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#1
01-17-2020, 11:33 AM
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Guitar vs Tractor
I just happened to run across this and couldn't find any mention of it on this forum. Hard to believe. Just happened last year.
Seems like Gibson could have done something more productive than making guitars landfill - like donate them (to 3rd world countries?), sell the parts, etc... https://lonestar925.iheart.com/conte...oses-its-mind/ 
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#2
01-17-2020, 11:44 AM
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Those guitars (Firebird X) had internal batteries that ultimately were known fire hazards. Gibson HQ determined that destroying them vs donating them was the best way out.
The Firebird X were discontinued some years ago. These ones that were destroyed were in storage for sometime before they decided to get rid of them Had any one died in a fire caused by a faulty battery, Gibson wold have been held responsible. Hard to argue with that particular decision. But there are other videos where this was not the case. There's at least another one where some guy is sawing unfinished/uncompleted 335s in half. There were not that many of them as there was in that video you posted, but for what ever reason, those never made it out of the factory. I'm pretty sure that ALL the manufactures make this decision at one time or another for a variety of reasons. I'm more appalled watching fools like Pete Townsend smash the crap out of perfectly good guitars than I am when a company determines they need to destroy uncompleted stock. it's a business decision in that case. as for Mr Townsend, who knows what goes on in that head of his?
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#3
01-17-2020, 11:45 AM
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Quote:
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#4
01-17-2020, 11:50 AM
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This has actually been kicked around here before...
These guitars were considered to be sub par, not suitable for sale or donation, and Gibson didn't want them to be on the market, so they decided to trash them... The video was made and distributed by a disgruntled, soon to be ex-employee, looking to smear the company... It wasn't the big deal the internet made it out to be...
__________________
"Music is much too important to be left to professionals."
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#5
01-17-2020, 12:04 PM
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My guess is Gibson did a write-off on these guitars. Inventory write-offs are in recognition of a portion of inventory that has no value due to (in this case) obsolescence.
They could have donated them, reused parts from them, etc., but when the financial decision is that a write-off is most beneficial to the company, the inventory cannot be reused for parts, donated or resold. That would be against the law as it is double-dipping. Destroying the inventory is the logical move.
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#6
01-17-2020, 01:05 PM
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#8
01-17-2020, 01:19 PM
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__________________
Martin 0-16NY Emerald Amicus Emerald X20 Cordoba Stage Some of my tunes: https://youtube.com/user/eatswodo
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#9
01-17-2020, 01:20 PM
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Sone call it "smearing," I call it whistle blowing. There may be perfectly logical reasons behind this move, but that doesn't make it right. What about the trash generated? Clogging landfills for no good reason and wasting finite resources is something that should offend all of us.
And what happened speaks for itself: whenever an action performed in secrecy is made public and results in outrage, chances are this happens because people find the action objectionable. In other words, a company engaging in good practices shouldn't have the need to hide their actions from the public or repress employees in this way. If a company suddenly finds itself faced with hundreds of carefully crafted products, only to discover after the fact they're "subpar," it means they screwed up somewhere earlier in the process. This simply should not have happened in a well-run enterprise, I think. Rather than firing the employee who brought this to light, they should have fired the exec under whose watch it happened. Quote:
__________________
"I've always thought of bluegrass players as the Marines of the music world" – (A rock guitar guy I once jammed with) Martin America 1 Martin 000-15sm Recording King Dirty 30s RPS-9 TS Taylor GS Mini Baton Rouge 12-string guitar Martin L1XR Little Martin 1933 Epiphone Olympic 1971 square neck Dobro
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#10
01-17-2020, 01:45 PM
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Oddly enough, this isn't the first guitar and tractor connection. Berry Oakley (RIP), original bassist of the Allman brothers was a tone tinkerer. His bass was never to his liking, so he started tinkering. He started with a Fender Jazz Bass and began by moving both the pickuos down near the bridge. Then he added a Bisonic Darkstar pickup from a Guild Starfire Bass in the old neck position. Of course, what's the fun of that unless you have controls. so he added those. It ended up looked so ugly and mechanical that his bandmates called it the "Tractor." Voile'! I give you the Tractor.
 For all the tinkering, I never really like his sound. His playing was excellent and innovative. But the sound... RIP Berry. The bass went to Dickey who passed it to Berry's son, Berry Duane Oakley, when he grew up. Bob
__________________
"It is said, 'Go not to the elves for counsel for they will say both no and yes.' " Frodo Baggins to Gildor Inglorion, The Fellowship of the Ring THE MUSICIAN'S ROOM (my website)
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#12
01-17-2020, 02:10 PM
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Quote:
I do recall reading that the employee had some issues with his job at the time, but didn't see anything about the reasons he was later an ex-employee... But, I can't deny that many folks thought for years that Henry J. should be "dumped"... 
__________________
"Music is much too important to be left to professionals." Last edited by Denny B; 01-17-2020 at 04:15 PM.
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#13
01-18-2020, 12:33 PM
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I don't think any guitar maker never has any rejects. I mean, I know PRS does, and aren't they considered basically the highest-quality manufacturer of the big electric guitar companies? In fact, I remember a story about somebody who was dumpster-diving PRS's factory, getting the rejected bodies, and putting them together and selling them as real PRS - so PRS had to saw the bodies in pieces before tossing them out.
This is the reason you can't donate them. Somebody jackass is going to buy them from they people they're donated to and put 'em on eBay or Reverb for close to full price. Suddenly there's a bunch of stuff that failed the company's quality-control standards out there diminishing the value of the brand.
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