Ask Michael

[Timberwolf]

He purchases wood for Martin Guitars....This is a few years old but I found it very interesting.......

http://blog.martinguitar.com/blog/ask-mi...purchasing

[Mike Brady]

Is true that Gibson guitars is going out of business because of the rosewood embargos?  I hate to see a company with that fine history fail.

[Bill_Houghton]

Is true that Gibson guitars is going out of business because of the rosewood embargos?  I hate to see a company with that fine history fail.

If they are, they're not much smart; there are so many other tone woods in the world.

[Mike Brady]

If they are, they're not much smart; there are so many other tone woods in the world.

Looked up Gibson and they declared bankruptcy in May of 2018.  They are reorganizing.  They were hurt by some embargos placed on endangered tropical woods such as the rosewood that their fret boards are made from.  Also got caught holding some supposedly illegally imported woods.

[Admiral]

Looked up Gibson and they declared bankruptcy in May of 2018.  They are reorganizing.  They were hurt by some embargos placed on endangered tropical woods such as the rosewood that their fret boards are made from.  Also got caught holding some supposedly illegally imported woods.

Not really a failure of the guitar business or wood availability which really can be managed, they sort of lost their way.  From the press report I read about their emergence from Chapter 11 (now owned essentially by private equity):

"Gibson went bankrupt in May, four years after long-time Chief Executive Officer Henry Juszkiewicz tried to relaunch the company as a “music lifestyle” company with the $135 million purchase of an audio-focused, consumer electronics unit of Koninklijke Philips NV. Gibson blamed its financial woes on the failure of that business."

[Bibliophile 13]

From what guitar players tell me, Gibson went under because the quality of the guitars it produced kept going down, but they still charged high prices for them. So when you bought a new Gibson, you were paying for a name, not for quality. Add to that the fact that there are fewer people playing and buying guitars right now than in Gibson's heyday, and you have the current situation. Which, come to think of it, is a lot like the F+W situation we've all been talking about recently.

[Nordic]

From what guitar players tell me, Gibson went under because the quality of the guitars it produced kept going down, but they still charged high prices for them.  So when you bought a new Gibson, you were paying for a name, not for quality.  Add to that the fact that there are fewer people playing and buying guitars right now than in Gibson's heyday, and you have the current situation.  Which, come to think of it, is a lot like the F+W situation we've all been talking about recently.

I don’t agree.  The guitars are fine, well made even.  Always a few that get through, but overall they have great quality IMO.  The owners made ad investments and lost focus trying other ventures.   Auto tuning tuners for example -  a financial boondoggle.  Cakewalk was another- a great program but lots of competition made it hard to make money at it.

[Stwood_]

Fairly good read, though more about the tree and lumber buying would have been nice.

The questions and answers below got boring after a few minutes.

[EricU]

Gibson got their reputation back after they started making guitars in Montana.  But nowadays, a successful medium size business like that is in trouble, because they always get "management help"