” so they’re basically saying that anybody who buys, for example, an LTD-branded Les Paul-looking thing is being deceived: they THOUGHT they were buying a Gibson Les Paul, but LTD deceived them with a counterfeit. In order to make that claim, you’d have to assume the buyer is so fucking stupid and illiterate that they were literally INCAPABLE of reading that the headstock did not say “Gibson” but rather “LTD.” I don’t believe Gibson actually thinks we are (all) that dumb, so the argument is just in bad-faith. If they really do believe that, then they’re just assholes LOL.
My Les Paul is my most prized possession and has been since I got it mid-December 2009. I’d also love to own an ES-339, ES-175, and Flying V one day. I WANT to love Gibson, but it’s clear that they’re just corporate bullies corrupted by greed now, and I simply can’t support them as a business out of moral disgust.
From my perspective, the most I’m willing say is that the guitars themselves (or at the very least their archetypal design principles) certainly aren’t going anywhere, but tbh I really can honestly see a not-too-distant future where their mean-spirited, bad-faith legal action has left such a bad taste in everybody’s mouth that their reputation has completely eroded, nobody wants anything to do with them, and they finally close for good. I would hate to see that happen.
Also Fender are a bunch of greedy corporate pigs now too, so industry ruined LOL thanks, Capitalism 🥰
Tonni Ionmi and Angus Young were two of the biggest Guitar influences in my childhood with Gibson SGs.
Then you have guys like Zakk Wylde Adam Jones and Matt Heafy
Every company makes some dud guitars even in a good model range. I think people latch on to that with a Gibson.
To me it makes no sense buying an Epiphone (especially the new higher priced ones) when you can get a good used Gibson from someone or even a guitar store.
They always retain higher value if taken care of. Phil from Know Your Gear always says "You don't lose money on a Gibson". Sure you may need to hold it for 20 years but an Epiphone or even most Fenders almost halve in value for resale.
Not saying resale is the only thing either, I am just saying you can find a good one and you won't regret it, even if you have to sell it.
I just sold a Gibson LP standard and I made about $800 bucks on it from what I bought it at, literally today. May it enjoy its new home!
I think the problem that a lot of people have is that for a 1500-3000 dollar guitar, there really should be no such thing as a "dud". When you pay THAT much for a guitar (and that's Gibson's standard/low-end range) you expect the quality of the instrument to be top notch. But the reality is that a lot of Gibsons leave the factory with defects and quality control issues right out of the gate, meaning that buying one is kind of like playing the lottery. Will you get a good high-quality guitar, or will you have to spend the next couple of weeks or months playing the "send it back and give me a new one" game until you finally find one that's up to snuff?
Which i think is fair criticism. When you pay that much for a musical instrument, you should be able to feel safe knowing that the instrument you'll be receiving will be as pristine and immaculate as humanly possible. You shouldn't have to worry and stress about whether or not the frets will buzz, or whether or not the binding will be done correctly, or whether or not there will be paint trapped in places where it shouldn't, or whether or not the neck will be warped, or whether or not the guitar will stay in tune, or whether or not the pickups will be wrapped properly, or any of the other myriad of things that you have to kind of go through and check when you buy a new Gibson these days.
Does that mean that Gibsons these days are "worthless and stupid" like some people claim? No, absolutely not! Gibsons are still by far some of the best guitars that money can buy, IF you can find a good specimen. But actually FINDING that good specimen is far too much of a faff when you consider what you pay for them, and when you also then consider that far cheaper brands can deliver much better consistency for a much lower price. And that is something that Gibson genuinely can and should work on.
@@Fraggr92 this isn’t a Gibson issue, that’s my point. I’ve played many guitars in that price range from many companies and they have had issues. Fenders, Ibanez, Epiphones, etc etc. Shitty plastic nuts on PrS Se’s.
No price range and brand is safe from these issues.
It’s no different than saying ‘I spent 50k on a new car and there should be no lemons’ but of course there will be…
@@sgt.gruhnn exactly! Every company has lemons.
I'm a real player and I go out of my way to not be broke-poor, so I never feel the need to sell my guitars. Epiphone makes the same guitars as Gibson for a fraction of the price, and those new expensive higher-end Epiphones you speak of "Inspired by Gibson Custom" are the exact same guitars the custom shop makes, design materials and hardware.
So if I have guitar A and guitar B and both are exactly the same, except one has a Gibson logo on the headstock and the other an Epiphone respectively, which is the more intelligent purchase? Obviously the cheaper one.
