Fullmental Alpinist Posted February 27, 2016 Share Posted February 27, 2016 A year and a half ago Tony P and Music Villa posted an hour long (or so) interview with Ren Ferguson on YouTube. It was split into three parts. Part 2, "Ren Ferguson: Why I left Gibson Acoustic," promptly disappeared from YouTube leaving many wondering "What did Ren say and why was the vid pulled?" Well, I came across the video tonight. So here it is for those who missed it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzbfmjClo_I is found here. Part 3: is found here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allie Posted February 27, 2016 Share Posted February 27, 2016 A year and a half ago Tony P and Music Villa posted an hour long (or so) interview with Ren Ferguson on YouTube. It was split into three parts. Part 2, "Ren Ferguson: Why I left Gibson Acoustic," promptly disappeared from YouTube leaving many wondering "What did Ren say and why was the vid pulled?" Well, I came across the video tonight. So here it is for those who missed it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzbfmjClo_I is found here. Part 3: is found here. Thanks, I hadn't seen it the first time so it was very enlightening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
62burst Posted February 27, 2016 Share Posted February 27, 2016 A few interesting soundbites stand out: From Part2: t= 7:34- (big pause) ". . . There was a problem with how I was getting paid" . A most sincere, and straightforward account of Ren's side of one of many of his run-ins with the Big G. From Part1: t= 20min "... there was a "wobble" in 1994 - mid '95" referring to decisions made by the then-current GM that were not in the best interests in the longevity of the instrument. Anyone know what Ren is referring to here? And Part3; The Making of the Monarch: t= 5:32- Careful not to break one of the mother of pearl tuner buttons, with their inlaid precious stones. Turns out the Yogo sapphire has quite the Montana-specific connection (link). Got bling? : What kind of song would you play on this guitar- . . . "Mr. Sandman"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stein Posted February 27, 2016 Share Posted February 27, 2016 Very interesting. I suppose what was contained here COULD be harmful or a breach of something, or un-ethical, or bad business. But I don't really think so. Ren is interesting, and SMART. He is an old-world type, but also understands and appreciates business, and before this, didn't really realize just how good he is at it. Conflict of interest between individual people in a company are always there, or have potential to be there, and having said that, I say to say, that part isn't for me to know or judge. But aside from that, I WILL say that loosing Ren, and the opportunity to keep him, was bad for Gibson. Not talking ethics here. Had they taken the opportunity to give him what he wants, or thought the way things could be...lets just say on paper, it's obvious to the outsider even, Ren was one of the best human resources ever to grace the guitar making business. I'm not hating on Gibson or saying they didn't treat him fairly, I'm saying they likely made a mistake. Ren is the guy you listen to as opposed to control, the guy you give a raise to as opposed to save money, and the guy you bank on with your resources, as opposed to think of ways to get him to save money. Is there ANYONE more qualified in the acoustic guitar business? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slimt Posted February 27, 2016 Share Posted February 27, 2016 Cool Videos.... Thanks for sharing.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mountainpicker Posted February 28, 2016 Share Posted February 28, 2016 Interesting to hear Ren say that the heart of his tenure at Gibson was the year 2000 to 2004. There is a certain coldness that comes with the corporate model in a capitalist system that appears again and again throughout the history of capitalism. As business scales up and the workforce gets to a certain, larger, size it seems to become more and more inhumane. Until finally a point is reached where decisions regarding key human beings, and I'm addressing what has been said before me here by stein, are devoid of practically any other consideration other than money (in Ren's case "how he was paid"). Ironically the amount of money taken into consideration by the corporate thinking person and his relationship with a "valued employee", relative to the gross amount taken in by the company, is small. But this doesn't seem to get factored into the picture at the time. It was interesting to listen to the whole video as lately I've been reading a lot about the advances in robotics and the place robots will take in the workforce going forward. Used to be that robots were those long boom-like machines that you'd see on automobile assembly lines but now they are being made to resemble a facsimile of a grown human being and there is common talk of them replacing human workers up to the $20 per hour wage range (ponder the societal ramifications of that!). Robot development stays apace with the rise of intense corporate growth (and greed) and rather callous regard for the human animal. Ren's