I don't believe that it is a mistake for Gibson to bring out brave capability statements like the Firebird X once in a while, as with a prototype or study car some things will inevitably rub off into practice/the regular line, the mistake is to give up the traditional stuff in favor of it.
I agree entirely. I've never taken issue with Gibson on anything but quality relative to pricing, and that included my feelings on the Firebird X. You'll note Line 6's similar instruments of the same time period that cost much less have also gone the way of the dodo; Henry wasn't alone in thinking samplers that work so well for keyboards were going to work equally well for stringed instruments. Fender may be able to sell ten different versions of a Jazz Bass with mostly miniscule tonal variations while Gibson can have a concurrent EB-0 bass and a T-bird that sound and play worlds apart yet neither sells in droves. Life isn't fair and the best man doesn't generally win (or G&L would own FMIC).
There's a 20/20 I will enjoy trying out one day. I LOVE my closeout EB, and not simply for the deal. The price that MF closed it out moved it from being a passing dream to an attainable dream for me. I was inundated with Gibson basses at the music store in sales and service where I worked in 2002, most of which I had never even heard of prior. I literally strung up an RD before I ever played one: setup and string job on a closet classic that was stored without strings. The neck was fine. I even got the guy to give me an extra day with it to make sure there was nothing wrong with the neck under tension. I've also talked Hobbits with Jim Creeggan. Uwe, this forum gave a name to the forbidden love I never knew existed before: Gibson basses. My one serious regret is never bringing home the blue Money bass that sold at closeout after I left Willis Music for TV full time in 2003. ...and one day I
WILL find a Thunderbird I both like and can afford! Until that day, my Epi Les Paul Standard has an identity crisis with Lindy Fralin's Thunderbird pickup recreations making its mystery wood growl and snarl, though the extra frets of the Epi will always lack that singing upper register of a through-body neck.
If they offered a bass with automatic tuners as an extra option, I'd buy one just to see what it is like in practice.
The key words there are bass and option, two items mutually exclusive to Gibson's latest folly. Rather than test the innovation with its most (dare I use the word and risk the wrath of Henry...)
liberal, (or at least progressive
) customer base, Gibson tried to force-feed change straight down the throat of its most regressive buyers: Les Paul guitar players. I understand why. Changing the tooling for a limited production-line model would drive up even further the already excessive prices for non-Memphis Gibson basses and potentially kill all bass sales outright. I imagine the auto-tuning zero fretted LP's were initially pitched as a single model and then ego took over. Maybe Fox news reported that Obama was sniffing around Gibson's electronics factories and impounding brass alloy as a strategic material.
As it is, they're having to dispose of EB pickups and bridges in Thunderbirds, and the EB bass was decidedly LESS quantum of a leap than auto tuners and zero frets. Still, I think it's safe to define Gibson's 2015 marketing plan as hubris and 2016's as regrouping. ...and bassists like you and me would be curious and possibly taken with those features, whose costs
already showed up in bass prices. I'm angrier about the Lo-Z Les Paul "reissue's" faux pickups than I am that Gibson would rather be cautious than further expand a misstep.
