[dawg69]

I guess Gibson has made their "mark" on several people. The thing that is so sad is that it is an extremely "corporate" company; closed off and cold. This is really sad considering that making music is such a passionate thing. All musicians (yeah even us drummers) are passionate about what we play from the style of music down to the gear we use and companies like Gibson do not get this. When Henry took Gibson over the first thing he did was a MASSIVE price increase his quote was "we aren't charging enough". This is the same man that is famous for firing by fax, ruining any brand of gear he aquires, and having ARMED GUARDS at a winter NAMM show because of the unreal constraints he placed on "mom and pop" dealers that had been with Gibson for decades. Now I am hearing that you wish to "lease" the Slingerland name to someone. Once again you have left some us out to hang and ruined a LEGENDARY name in musical instuments. The fact that you do not respond to inquiries and e-mails prove the fact of how cold and corporate you have become. I truly hope that all musician's begin to see the lack of quality and service in your family of brands.
Henry do us all a favor........get out of the MI business and leave music to those that have a passion for what they do, instead of a passion for a balance sheet. I realize this will probably get deleted from this forum and I will NEVER hear from anyone at Gibson because of your lack of "intestinal fortitude" (guts). But I will still issue this challenge to you.......respond to me, prove me wrong, and set the record straight if you can.

[Muddville]

Sad but essentially true, although this certainly isn't the first time something like this has occurred with a variety of products. CBS ran Fender into the ground, Jaguar got ruined, the list goes on and on. When I started playing drums (blame it on Ringo), there was Ludwig and there was Slingerland, and once in a great while you saw someone using Rogers or Gretsch kits. I wound up with Slingerland because they had a dealer closer to my house than anyone else, but I never had a complaint with any of their gear, although as the years went by, it got harder to find accessories and replacement parts for them.

Still have my early 60s Krupa snare and '68 kit, and they still sound every bit as good as they did when they were new, but I'd hate to think of having to find parts for any of the stuff now. The idea of buying percussion gear with a motorcycle name just turns my stomach and I haven't seen a Ludwig dealer in ages, either, although all the stores claim that "(they) can get them in a few days, if you want to pay for them now." The music stores stock all the Johnny-Come-Lately brands or the cheap import stuff. It's a sorry state of affairs, but I guess at least some of it is the result of lack of demand or poor marketing strategy. Maybe a little of both.

[skinslammer]

dawg69, on 01 April 2009 - 01:24 AM, said:

I guess Gibson has made their "mark" on several people. The thing that is so sad is that it is an extremely "corporate" company; closed off and cold. This is really sad considering that making music is such a passionate thing. All musicians (yeah even us drummers) are passionate about what we play from the style of music down to the gear we use and companies like Gibson do not get this. When Henry took Gibson over the first thing he did was a MASSIVE price increase his quote was "we aren't charging enough". This is the same man that is famous for firing by fax, ruining any brand of gear he aquires, and having ARMED GUARDS at a winter NAMM show because of the unreal constraints he placed on "mom and pop" dealers that had been with Gibson for decades. Now I am hearing that you wish to "lease" the Slingerland name to someone. Once again you have left some us out to hang and ruined a LEGENDARY name in musical instuments. The fact that you do not respond to inquiries and e-mails prove the fact of how cold and corporate you have become. I truly hope that all musician's begin to see the lack of quality and service in your family of brands.
Henry do us all a favor........get out of the MI business and leave music to those that have a passion for what they do, instead of a passion for a balance sheet. I realize this will probably get deleted from this forum and I will NEVER hear from anyone at Gibson because of your lack of "intestinal fortitude" (guts). But I will still issue this challenge to you.......respond to me, prove me wrong, and set the record straight if you can.

Correct Dawg, and the antithesis of this "corporate company" is the Heritage Guitar Company. They run it like Gibson used to run the company back in the 60's. And they run it with ex-Gibson employees. No corporate BS.

[vexorgtr]

Something tells me we will again see some Slingerland drums... but it won't be for awhile. With the US Economy in the toilet, the music business across the whole board is looking bad. Gear doesn't sell well now... and only making what you can sell is good business. Musicians love what they love, and I understand the emotional impact of watching a product family that we love fade away.

Something tells me when business is good again, Gibson may fire up a drum shop again.

[dylanseeger]

I wish companies would just have a clean eye on brands, don't let it get out of hand. D what you know you can do well so that you don't disappoint customers in the end.

[feedbackdanny]

dylanseeger, on 17 June 2012 - 09:33 PM, said:

I wish companies would just have a clean eye on brands, don't let it get out of hand. D what you know you can do well so that you don't disappoint customers in the end.

Agreed most definitely .

[whiskeyandy]

feedbackdanny, on 08 September 2012 - 02:05 PM, said:

Agreed most definitely .

I completely agree, but to offer some sympathy, or at least play devil's advocate, it's hard to make those judgement calls as a brand manager where you're constantly surrounded by talks of numbers and employee retention, etc. They're too close to the situation sometimes to make the decision that will keep the most of us happy. That said, I tend to agree with you guys in general.

[stein]

I think there is a big difference in being "owned" vs "owning.

When you are the owner, any profit is profit to you. When you are "owned", the profit gets compared to the investment cost of the company, or where the money might be better spent.

So in some cases (many cases), what is considered "profit" is different when you are considering factors such as the cost spent on buying the company.

In many cases, those larger companies only own the brand, and the factories or workers who built them are long gone. Or they are building something else or work for another brand.

Perhaps hoping Slingerland will not go away is futile. Perhaps they don't exist anymore?