Henry is a bassist by origin.
And didn't Dave once say that rule of thumb guitar to bass sales have a ratio 10 to 1. Certainly even higher with a dedicated guitar brand such as Gibson.
That's my point. Look at how many successful boutique 'bass only' companies have sprung up in the past twenty years. Surely if the market can support so many 'custom-Fender' options, a company with the historical depth and market reach of Gibson shouldn't have any trouble at all marketing basses.
Especially as the price tag increases, the difference in guitar versus bass sales gets much smaller. Gibson has a potentially huge advantage of over 60 years of making basses upon which it could draw that it nearly ignores completely
(not to mention the lessons of Trace Elliot, Steinberger, and Tobias).
I don't know who makes the marketing calls for them, but I have almost no doubt he's a lead-guitarist wannabe with an enormous inferiority complex drawn from an inversely proportional endowment. Considering the affliction, he should have been a drummer. Gibson makes those too, right? I know this is preaching to the choir here Uwe, but sometimes your diabolical advocacy seems a little sincere.