Brand loyalists. You guys troll the guitar forums with this same crap, I've read this about 1000x before over the years.
36. Have 2 gibsons. They make mistakes and cost a lot, a 2K guitar can have binding errors or tooling marks or a bad nut for sure. But the quality is there, you do get 2K worth of guitar. My first LP purchased in 2023 for 1.8 K and I took it to my luthier to describe some of the factory errors I noticed. He looked at me like I was crazy and said, “you’d have to spend over 10k to guarantee none of these issues would be present in the new guitar” needless to say I was tripping because of its cost. U really need to know what your buying, expensive doesn’t mean perfect, it’s dead wood
Brent and Bill from Mastodon, and their whole flock of silverburst Gibsons, although Bill is with ESP now. Those guys made me want to get a birth year silverburst LP Custom back in the early 2000's. Really should have gotten on it sooner. Since I was born in 79, I've now got to wait a bit and hope the market cools down after all of the Adam Jones hype sent the price for a '79 silverburst Custom through the roof. It's gone down a LITTLE bit since all those Jones models launched, but it's still more than I'm willing to pay for a Norlin era boat anchor of a Gibson, lol. Odds are it wouldn't get much play time anyway, considering I have an 8lbs even R9 that more than satisfies my Les Paul needs.
nah, i'm just a little older than you on the tail end of the millennial generation, i've been proud of the Gibsons I own, LP and a G45, They're like the wand shop in Harry Potter, the wand chooses the wizard. I've held, and tried many in shops over the years, some 50k some mid level epiphone. some were amazing, some flat out sucked. I love my Schecter, fender, Kramer, Samick"greg Bennet",and Alvarez the same way I love my Gibsons. but the les Paul gets a lotta love. When you find "that one" you just know. Much love man!
It’s the type of people who sit online commenting. Just a few broke (few = hundreds) but the majority aren’t online.
We have 333 Million people in the US.
Gibson has 1/3 of all guitar sales in the US.
$1.3 B sales in 2020 and it kept rising.
This growth is expected to continue in the coming years, with the global guitar market projected to reach $19.9 billion by 2025.
In the US, electric guitars make up the largest share of the market, accounting for 58% of all sales.
Acoustic guitars are the second most popular type of guitar, accounting for 36% of sales.
The bottom was a copy/paste, I lost some typing from my phone.
My point is volume and numbers.
Social media is limited to a sample size of the market.
There are also Gibson and Fender and PRS and Ibanez fan pages with tons of positive support.
Gibson is iconic bc that’s what the original guitar hero’s played, can’t escape history
I love my Gibson Les Paul Standard.
The guys from Coheed and Cambria play mostly Gibsons too, and they’re not exactly ‘dinosaur rock.’
I personally love classic rock, 60’s & 70’s, and I don’t know anything more R&R looking than a Les Paul guitar.
Thanks for the video. I am a boomer. I will be 69. I can buy a Gibson. I won’t do it. I have a Les Paul, but it’s an Epiphone. My most fun guitar to play is my Epiphone SG Special. It has a bolt on neck. It’s a hundred and fifty dollar guitar. I can say that because I am irrelevant. I would like to have a Gibson. I just can’t justify the price.
I actually had a Gibson Les Paul. It was disappointing, so I sold it kinda cheap. Recently I tried to buy one that had been in the store for seven months. They wouldn’t budge. It was a 2011 Studio. I won’t be here forever. It doesn’t matter what I think. I believe the future will be unimaginable. Based on what I have seen in my lifetime. It was a different world when I was young.
If you haven't yet, check out Eastman. Across the board incredible guitars. I picked up a very slightly used sb59 recently for a little over $1k that's absolutely gorgeous in every way. One of the very few times that, "even better than a x for half the price" things turned out to be true.
I’m a Jazz guy…Charlie Christian, Wes Montgomery, Grant Green, Kenny Burrell…the list goes on and on. ❤
You made some great points. Personally don’t like Gibson electric but ive only had a Les paul and an explorer. I’ve always wanted to try a double cutaway Les Paul special with p90’s. One day I will have a hummingbird too. I still think of older guys like slash and iommi when I think of Gibson.
Love the guitars, hate the people.
