May 4, 2018 –The headlines – venerable guitar maker Gibson files for bankruptcy. The articles are fairly technical, and I’ve read them from that standpoint, most pointing out the decision of the CEO to purchase the consumer electronic arm of Philips, to make Gibson a lifestyle brand, although which division was in direct competition with Amazon (the behemoth that is slowly, or quickly, taking over the world) causing Gibson’s woes. Other articles question whether the demand for guitars is the cause. Statistically, that seems probable for me, but there are a few articles saying the demand for guitars is not it. Analyzing how U.S. guitar sales are doing, one article quotes the National Association of Music Merchants (affectionately known as NAMM), which cites the statistic that 2.6 million guitars were sold in the U.S. in 2017, up from about 2.3 million in 2009. But, and this is the part that, for me, makes the statistics shaky: guitar sales are choppy; in 2018, guitars collectively sold for about $1.3 billion, up from $1.2 billion in 2016, but the numbers are almost flat considering the sales figure hit $1 billion in 2004. In real terms, that’s not a lot of growth for those 14 years between 2004 and 2018.
Other than the technical, I wanted to know the reaction of musicians. Search and search I did, but musicians were pretty quiet on this. So how about Fender? How are they doing? What do they think? Again, not so much directly said, but one of the financial articles compared Gibson to Fender, pointing out that Fender is doing just fine. The article I ran into praised Fender’s CEO, a former Nike marketing person, for his decisions that have allowed Fender’s profits to grow. Apparently, according to Fender research, and I find this interesting, rather than look to innovation or expansion like Gibson did, Fender analyzed its customer base to try to market to what their customers wanted. Fender’s internal findings, based on two years of research of new guitar buyers (and again, I’m not sure this is the correct sampling for statistical purposes): 45% of the guitars sold by Fender go to first-time players. Of those first-time players, a whopping 90% abandon the instrument in the first 12 months, if not the first 90 days, but the 10% that do not abandon the guitar tend to commit to the instrument for life and own multiple guitars and multiple amps. Surprisingly, of the new guitar buyers 50% are women, and not surprisingly, those women tend to buy on-line, not from the physical guitar stores, because women find the guitar stores to be too intimidating. From personal experience, I can tell you, my first trip into Sam Ash to see this one particular Gibson Les Paul I saw on-line was totally horrendous, especially when all the people, sales personnel and customers alike, scoffed at me when I said I was going to get this instrument as my first, my learner. I just couldn’t see not having a decent instrument, and they make such things as layaway, … and Craigslist to sell all sorts of things to fund said layaway. So yes, until you get past a certain point, guitar stores are extremely intimidating for women. Although I did get my guitar from a store, not that one, Guitar Center across the street, so that makes me a … badass!
Getting back to Fender, and yes, chuckling at myself on that previous sentence, the article said those first-time buyers spend much more on lessons than their instrument, not that I know this personally (see my decision to buy a high-end instrument as my first, leaving me to learn from books and YouTube), so Fender’s website markets something in the form of on-line lessons. The article praised Fender’s lesson-friendly website, and mocked Gibson’s website for Gibson’s featuring of a Gibson player, Slash, as the brand ambassador as the focal point of the website. Makes me wonder whether that writer was a Fender fan.
Even reading these articles, and other than my lingering thoughts of what do Slash and Jimmy Page think, I still was left with my one very simple question: is Gibson going to make it? I don’t have to find the statistics on Chapter 11. Most Chapter 11 filings ultimately result in a conversion to a Chapter 7, code for death. I read Gibson is converting debt in favor of equity to be owned by its lenders. In my humble and very amateur opinion, lenders running anything is a recipe for disaster. Sorry to any lender types, educated business types, people who wear suits, and all of those things, but my honest view is that a technical business needs its technical people, not glorified bean counters, making the decisions. And that I know from personal experience – when the lenders step in, it’s usually a matter of time before it’s over. So bottom line, statistics aside, I’m really scared for Gibson.
Whatever one thinks about Gibson guitars, love them, hate them, think their wiring is wacked, they have a solid place in rock music, one that without the Gibsons played by the players who played them, might not be the same at all. I can’t help buy to shed a few tears for this news. I can’t help but want to give my precious Gibson guitars a hug, each and every one of them.
So… what about the reaction of the musicians, the question I started my searches with. Perhaps they have enough Gibsons already? Perhaps they just can’t imagine that Gibson isn’t going to to do anything but make it because Gibson has been around for 120+ years, just like the little inlay says on my beautiful Flying V. I just don’t know.
So seeing I don’t have any quotes from famous musicians about Gibson’s bankruptcy, all I can do is to pay a tribute, a tribute by none other than Gibson’s brand ambassador (the man the pro-Fender article mocked, honestly, I’m shaking my head)…. Mr. … (you know when the singer says Mr. before the full name of the band mate he’s about to introduce), so here I go…
Mr. Slash! And his gold-top Gibson Les Paul. A beauty it is!
Oh, and there’s some pretty good news for people who like anniversaries and celebrations of things: Guns ‘n’ Roses is set to release its anniversary edition of Appetite for Destruction tonight. Excitement is building over the fact that the box-set will include more unreleased songs than makes sense, 49 to be exact, including this one, and others, that didn’t make the cut for the Appetite record.
Ah the Gibson guitar! Humm, perhaps I don’t need to look to musicians to have a public reaction. Perhaps the musician to have the public reaction is, well… me. After all, I am one of those 10%-ers. So my reaction: Gibson is way too important to the history of rock; I honestly feel the world is better with Gibson guitars in it; I honestly believe that sound is so fundamentally important to the sound of the rock I love; I honestly don’t know what it would be like to not have one. Or three. Please Gibson. Survive.