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It's Official !!!


AXE®

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The economy is hosed and getting worse. And you are right: this will be the LEAST of our problems. The "flow" of money has stopped and it takes money to make money. The "stimulus" now appears to be a giant (gargantuan) rip off by politicians and bankers -- both of which have grabbed/robbed the bulk of it and cannot account for where it went (to Switzerland). The biggest (remaining) wealth producer were housing and cars. Now both are dead in their tracks so the US is not producing wealth and there is no credit resource to pay for the present and future. (so figure it out) -- the money is gone. It will start up again -- it always does -- in 2015 or so. Not this year and not next year (it will get worse and worse on through 2012) NOBODY KNOWS exactly when it will start again .. nobody (on Wall Street or Harvard) is even hazarding a guess. Nobody. So that means it will be long and complicated and difficult. When it has passed (it's over) what is considered "normal" will be much different. But the houses and the streets will still be there and people will live in them (some locations may become ghost towns) and the infrastructure will all be there -- but "normal" life might be a lot different. That said, "normal" changes anyway from one decade tot he next regardless of the economics.

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C'mon guys stop reading too much into this.... What business isnt suffering at the moment...

 

 

Gas stations, cigarette companies, beer companies, all the music shops in my area say they are doing great. I guess its just the companies that charge 3 grand for a guitar when you can get the same quality instrument for more than half the price from another company...but that discussion is for another time.

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Well ... people were playing music makers before there were economies. Drums, sticks, hides, bows. The guitar is the most widely used instrument in the US without question -- more than keyboards and pianos. I doubt they'll stop playing them. They are a very portable, very versatile (styles of music -- types of music), so there is every reason to view guitars as a **necessity** like food, clothes, gas, heat.

 

Somehow people get what they need no matter what. The demand for guitars will never cease. So it is always a question of price, quality, reliability. Used guitars are in demand in tight times -- and they get traded for cash (pawned). Understand this though -- in the very worst of times the economy does not cease altogether. The US has never experienced anything worse than 1930.

 

The first "recession" was the Jacksonian era (the species circular). It was mild (actually) there were recessions after wars (spending decreased) and during the ""Granger"" period (William Jennings Bryan/LaFollett) ... the Reagan era had very difficult times (11% unemployment at one point) .. the Carter era was worse (inflation) and Bush I had a nasty recession -- the RTC and banks failed.

 

As a people we tend to be optimistic, enterprising, creative, literate, and motivated. So we tend to find things to do that are "beneficial" (profitable). There is a normal give and take [an exchange of goods and services] (no matter what). At the street level people trade their time for cash or other things of value )for things of value [people, money, machines, time] People: skills, services, know-how, work. Money -- credit, cash, checks, negotiable instruments. Things: PC's, guitars, tires, spark plugs. Time: work, deadlines, days-weeks-months-years.

 

This interactive exchange of value never stops. But it gets more complicated as it becomes "corporate" and derivative. The big problem in a depression is derived values.

 

So - the problem for any company is not the value of its products, but the value of its stocks, assets, liquid(ity), operational costs. The Gibson name is an asset and somebody will own it and somebody will make guitars with Gibson on he headstock 200 years from now -- believe me THAT is not going to stop.

 

HOW that happens will always be changing. I like to think the end-product will not change much. The biggest problem (in the future) are materials for guitars (hardwood, spruce, tone -- trees). But I am sure they will find what they need.

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This forum is next...im not joking either.

 

No is isn't. Unless they're paying for hosting just for this board outside of the main web site (which I doubt)' date=' it doesn't cost much to leave this up. Heck, they don't even have to maintain the software let alone pay for it in the first place; it's an open source project called Yet Another Forum.

 

Unless they're paying people just to be moderators - and we know they aren't - then this board us extremely cheap to keep up plus it probably cuts down on the amount of customer support questions they have to field because they have us jackasses here to tell people how to read serial numbers and identify counterfeit guitars. In fact, these message boards are probably save them quite a bit of money.

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added my thoughts on that release

 

I did not know you were so down on Gibson. I thought you were a Gibson guy since you spend quite a bit of time here.

 

What happened that you were contacting them? did you have problems with your LP or did you call them to share your approach to business? seriously, I have had great technical support assistance in the past. Has support deteriorated?

 

Sucks for Gibson but everybody is hurting and the collective panic is making things worse, even people that do not have a chance to loose their income are tightening their expenses based on all of the bad news we get bombarded with and that does not help anybody.

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I think Gibson is in a "damned if you do, damned if you don't position" if they come up with a new model it is usually not readily accepted. If they tinker with a classic model people do not like it either.

 

Personally and at the level I play there are plenty of Gibson models to choose from. More then I will ever need.

 

Are the ESPs you mention made in America? at one third the price? probably not, but I guess that is not the point. I guess that is a comparison between apples and oranges. We all know imports are cheaper in any brand.

 

Gibsons are made in the USA and with that come advantages, people will pay extra for the fact that they are made in the USA and there are also disadvantages some people will not pay extra just because Gibson mades guitars in the USA.

 

I personally don't care where a guitar is made since I choose them based on features and price but I do love the 2 Gibsons I have and I do not care that they are more expensive.

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If I am to be a any mfg guy then its not mfg specific; I love guitars that have H/S/H combo's with a 5 pos selector. If Gibson actually did this I would be really excited.

 

By the way Gibson did make the Les Paul Studio Lite MIII that uses the pickup configuration and switching you mention. Probably discontinued for lack of sales just like many other non-traditional products Gibson has out out there.

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