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Re: Gibson Guitar Is a Remarkably Unpopular Company
The iconic guitar company Gibson faces seemingly endless troubles, which include an easily enraged micromanaging CEO and a product line perceived as shoddy and overpriced. Based on what we’ve heard lately, it is not a great employer or maker of guitars.
What the Hell Is Happening at Gibson Guitar?
Today is the 100th birthday of guitar god Les Paul, whose innovations helped to make Gibson one of…
A few weeks ago, after hearing a steady trickle of rumors about mismanagement at Gibson, we asked for contributions from you, the Gibson employees and/ or customers. We got quite a few. They do not paint a rosy picture of this company. Based upon our tipsters, Gibson faces two main problems: their employees hate them (particularly CEO Henry Juszkiewicz), and their customers think they’re crap.
The first sign that something might be wrong with the way Gibson is run is that not one but two of our tipsters said that their experiences at Gibson were so bad that they are planning to write a book about them. One woman who had traveled from the UK in order to interview for a job at Gibson earlier this year sent us a brief excerpt about the Gibson hiring process, complete with a cameo by the CEO himself:
I just got a glimpse [of] what felt like the world’s most baffling hiring process. ‘The psychometric test takes approximately three hours to complete. If you have any questions in this process or problems with the testing, please let me know,’ said the email when it plopped into my inbox yesterday. I promptly responded: ‘I don’t really have three hours spare to take tests before tomorrow. Also, please can I have a job description because you haven’t actually sent me anything about the role, and I’d really rather know exactly what you expect before I succumb to being tested for THREE WHOLE HOURS.’ Or something to that effect. It wasn’t quite as stroppy. But seriously, I had other admin to attend to, like answering my Tinder messages.
Anyway, what happened was, HR invited me to meet with three different people in the company in one day (all of whom would explain more), and in the time between these meetings she suggested I take these tests at their headquarters. I hadn’t really planned to spend the majority of a day in a corporate cellblock ...
I’ll admit, I forgot about the test when the CEO stepped into the gigantic conference room, if only because he was even more baffling. It was all I could do to sustain eye contact. The silver-haired, seventy-ish-year-old man looked as though he was having some sort of epileptic fit in front of me as he blathered on and on and on about his history in and before he started with the company. His eyes were rolling around the room, landing everywhere but on me. I wasn’t entirely sure he was sober.
‘So, do you have a social media strategy already?’ I asked him.
‘Oh yes,’ he said, sitting back and smiling knowingly.
‘I’d like to know what it is.’
‘I bet you would,’ he smirked.
‘Well, it would help,’ I replied, trying to meet his eyes, and failing.
‘I’m sure it would,’ he answered.
‘Well... what do you want to be, as a brand, that you think you’re not already?’
‘Even more awesome. We’re already awesome. We just want to be more awesome.’
‘Right.’
As he spoke, the words I read on Glassdoor.com rushed back to me: ‘Run, don’t walk away from even considering working here. The CEO is HORRIBLE - mean, nasty, uber-controlling. If anyone in the company dares to have a different idea than his, you can pretty much guarantee that they will be fired - on the spot.’
She has not taken the job.
And from another person who’s experienced the hiring process:
I saw your latest post on Jun 9 about Gibson and laughed my ass off. I worked for Henry in 2012 and shared much the same experiences that others have detailed. I lasted about 9 months before I had to bail and that was longer than about 20 other guys that year. After you join, co-workers admit that “you are the class of 2012/2013/2014/2015 etc.” and that you are basically toast. Great way to treat people. Move them and their family to Nashville and then trash them. I found a way to stay in Nashville and actually like it here now. However, I would never want to relive the sequence of events I lived through.
We also heard from quite a few of Gibson’s customers. Some, of course, would be more accurately described as former customers. Echoing comments that can be found across the internet, they did not seem to be fans of the company’s current value proposition.
I’m a long time Gibson player and collector. Last year I went into a Sam Ash store to buy either a Les Paul Standard or a Traditional. The sales guy who knows me well told me to open the control cavity first. He knows I like to change pickups and sometimes capacitors to get variations in tone. This is very common among guitar players. When I opened up the control cavity, instead of seeing metal potentiometers and capacitors, I saw a plastic circuit board that the pickups plug into. The sales person told me that they have been turning away customer after customer that wants to change out pickups because the parts to do so aren’t available. Ebay is littered with the new pickup and circuit boards because folks are pulling them out and replacing the guts with what used to come standard in every Les Paul. So, if someone buys a new Les Paul and they would like to change out the pickups, they now have to replace everything which adds an entire new layer to the cost of a pickup replacement.