They put the frets on the fret board before the fret board goes on the neck, watch Andertons factory tour. Maybe that’s not a big deal; Prs does that for the S2 models. You just wouldn’t think they would do that
Being 58 now and have owning over 100 Gibson guitars over 40 years with the rest totaling 650 guitars of various brands from high to low. This is the thing, when we started watching MTV and all the metal guys playing all these great guitars some played 4 or 5 in one video all different, so at some point I wanted to get my hands all all of them because those were what the pros were using, and now having had to get to experience every guitar that I ever wanted to play or own ever, I can say that the major brands vs some of the lessor brands there is really not much difference, it boils down to wood and metal, yes set up, parts ect I understand all that, but when you have saved and saved or traded and traded and finally get your dream guitar and it just doesnt do what you thought it would and it cost you so much time effort what ever you get to know that they really aren't all that in the end, and that as long as it plays and sounds the way you want it to there really is no reason to pay outlandish prices for something with a name on the head. I mean Gibson's are great guitars, USA Jacksons, USA Fender you name it we all want to reach for those but at 58 I realize now that a Squire can play just as smooth and easy as a USA Fender for 175 bucks is just a no brainer. The other thing is that if its your tool that you are making cash with then that is different also, but just sitting at home playing what should be the end all be all of a guitar in your room and being out hundreds or thousands of dollars, I dont think so anymore. Maybe if I was rich beyond, then having 6 Gibson's would be cooler than having 6 low to mid grade guitars .. I know this, an expensive guitar does not make you sound or play better, the real test is that are you good enough to pick up the cheapest junk and make it sound just as good as a high dollar guitar.
It's not that Gibson is irrelevant, but the facts on the ground are they have had SERIOUS QC issues. Especially for the price of the instruments, I have owned and loved Gibson guitars. In the 1980's I owned a 1968 ES-345 and I still miss it today. But PRS is hands down in my experience a better value for the dollar.
I believe that white is the best studio color. Just got an 06 w/chrome. It's a beast!
I think you are wrong. Gibson is gonna die off with boomers. Now ask what are my favorite guitars…..
Gibson. I actually prefer my SG and Explorer over the LP but I do like my LP. Problem is thickness and weight.
The reason they will die off or be forced to come way down in price has more to do with inflation and wage stagnation than “being irrelevant “ (although irrelevance will soon take hold). Also, import guitars like Schecter and ESP LTD and even Epiphone have really stepped up their game making phenomenal instruments. Gibson refusing to add modern appointments like SS frets and modern bridge options or something that wasn’t designed in the 1950/60s will make themselves undesirable to younger and future guitarists. Simple thing, they will age out.
My $.02
I think you’re sort of right. I think young people right now probably associate Gibson guitars with old people. The next generation will want to stand out so they might adopt the Gibson aesthetic to be different. Whiskey is like that, goes through a surge in popularity every 20 years or so; each generation wants to be cool so they don’t do things the generation before them did, instead do what next older generation was doing
@@honkytonkinson9787 can Gibson hang on for a generation? They’ve got serious overheads and bigwigs on big salaries.
@@bengraham878 it might get bought and sold a few times but it’s a big icon that I doubt investors would let die
Coheed and Cambria
I recently heard about a music festival where the lions share of the guitars played were fenders so in that aspect, I think they may be losing some relevancy and maybe they’re just not capitalizing on being the guitar of choice for a lot of the bands you mentioned. as far as them being overpriced goes, I think that claim holds more water today than it did in the 50s because we’ve come along way with manufacturing guitars to the point where Gibson guitars don’t blow cheaper guitars out of the water. If you looked at a cheap guitar from the 50s and compared it to a Gibson, it would be night and day in 2024 so many guitars can be almost if not as good as a Gibson. My Schechter solo custom is a great example. I played a Gibson and I didn’t think I was missing out on anything.
Billy Joe from Green Day was actually more synonymous with his beat up Fernandes Strat than his LP Junior, at least when they were considered more underground and cooler,
I agree. I think it’s an age thing. If you were young in the 90s you picture Billy Joe with the beat up punk stickers strat copy, baggy clothes and bleached hair. If you are 10 years younger you think LP jr, beetlejuice suit and black hair
I like them they are just out of my price range. I did get a Les Paul lite for $800 and love it. I call it a Les G. Thin like a sg but single cut like a Les Paul
I'm personally use fenders but if you like alternative rock/emo music in early/mid 2000s, so many bands were mainly using les pauls. I only associated it with boomers when I started watching guitar youtube videos.
Though I now prefer playing a strat or tele, I will never give up my LP. it simply has a different sound.