story, and how he chose his wording is a testament to how classy a guy he is, is from someone higher up the food chain than the standard assembly line worker, and is just a repetition of many such stories that have gone before. Woody Guthrie was writing songs about this very thing long ago. And way before him the Luddites got the word from the men who wanted to build textile factories and they were able to project ahead as to what that would mean to their lives and families and to the greater good of mankind and the conclusion they came to was to oppose that process. They lost, of course, but they weren't far from the truth of the matter. But even they didn't foresee that beyond the rather inhumane treatment of the individual in the name of Profit, corporations would begin to spend enormous amounts of money to control the governmental process itself so that they can treat people pretty much howsoever they please...with legal impunity. About all we as guitar playing consumers are left with is the fundamental choice of whether we will buy the product produced by this kind of thinking or one from that kind of thinking and we only get glimpses of the true ethics of a company in interviews like this one from which to base our decision. Funny, I was just reading John Thomas' comments on his "collaboration" with Gibson yesterday over on the AGF. Time for cup of coffee number two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
62burst Posted February 28, 2016 Share Posted February 28, 2016 Wow, you got all that from one cup of coffee? In order to keep it from getting political, which goes over as big as a discussion of religion, to me, it simply looked more like a clash of personality types, compounded by the Bozeman GM (at the time) not wanting to stand behind Ren, to look into the long term value of changing a policy where Gibson employees were not permitted to be Gibson sub-contractors, in order to build some extraordinary examples that would increase the visibility of Gibson Acoustic beyond the realm of Guitardom. Enjoy your Sunday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j45nick Posted February 28, 2016 Share Posted February 28, 2016 Wow, you got all that from one cup of coffee? It's just a cup of coffee, but it's really good coffee....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MissouriPicker Posted February 28, 2016 Share Posted February 28, 2016 Really enjoyed those videos. Hadn't seen them before. I don't know the inside details/reasons of Ren's leaving Gibson. I hope he's happy with what he's doing now and I hope Gibson has been able to move-on. They're obviously building high-quality guitars. Still, no company could lose someone of Ren's abilities without needing to re-adjust. Who knows? Maybe somewhere-down-the-line their paths will cross again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allie Posted February 29, 2016 Share Posted February 29, 2016 From Part1: t= 20min "... there was a "wobble" in 1994 - mid '95" referring to decisions made by the then-current GM that were not in the best interests in the longevity of the instrument. Anyone know what Ren is referring to here? I would be interested in hearing more about this also. I have a 94 J-45VS and would like to know about the issues at hand according to the video. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j45nick Posted February 29, 2016 Share Posted February 29, 2016 From Part1: t= 20min "... there was a "wobble" in 1994 - mid '95" referring to decisions made by the then-current GM that were not in the best interests in the longevity of the instrument. Anyone know what Ren is referring to here? I would be interested in hearing more about this also. I have a 94 J-45VS and would like to know about the issues at hand according to the video. I bet hogeye knows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allie Posted February 29, 2016 Share Posted February 29, 2016 I bet hogeye knows. Most likely...but how do we pry it out of him? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fullmental Alpinist Posted February 29, 2016 Author Share Posted February 29, 2016 Most likely...but how do we pry it out of him? Beer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allie Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 From Part1: t= 20min "... there was a "wobble" in 1994 - mid '95" referring to decisions made by the then-current GM that were not in the best interests in the longevity of the instrument. Anyone know what Ren is referring to here? I would be interested in hearing more about this also. I have a 94 J-45VS and would like to know about the issues at hand according to the video. So nobody has any insight into what Ren was referring to with this comment? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PickitPaul Posted March 4, 2016 Share Posted March 4, 2016 So nobody has any insight into what Ren was referring to with this comment? Ssssssssssssssshhhh Its a secret Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allie Posted March 4, 2016 Share Posted March 4, 2016 Ssssssssssssssshhhh Its a secret I believe you're right....and a well kept one at that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.