Thanks to the CEO of Gibson the secondary used market is exploding as the market for new Gibson’s is declining. Gibson has always been the largest manufacturer of highly sought after “boutique guitars”. I was dumfounded when Gibson decided to celebrate Les Paul’s 100th birthday with a lame marketing gimmick of buy a Les Paul and enter a contest to reimbursed. For the purchase price. They could have taken the opportunity to do something special to commemorate the event. The bottom line for me is this: I’m done buying new Gibson Guitars. In my opinion the company has become very exploitative of their customer base and is experimenting and destroying perfection. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. The world is full of great used pre bad decision Gibson.
Ouch.
I have been playing guitar for 20 years. The current Gibson lineup and overall status is a complete laughing stock. WAY too expensive, horrible quality control and I would never support them because the CEO is a total jackass. The new auto tuning system sounds like a good idea but a lot of people don’t want it yet its forced – they should make it an option if you want it...
It’s sad that a once iconic brand is run by such a terrible CEO. He is ruining the company.
Dang.
I used to work at a guitar store in Richmond, VA. It was a mom and pop shop that grew to be one of the top selling Taylor retailers in the country. All the while staying in a town home duplex. There isn’t a lot of space, but the guitars never stayed on the wall very long. We sold Martin, Taylor, Fender, Huss & Dalton (custom acoustics from Stanton, VA) and for a short period, Gibson. The shop stopped carrying Gibson for the exact reason you have written here. The quality was crap and working with them was a nightmare. Even after we stopped carrying Gibson, we would have people bring them in, brand new, to be setup. The tuners on the $1,000+ models were as cheap as the Chinese knockoffs. The necks were incredibly off and difficult to keep straight. The frets needed a level & dress from day 1.
Woof.
I have an early 90’s SG. I would never buy another gibson, I’d rather buy a knock off and modify it to my liking (which I have) than spend $4,000-5,000 on a robot made les paul. They are worth maybe $400 at most. If ever a company should disband itself since it sunk into the gutter in the late 70’s it’s Gibson. Over-rated hack company. Try playing one in the store, the frets look like they were put in by chimps, the QA team must drink on the job. Their quality has been a joke since 1975, don’t they get it?
Meow.
Henry Juszkiewicz, call your office (if there’s anyone left).
Re: Gibson Guitar Is a Remarkably Unpopular Company
I have a 2013 Gibson Les Paul Standard...its the best guitar I've ever owner or played...wouldn't change it for the world...but 2 years later Gibson is in a lot of trouble...plus they nearly doubled their prices...what I paid $2,699CDN for in April 2014, the same guitar is now $4049CDN, plus there has been some issues with failure of hardware (namely robotic tuners and brass nuts) and some scaling back of some of the workmanship (in and around the neck binding)...on message forums a lot of people are saying a lot of bad things...I have played a 2015 model aside from a few minutes in a store so I don't know how founded the accusations are
meanwhile Fender Music Corp. is firing on all cylinders and can seemingly do no wrong in recent years
Re: Gibson Guitar Is a Remarkably Unpopular Company
I remember reading some bullshit excuse from the CEO about how Gibson is a "lifestyle" brand. It's basically saying that they charge a bunch of money for their shit so people can say they paid a certain amount of money for their products. It was really stupid.
Re: Gibson Guitar Is a Remarkably Unpopular Company
It's been cool to hate on Gibson for a couple of years now, and I can't speak for the newer guitars, but some of the comments you listed are typical wannabe guitar audiophile bullshit statements. For one thing, machine-made guitars are infinitely more reliable and precise than hand made guitars. You can make a great handmade guitar, but you can make the same quality guitar for a fraction of the price if you set up a machine-based production line. Also, the 'extra' cost of 4 pots, a cap or two and a wiring loom is nothing. So what if you have to throw out a PCB when you put in new pups? Boo-fucking-hoo...
Having said that, a Gibson (and American made Fender) is overpriced, for one due to labor costs (Asian factories deliver the same quality for a lot less money), but also because they charge you for the "made in USA" label. An American made Les Paul standard should sell for no more than about 1200 USD, if they used similar margins to guitars manufactured overseas. That is the reason why I will not by another Gibson guitar, not because they are supposedly crap instruments.
In that sense, Gibson is a lifestyle brand, pretty much in the same vein as Beats, Monster, ... and the likes. The real shame is that Gibson at the very least really did make quality products (which cannot be said of other "lifestyle" brands).
But yeah, that CEO is a delusional prick.