I think a lot of the complaint was when Gibson had some quality issues for the price they were asking.
Randy Rhoads was the LP guy that first came to mind.
To be fair, I first encountered this argument from boomers/gen x folks on youtube. I think since Gibson has corned the market on boomer/Gen x nostalgia, they've grown to despise the company a little bit lol.
But I'm 31 and have always wanted a Les Paul or SG. Like you, i associate these guitars with punk and emo bands; Sunny Day Real Estate, Jawbreaker, My Chem etc. These bands are the reason I want to own a slick ass Gibson someday! I'll probably get one for my 40th birthday.
If you look at the whole grunge scene it was a ton of gibsons with some fender and guild, then in England with oasis it’s all Gibson and epiphone, then you got guys like Jack white who play anything
How would you compare the one you are holding in this video and PRS SE Mccarty Standard you reviewed?
Man i feel old af lmao. When i think gibson I think Jimmy Page for his 58 and 59 les pauls and the famous EDS1275, Alex Lifeson easily for playing a gibson ES335, sort of Randy Rhoades since he used jacksons and his custom pokadot V probably more than his LP custom, not a fan but Slash plays one and is wildly known for playing Gibson les pauls, Buckethead plays his baratone les paul, Angus Young with the Gibson sg, Tony Iommi with his Gibson SG, even James Hetfield plays his Gibson Explorer and is pretty know for it lol. Kirk Hammet plays a bunch of Gibson LPs, Joe Bonamassa has like every Gibson ever made and is known for playing gibsons lol.
You make a great point about generational associations regarding guitars and the bands they’re associated with.
I wouldn’t bother addressing comments from teenagers on social media. There’s little basis in fact and social media is not the real world. If you’re typing, you’re not playing.
In the end, any good guitarist who spends the bulk of his/her time touring and recording is going to end up playing instruments that sound and feel good to them. These are their tools, after all.
Many Gibson models have stood the test of time because they’re the path of least resistance. Gibson isn’t going anywhere, at least as long as they are profitable to KKR, the Wall Street-based private equity firm that owns them. Rather than ruin the brand, this group invested significant capital to upgrading US operations.
It’s anyone’s guess what they’ll do with their other brands (consider Mesa Boogie), but for now this is not a pump and dump (look it up).
(i'm 41) The thing is... I wanted a Gibson this year, I was searching for one, specially a Les Paul but I would be OK with an SG. On my hunt for my Gibson I discovered a Yamaha Revstar and saved 2000 USD and got a guitar that's just as well made if not better. I still want a Les Paul, but for someone that's not a professional working musician nor rich, Gibson seems like a nonsense luxury in 2024 with so many GREAT guitars to chose from.
James Iha, Joey Santiago, both LP Custom players
Jeff Tweedy’s SG made me want one.
Gibson=bad is just as NPC as "boomer bends"
Bro, I’ve had many guitars over the years. But I didn’t get my first “Gibson” until I was 35. The fact is they are a true instrument, so they’re expensive, and my fenders are like a toy to me.
I associate randy with the Flying V, not the les Paul.
Didn’t know he played one
Everyone hates them on the internet. Every time I gig my double neck there are no haters lol
Joe bonnamassa is pretty crazy if you’ve never actually watched him. Just from a pure talent stand point. Good video man.
Never once thought of classic rock and Gibson. Tom York and the SG. Dereck trucks sg. Every emo band in 2002. Etc
The Les Paul in my opinion is a so so guitar. They are heavy and expensive, which I feel like is a turn off for young guitar players. The 335 on the other hand, is a guitar everyone needs. Yes it is expensive and perhaps that is a major reason why young people don’t buy them, but it is an incredible instrument.
I think it depends on what sound you want. Those LPs have humbuckers that squash sound for a compressed big rock sound as opposed to Strat/Tele single-coil pickups with clarity. The 335 meets the two with humbuckers in a semi-hollow body. People will hate a LP if they want clarity or vice-versa. Old as time to say, “my guitar is just as good as yours and I’m smarter because I paid less.” Maybe they are sometimes. It is a tool. Some like their tools a little shinier without needing modification. Either is cool so long as it inspires people to play more and not do AI-quality music.
It's cool right now to look down on industry standard. Gibson is industry standard for a reason.
Slash likely saved the company in the 80's. Not a fan, but the visibilty of his "Gibson" CANNOT be underestimated.
