Gibson Announces Major Expansion in Bozeman

[Zissou Intern]

Originally Posted by Charmed Life Picks

I am just thrilled to hear this. A win-win-win for everyone -- Gibson, their customers, the industry, even the city of Bozeman. Just terrific.

scott memmer

I agree, Memmer. This is great news for everyone, including the city of Bozeman. Gibson is building fantastic guitars right now and has been for the last decade. Everything I have owned and played lately is really good to amazing, and it's exciting that Gibson is growing that. If I was a young luthier, I'd be sending my resume to Gibson.

[gibpicker]

I can't imagine a world without Gibson... I wish them all the best.

[Tannin]

Considering the massive stature of the company, Gibson doesn't sell many acoustics. I read somewhere that acoustics account for just 5% of Gibson's sales revenue.(It was a Ren Fergurson interview, I think.) That's a tiny percentage for a company which is a genuine contender in the acoustic space and has both history and expertise.

I'm not a Gibson player myself, not my sound, but it's one of the great sounds and deserves to continue for many many years.

So yes: expand, modernise the factory, improve working conditions and procedures ... makes perfect sense to me. And they are not simply buying in even more cheap imports from Indonesia or China. Good luck and every success to them.

[Proclaimer888]

Seeing the tour videos and such, it does appear that they might be able to benefit from some additional workspace. Possible make the inside environment a safer place to work. I don't see this as cooperate greed so much as the need to simply update the work environment and bring it up to more modern standards. A nice museum as well....Gibson acoustics have some serious mojo history and it might as well be told in Bozeman if not Kalamazoo. And oh yea, I want a historic J45. Bang, bang

[rokdog49]

Originally Posted by frankmcr

Ah, the Gibson bashers are coming out of hibernation, it must be springtime!

You said what I wanted to say.
Thanks

[Dru Edwards]

Originally Posted by Dotneck

Yes, all the acoustic guitars are made in Bozeman. Arch tops and mandolins are made in Nashville.

Thanks Dotneck.

Looking forward to see what Gibson will do with the extra factory capacity.

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by Dotneck

Maybe they can open up a few more dealers around the country so we can at least see the stock. The only place around here that has them are Guitar Center...I'd rather shop at a five star dealer.

I really have not paid to much attention to Gibsons current policies


But any inroads back into independent dealers shelves , will only happen if the new management (since the 2018 chap 11 restructure) have significantly changed the stocking dealer requirements and policies. The reason many independent dealers dropped Gibson under the Juszkiewicz leadership era were two fold
#1 the ever increasing minimum dollars for orders , and pressure that dealers stock most of the entire line. Which for small independent dealers can be very problematic and result in unmoved inventory and can lead to "out of business" .
#2 Gibson did to not allow their dealers to list Gibson as a stocked brand on any internet page the dealers might have. Which for many independents has become increasingly important in there Marketing strategy and survival


At least those are reason my local independent dealer gave for dumping Gibson even though they had previously been one of his biggest stocked brands.

Hopefully all that has changed. No doubt Bozeman could use more jobs even if only "100 -200 over time "

[zombywoof]

Something like one-third of all the guitars Bozeman produces are limited runs or editions of some kind. The question I have is that at present, the vast majority are structurally the same as standard production models differing only in body wood, bling or such. So is the venture a way to pretty much simply up production will it produce something different such as say a Hummingbird with non-scalloped bracing.

Despite all of the years they were in the business of building guitars Gibson did not have a dedicated Custom Instrument Department until 1960. Very different philosophy though. While they continued to build guitars on order for customers rather than come out with limited runs they built every high dollar guitar such as the J200 and Super 400 in the custom department.

[Photojeep]

Originally Posted by rokdog49

Seems like the company wants to do something positive.
Why hate on that?

My feelings exactly! This is a good thing regardless of whether or not a person has had a negative experience with a Gibson in the past. EVERY manufacturer of EVERY product has had problems with quality control at some point in their history.

Even the much-vaunted Martin acoustic guitars have had production problems in the past.

Just because you've had a problem in the past or just don't like something doesn't mean you have to rain all over their parade.

PJ

[soao]

If covid 19 has put a massive supply of low to medium guitars in people’s houses, how many of those people will be ready to upgrade? Gibson thinks there will be a lot.

[SleepyAudi]

Gibson hopefully isn’t assuming bored stimulus check customers are going to be buying guitars for years?

Good for them, but personally it makes me Nervous to spend money like this at this point in their history.

[rgregg48]

Originally Posted by AndrewG

My recent experience suggests the rosewood they're using is of appalling quality. I was in the market for a Les Paul recently and each one I examined in my local shop had rough, scratchy and unbuffed fretboards. Not good for a guitar costing thousands. The guitars were otherwise impeccably finished, yet the most crucial part, the playing surface, felt like playing corduroy. The Epiphone examples, on the other hand, were very nicely finished. I came away with a Telecaster!

They are ramping up for the Slash signature J200

[Denandannie]

I hope they do very, very well. That way all the Gibson bashers can have a nice dinner of Crow.

[Rev Roy]

Originally Posted by frankmcr

Ah, the Gibson bashers are coming out of hibernation, it must be springtime!

Yep. Hope the Taylor fans are keeping an eye on this thread. Been a lot of complaints recently that Taylor gets bashed noticeably more than other brands. Not. Gibson and Martin (particularly over the binding “issue” and neck angle/resets) regularly spend time in the dock.

Originally Posted by Rev Roy

Yep. Hope the Taylor fans are keeping an eye on this thread. Been a lot of complaints recently that Taylor gets bashed noticeably more than other brands. Not. Gibson and Martin (particularly over the binding “issue” and neck angle/resets) regularly spend time in the dock.

IMHO there is a fine line between opinion and bashing that is repeatedly crossed around here but I'm sure I'll get dumped on for even saying that...