Re: Gibson Guitar Is a Remarkably Unpopular Company
What kind of asian guitars aee u referring to ... I have yet to see an oversees made guitar that matches the workmanship of my american made fender or gibson. .. also the material quality and electronics on oversees guitars are often suspect
Re: Gibson Guitar Is a Remarkably Unpopular Company
Don't know anything about guitars, but having a tv, a blu ray player and a monitor crap out on me this year I'm never buying Asian again. I still have an alarm clock from the 80s that is working, but apparently that kind of quality is not the case anymore.
Re: Gibson Guitar Is a Remarkably Unpopular Company
What kind of asian guitars aee u referring to ... I have yet to see an oversees made guitar that matches the workmanship of my american made fender or gibson. .. also the material quality and electronics on oversees guitars are often suspect
Well, of the famous brands ESP/LTD for one make absolutely excellent guitars and none of them are made in the US. PRS' SE series (made in Korea) beat the pants off of PRS' S2 series (made affordably in the US). Both are as reliable as their custom shop counterparts if you buy a version with proper electronics. Then there's brands like Chapman Guitars, who make absolutely amazing quality guitars and produce exclusively in Korea.
What a lot of American guitar companies tend to do is build their lower end guitars in Asia and their high end stuff in the US, which creates an image that Asia creates low-end crappy guitars and the US is always top notch. However, if you have a same-spec guitar built in the US and in Asia, you'll end up with equal quality instruments but very different prices.
I've always found it flabbergasting that a lot of people think Chinese or Korean people can't make quality goods. They can and do all the time, but if you ask them to make cheap stuff... they will make you cheap stuff.
Point is, there's absolutely no reason to pay extra for quality US made gear over the quality stuff that you can buy from the far east.
*edit* I just want to add there is no 'instrument quality' based reason. Of course you might want to support your local economy and all that, but on the other hand that might not be worth getting ripped off for.
Re: Gibson Guitar Is a Remarkably Unpopular Company
Don't know anything about guitars, but having a tv, a blu ray player and a monitor crap out on me this year I'm never buying Asian again. I still have an alarm clock from the 80s that is working, but apparently that kind of quality is not the case anymore.
That's true for all CE equipment these days, regardless of where it's manufactured. If you're looking for quality, there's very little brands left that focus on that. For TV's specifically, I'd be hard pressed to list anyone besides maybe Sony, who still do all their design and manufacturing themselves. Visio buys and builds OEM stuff in China, RCA is owned by a French company and licensed to Chinese brand TCL, Philips TV's are actually Chinese TV's made and designed by Chinese brand TPVision, ...
There are literally no American or European made televisions that you can buy anymore.
Re: Gibson Guitar Is a Remarkably Unpopular Company
Well, of the famous brands ESP/LTD for one make absolutely excellent guitars and none of them are made in the US. PRS' SE series (made in Korea) beat the pants off of PRS' S2 series (made affordably in the US). Both are as reliable as their custom shop counterparts if you buy a version with proper electronics.
I used to have an ltd mh1000 and it was a great guitar...but had fret issues. .odd that a 2010 guitar had frets wearing out within 4 years ...was still a $1000 guitar...still imo has a bit of a cheasy metal syltyle to them...never been a fan of the prs stuff the ones I have played haven't been all that great...granted my experience with them is limited...but again high end se guitars are still over $1k
Additionally, both PRS and ESP have guitars that match or exceed gibson and usa fender prices...so I'm not sure how valid your argument is
I'm of the opinion that if u want a gibson, get a gibson , don't get a prs cuz u think it's close to a gibson...I went thru so many guitars to save money...in the end I just should have save myself the time and money and got a fucking gibson lol...plus if u decide to resell, guess which brand hold the highest demand and prices on the resell market, or if u hold onto it what brands have highest vintage price points?
On topic gibson 2016s have been announced...prices have dropped about $400 and the mini tune and brass nuts are gone...people seem to be happy for now
Re: Gibson Guitar Is a Remarkably Unpopular Company
polluxlm wrote:Don't know anything about guitars, but having a tv, a blu ray player and a monitor crap out on me this year I'm never buying Asian again. I still have an alarm clock from the 80s that is working, but apparently that kind of quality is not the case anymore.
That's true for all CE equipment these days, regardless of where it's manufactured. If you're looking for quality, there's very little brands left that focus on that. For TV's specifically, I'd be hard pressed to list anyone besides maybe Sony, who still do all their design and manufacturing themselves. Visio buys and builds OEM stuff in China, RCA is owned by a French company and licensed to Chinese brand TCL, Philips TV's are actually Chinese TV's made and designed by Chinese brand TPVision, ...
There are literally no American or European made televisions that you can buy anymore.
Well, it doesn't matter so much where it is built as long as good components are used. What are some quality brands in your opinion? We used to have a Danish brand here, Bang Olufsen, but I see their selection isn't all that great. Pricy as hell too.