I am 60. I have owned over a hundred guitars and played hundreds more. I currently own a dozen or so including Gibsons at every price range. My TV yellow special is probably my number one and has been for quite awhile. It was bought new for under 1500 bucks. Not dirt cheap but not a bank buster either. 13 year olds and their friends dont often have that kind of cash for a guitar and if they do they are gonna buy something more flashy at that age. They simply don't have the experience and knowledge to tell an experienced player anything about a Gibson. When they get old enough to decide that telecasters will always be God's gift and to have a little money in their pocket they will suddenly find that a fat Les Paul with PAF'S isn't far behind that Tele.
My second guitar was a white Les Paul because the guitarist from Aiden used one
Gibson is a great example of conspicuous consumption, is not about generations is about buying a brand and holding it over those who can't afford it, like people who buy iPhones
L take
@@Randolphguitarsobviously not everybody who buys a Gibson does it to lord it over other people, but while they are very good tools there is only one reason why a luxury brand that has received a bad quality control reputation in its later years is still one of the most imitated and popular ones even though other brands are steadily gaining on it in terms of quality.
Gibson will always be around but much like Marshall Gibson will never be remembered as the company it is today and 9 times out of 10 people aren't after modern Gibson guitars unless they are reissues of the classics. They want the Korina V's, they want the 59 LPs, etc. outside of legacy and non-rock acts it's difficult to find someone who plays a Gibson in the modern age honestly. They aren't really targeting the average aspiring guitar player or shredders, they are an investment brand and that's fine and if you can afford them there's no shame in buying one but I think the reality is that brand and country of origin doesn't matter as long as you enjoy playing it. Gibsons are absolutely incredible guitars 95-98% of the time and there's no reason not to buy one, they always retain or increase in value and will always be saught after even if you can get guitars that have better specs on paper for a cheaper overall price. Nothing in the guitar world holds value like a Gibson or American Fender.
Makes sense that our unskilled youth would find no value in craftsmanship.
new players doesnt use valve amps, thats why
I love Gibson I have 3 Les Paul , there are great guitars iconic and a great Americana company. ❤❤❤❤nothing but good thing about them never had an issue
Warren Haynes
W
Gibsons biggest competitor are used Gibsons. Most used Gibsons are located in the US. Because of that the international market is of critical value for Gibson, just because there the used market isn't as saturated. Right now they lean heavily into Gibsons as "non-depreciating assets" for boomers with a bunch of cash laying around. That's the whole limited signatures north of 10k thing.
Meanwhile international market is getting saturated by the plethora of different brands, from budget up to really nice, sometimes doing a better job at what Gibson does than Gibson for less money (like the Japanese or Maybach from czech republic).
Gibson tried to (and failed to) cash into their brand recognition with lifestyle products pre-bancrupcy, in fact the bancrupcy was caused by acquisitions of consumer electronic companies. Think Marshall Bluetooth speakers and headphones. Or Harley Davidson jackets and belts.That was what Gibson wanted to achieve. They didn't, instead they trashed their reputation in guitars - so much so that I bought several 2018 and 2019 guitars for 400 bucks.
Going nowhere because they don't care about players and fans of the products unless you have deep, and I mean deep pockets!
Very interesting points you've touched. Gibson guitars are more expensive because they are actually harder to make than a bolt-on guitar, you need quality woods that not only look good but are stable and sound good. The design is roughly same as old as a Tele or Strat but no one complaints of a Tele, Strat, Jaguar being outdated. Haters are gonna hate.
Gibson have already filed for bankruptcy once. Of course demand is going to fall dramatically once the boomers have gone. There will still be a demand, but if it can’t support the business, the business will either cease to exist or have to dramatically downsize. Im always shocked that there’s a market for £8000 plus Gibson Murphy Labs, I think some people think they’re an investment like a vintage guitar until they try to sell them and can only get 50% of what they paid (unless they wait 20 years for inflation to catch up).
BB King and Slash of course.
Never heard of Chemical Romance but I was born in 1951! Ya, I’m old…
The Jimmy Page #2 Gibson LP is my favorite LP. I don’t know of any guitars manufactured today that offer so many tones! Just wondering, which guitar is the favorite of people in their teens today?
That’s only cuz chibson has people fooled to thinking they’re actually comparable to Gibson. They do charge to much, but what chibsons are doing is only ruining future Gibson growth
I started on a fender strat. Thought I’d always be a strat player. Bought an sg as a back up for messing around. Ended up an sg player and haven’t looked back.
