The Gibson guitar company has just filled for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, with debts of up to $500m. Apparently, there’s been a 30% drop in worldwide electric guitar sales, they spent a fortune developing a self-tuning guitar that nobody wanted and spent another fortune on a failed attempt to expand into consumer electronics.
The report I just read talked of all the famous Guitar players that have played Gibsons over the years and then showed a picture of Clapton playing his Strat
Best and most under-rated Gibson Les Paul user was, and still is Peter Frampton. Frampton Comes Alive in the mid 70's was an awesome music experience for me in my teens and one song that became a personal favourite on mine was Lines on my face. Here he is performing it live a few years back when he was nearly 60 - nothing has changed except his hair!! If you can play this through some decent speakers rather than relying on the piss poor laptop offerings, you'll be amazed. I've got a Q Acoustics M2 soundbase hooked up to my laptop using Bluetooth and it's not expensive either for the amazing sound quality. Terrific Les paul playing from Frampton as well as his vocals............
I don't play Gibson basses or guitars (just about everything else) but these two late but great Hull boys did back in the Ziggy days! Mick Ronson with his Gibson Les Paul and dear old Trevor Bolder with his Gibson EB0 bass
I’m not a guitar player.... what makes Gibson better than another make? Is it a pedigree/ history thing or is it technically the best??
From what I've read is the guitar business is doing okay, it's Phillips Electric that is causing the problems. They've also filed chapter 9 bankruptcy which is a protection With regards to electric guitar sales one of the main reasons electric guitar sales are down the current top stars like Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift are acoustic guitars. In early 90's everyone said acoustic guitars where dead, but then MTV Unplugged happened. I've also heard rumours Joe Bonamassa is interested in buying Gibson.
In one sense SW3 it's about what you like to play. I use a Rickenbacker bass for playing rock and pop, occasionally my Hofner 'Beatle' bass for the 60s stuff and a Music Man Stingray or Fender Jazz and/or double bass when playing jazz/big band swing stuff. For me, its the sound and the feel. For a number of years in the early period of rock and pop from around the mid 50s to the early 70s, there were not that many producers of high quality expensive electric guitars and basses, Fender and Gibson (and to a lesser extent Gretch, Burns and Rickenbacker) were pretty much out there on there own. Each model of guitar, let alone the make has its own unique sound - then add to that the make of amplifier. As a heavier rock sound developed Gibson guitars had a really nice sustain to them - they used quality materials e.g. wood, picks ups and finishes etc. To be fair, more recently a lot of the competition have caught up in terms of quality and feel etc but the instruments are a tad cheaper.
here's a discussion about guitar brands with mick green on a fender. i've got a copy of a gibson lp and a fender acoustic.
I’ve had a play on that bass, I suspect it was the first, and only time, it was used to play Eton Rifles.
