Gibson Canada

[Dotneck]

Saw a post on another forum that Gibson closed the old Garrison plant. Anybody know details of what's going on with that?

[onewilyfool]

Oh Canada!!!!!

 

I played some at the local guitar store, fit and finish, I feel is superior to the USA Gibsons that I was playing side by side with. HOWEVER, those Garrison made Gibsons, could NOT measure up to the USA Gibsons in SOUND!!! And SOUND Is what it's all about, baby!!!

[rar]

Saw a post on another forum that Gibson closed the old Garrison plant. Anybody know details of what's going on with that?

 

Gibson closed the old Garrison plant a few months ago. What more did you want to know?

 

-- Bob R

 

Added later: I was poking around the guitar fora last night and found a thread on the ex-Garrison plant closure that might have been the one referred to. The initiator said the plant closed three weeks ago. That could be right. My source told me about this plant and OAI being closed and the Bozeman layoffs at the end of July, but I guess that could have been the announcement of the closing. The folks laid off in Bozeman were pretty much told "don't bother coming in on Monday, because you don't work here anymore", but it's certainly possible that one can't be quite that abrupt in closing a factory in Canada.

 

There was a lot of speculation in that other forum about why Gibson bought the plant, but I think we already had a discussion here that pretty much covered it: Garrison was going out of business, Gibson saw the acquisition as a golden opportunity to build guitars to compete with low-end Martins in North America, and the closure was caused by a one-two punch comprising a major slump in guitar sales and Gibson's inability hire folks up there (a factor not really considered at the time of the acquisition, given the 17%+ local unemployment rate).