Well, they can't sell em, think they had a windows 98 operating system, total failure as a guitar. Take em to bits and reuse the parts? To employ someone to strip them and put the parts back into the production system would be expensive and then you loose the quality control for fitting old parts onto new guitars. Give them to a volunteer to strip the parts, donate them to a school then smash the bodies and necks, the only feasable suggestion. Easiest method, break them all.
Gibson defend themselves by saying that they are conscientious in their charitable work so this isn’t some kind of thoughtless task. However, I can’t help thinking that SOMEONE could have used the the guitars. Still horrible.
Thinking about this from James Curleigh's perspective, I wonder what I might have done.
Mr. Curleigh was brought in to turn round an insolvent company: I would focus on clearing out loss-making products and brands, sorting out the poor manufacturing quality (and the low staff morale which would affect manufacturing quality) and ramping up marketing on the things that Gibson still has a good reputation for.
In short, the poor chap maybe doesn't have the storage space to hang onto those guitars nor, right now, the time or finance to do any of the nice options mentioned above. What do you think?
Probably correct. But surely. Bono or someone like that could have combined with him to send those guitars somewhere ?
I still think the best thing Gibson can do now is produce fewer VERY expensive guitars of superlative quality and keep putting them in the hands of famous musicians. They simply cannot compete with mass production from low wage economies.
Given Curleigh’s history of benevolence, I can’t believe that he didn’t do the best he could. Economics isn’t always doing what other people think is the right thing. I think he’s in a very thought position and did what he had to. But I wish I’d given him my address so I could have grabbed a couple of those guitars!
I guess things like this do happen in industry, sad though it may be. Seems to me the main mistake was allowing someone to film the destruction and put it on Youtube.
There's a recent factory tour video for Gibson on Youtube, which I find interesting. Not quite sure what I think to be honest - possibly some old habits/thinking still lingers, and they do seem to be going out of their way to emphasize the links to the glorious past, which I'm not sure about - I think perhaps they should think a bit more in future terms. But I wish them well.
Comments
Take em to bits and reuse the parts? To employ someone to strip them and put the parts back into the production system would be expensive and then you loose the quality control for fitting old parts onto new guitars.
Give them to a volunteer to strip the parts, donate them to a school then smash the bodies and necks, the only feasable suggestion.
Easiest method, break them all.
Still horrible.
Mr. Curleigh was brought in to turn round an insolvent company: I would focus on clearing out loss-making products and brands, sorting out the poor manufacturing quality (and the low staff morale which would affect manufacturing quality) and ramping up marketing on the things that Gibson still has a good reputation for.
In short, the poor chap maybe doesn't have the storage space to hang onto those guitars nor, right now, the time or finance to do any of the nice options mentioned above. What do you think?
I still think the best thing Gibson can do now is produce fewer VERY expensive guitars of superlative quality and keep putting them in the hands of famous musicians. They simply cannot compete with mass production from low wage economies.
But I wish I’d given him my address so I could have grabbed a couple of those guitars!
There's a recent factory tour video for Gibson on Youtube, which I find interesting. Not quite sure what I think to be honest - possibly some old habits/thinking still lingers, and they do seem to be going out of their way to emphasize the links to the glorious past, which I'm not sure about - I think perhaps they should think a bit more in future terms. But I wish them well.