Hate to say it and it ain’t exactly the spirit of Rocknroll but Taylor swift is another but perhaps we can keep that quiet 😮 mix it up with fender and Gibson it’s the way to go been doing this for many years . No one can argue that tele Strat and Les Paul are the holy trinity when it comes to classics .
I thought she was with Taylor guitars?
Like, I know Taylor guitars aren’t owned by her at all, but I remembered she had a guitar with them at some point
@@AwkwardHypernerd413 principally Gibson .
I own 3 gibsons and atleast to me and my friends they are the best, idk why people decide to hate on the brand but basically every song you hear from every old and new band is using either a Gibson or fender, and most of them do both
The first player that comes to mind for white Les Pauls is Jamie Rhoden from Title Fight.
Hell yeah
theres a reason there has been copies of gibson and fender for half a century.
not saying you cant get a good guitar for less than a gibson price these days but, see above statement
The issues with Gibson are more to do with their business moves than instrument quality
If it hadn’t been for Slash in the late 80s Gibson may have died back then. He is probably the savior for Gibson.
I think it's the classic case of the haves vs. have nots. I have a number of Gibsons and love each one of them. I think they are worth the money, at least for the Gibson USA stuff. I don't have any experience with the Gibson Custom Shop stuff, which is out of my price range (well, my wife's price range :). If the people have a Gibson and then want to bash them, that's one thing. But the haters just spouting crap when they don't own a Gibson or wouldn't buy one anyway, who cares what they have to say? And why the heck do they spend so much time watching videos about stuff they can't afford and commenting on them. I don't watch Ferrari videos because it would be pointless. 😀
I'm a guitar player in my 60s, and I prefer Fender (and Fender-style) instruments. I will likely never own another Gibson, for a few reasons. Gibson represents to me the Dixie Southern mentality of the good-ol'-boys, the KKK and the racists of the south. Other guitar brands do not have this baggage. In addition, Gibsons sound like crap.
Nah. Granted, I’m almost middle aged and I find a lot of Gibson products useful. Are they expensive? Sure, but they’ve a rich heritage and will probably always be relevant.
You're right about a lot, but you're wrong about the possibility of a Gibson instrument being made outside of the USA. They already have this, and it's called Epiphone. The Gibson brand would be tainted if they ever moved production out of this country. They might move the factories out of Nashville and Bozeman, but they won't be moving internationally. If that happened, Gibson would actually become irrelevant.
I've always been playing Gibson since a teenager. I've tried fender guitars from strats and I absolutely hated them. I'm a hard rock rhythm guitarist and Gibson is by far the best choice for me.
Austin I think that eppiphone is not as expensive as gibson and more affordable for younger players to get in their Hands they can be great deals when bought used.
Every 15 year old should automatically be awarded a Prince Anhk looking axe and a wall of Soldanos to grow out of. Individuality is all they seek, not mass produced items that carry past baggage, good or bad. Since there is no way to match that paradigm, their answer is to complain but offer no solutions; At least Van Halen tried. Hence (pickaBrand) is a failure because I'm not famous NOW. Take up the glockenspiel, as the field is wide open, and you can still run it through the Soldanos.
Being an old fart, I think of Jimmy, Slash, Noel G, BB and Dave G. But I also listen to enough newer artists and think of BlackBerry Smoke, Red Clay Straws, Kingfish, Marcus King, Joanna Conner, Emily Wolfe.
There’s plenty of Gibson/Epiphone players out there.
But, Gibsons are expensive and the QC is variable at times. Epiphone is better value for money.
The only reason Gibson is going to fail is if they don't get their QC under control.
I have many high end guitars. My number one is a Gibson R9 and it’s not even close. On top of that I can sell it for more than I paid for it any day I want. You should consider Gibson like Rolex is compared to Apple Watch. Apple Watch may have better features but it certainly doesn’t feel nothing like a Rolex.
Mike Ness Social Distortion '76 Les Paul Goldtop Deluxe.
The problem is more that electric guitar is currently becoming irrelevant. Machine Gun Kelly has multiple signature models. That's the current state of the electric guitar in popular music. Mainstream Pop/alt guitar has gone the way of the cassette player. Sure, they still make them, but it's an awful experience when you try to listen. There are rumblings that Shoegaze is coming back. This could potentially revitalize electric guitars. Even though Sigur Ros has been carrying on that legacy for three decades, I'd like to see some young people who just discovered Cocteau Twins and Slowdive make something new.