Updated news re Gibson...

shihan

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As a long time Les Paul owner, I like Gibson. Henry leaving has to be great news for the company. I hope a new CEO can restore it to its former greatness.
 

GAD

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Getting rid of Henry would be a huge step in the right direction, IMO. I love my Nightbirds and Bluesbirds, but there's just something about a killer Les Paul.
 

Cougar

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The Nashville instrument-maker is in crisis mode as it hammers out a company restructuring....

What about the Bozeman instrument maker?

Meanwhile, longtime customers have in recent years been complaining of a decline in quality in products such as the signature Les Paul....

That doesn't seem to be the case with their acoustics coming out of Bozeman... from my experience....

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GAD

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Historic Les Pauls from the custom shop are also a cut above in recent years.
 

MLBob

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I'm with you, Coug. Every time I pick up this Hummingbird 12 out of Bozeman, I like it even more!

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Article doesn't seem to say much more than what I have seen re-hashed over the past few months.
Here's hoping that with Henry sent on his way, the focus gets back to and remains on guitars.

Bob
 

fronobulax

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The Nashville instrument-maker is in crisis mode as it hammers out a company restructuring....

What about the Bozeman instrument maker?

I answer rhetorical questions. The geolocation referred to is the location of the company's headquarters and not the location of a particular facility owned or operated by the company.

You might want to look at the article in the first post here for one source of info on what Gibson's acoustic plans are.
 

Cougar

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I'm with you, Coug. Every time I pick up this Hummingbird 12 out of Bozeman, I like it even more!....

Nice one, Bob! Also good Bozeman Chronicle article re the Gibson bankruptcy having no real effect on the guitar-making.
 

bobouz

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Bozeman has unveiled a couple of new lines of acoustics for 2019 that look quite nice, including a Sustainable Wood series, and a lower-priced Studio series. These don't currently appear on their website, but sites like Sweetwater & CMI already have some of them in stock, and there are also video presentations online re some of these new models.

Doesn't seem like Bozeman has been impacted at this point.
 

twocorgis

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Bozeman has unveiled a couple of new lines of acoustics for 2019 that look quite nice, including a Sustainable Wood series.

Kinda ironic that a wood poacher like Henry J introduces a "sustainable wood" series. Wonder if he found religion?
 

adorshki

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Kinda ironic that a wood poacher like Henry J introduces a "sustainable wood" series. Wonder if he found religion?
With no snark intended:
Wonder if they've been barred from importing their traditional preferred species?
Maybe for a limited period of time, at least?
And just to be fair, recall that at least one of the seizures was blamed on faulty documentation on the part of their freight handler.
Can't recall if there was ever proof of intentional malfeasance on Gibson's part, but you may know better.
In any case, as GAD so eloquently put it recently, it does smell of marketing hype.
 

Cougar

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Wonder if they've been barred from importing their traditional preferred species?

That certainly seems to be the case for ebony that they used to use for the fretboards on the Songwriter, among other acoustics I suppose. I would have preferred an ebony board, but they haven't been offered for a number of years. I can live with a rosewood board...
 

adorshki

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That certainly seems to be the case for ebony that they used to use for the fretboards on the Songwriter, among other acoustics I suppose. I would have preferred an ebony board, but they haven't been offered for a number of years. I can live with a rosewood board...
For sure I was thinking more of the rosewood and possibly even mahogany.
Ebony's a bit unique: the Madagascar stuff where most of it was coming from was only CITES listed in December '11**, and I recall a story about Bob Taylor cornering the market by buying up the production areas, "IIRC", ostensibly more to ensure future supply at all, than for profiteering. (Which I'm willing to believe).
And the true completely black stuff is harder and harder to find.
So the variegated stuff has been the norm, dyed in a lot of cases, for many years now, anyway.

**source:
https://www.fws.gov/international/plants/current-cites-listings-of-tree-species.html
 

dreadnut

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I'm sorry but my experience with new Gibson acoustics for the last several years has been:

- Un-finished, rough sound holes

- Uneven inlays vs. headstocks, fingerboards

- sloppy neck/body joints

None of which you would ever find on a Martin or a Collings, or probably a new Guild for that matter.

i'm just reporting on what I'm seeing in the stores.
 

Cougar

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...I recall a story about Bob Taylor cornering the market by buying up the production areas, "IIRC", ostensibly more to ensure future supply at all, than for profiteering. (Which I'm willing to believe)....

I saw the video he did explaining what was happening to the world's ebony supply and thought he was quite sincere. It was like shooting elephants just to take their tails and ivory and trash the rest. He explained the variegated stuff was still 100% ebony, and that was really the future of ebony whether anybody liked it or not. Made sense to me. But I still like older guitars with beautiful dark ebony fretboards.
 

bobouz

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Kinda ironic that a wood poacher like Henry J introduces a "sustainable wood" series. Wonder if he found religion?

Sounds like for all intents & purposes, Henry J is no longer running the show.

Perhaps this is a sign of some creative muscles being allowed to flex.
 

chazmo

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I saw the video he did explaining what was happening to the world's ebony supply and thought he was quite sincere. It was like shooting elephants just to take their tails and ivory and trash the rest. He explained the variegated stuff was still 100% ebony, and that was really the future of ebony whether anybody liked it or not. Made sense to me. But I still like older guitars with beautiful dark ebony fretboards.

I actually like the striped stuff too. For a fretboard, it might be a little distracting to have black and white grain, but I've had some very figured rosewoods as fretboards and never had anything but great love for them.
 
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