Dire financial situation at Gibson?

[Highlander]

The Vapors tune is slang for er... a Nasty Habit...?

[Pilgrim]

I tend to agree.  Gibson is already a premium brand, so continuing US production should be affordable with good management. I think Gibson would lose a lot of cache' if production moved overseas.

[slinkp]

It's hard to see Gibson producing overseas when there's already Epiphone selling budget Chinese versions of the same basic design.

But then, Fender has shown it can get more complex than that...  I suppose it's not impossible that we'd have something similar, like MIM or MIJ Gibsons priced below the premium MIA models. Who knows.

[Pilgrim]

I think there'd be room for something like Fender's MIA and MIM basses. Epi is positioned as the affordable line, but there's room to play with various models.

And the first direction they should head is those vintage designs that Henry disdains.

[Dave W]

Whatever happens with Gibson, I can't see any new ownership abandoning USA production. Expansion elsewhere is always possible.

[westen44]

An article about the rumors. 

https://www.gearnews.com/heard-yamaha-buying-gibson-rumour-heres-make-sense/

[westen44]

The Vapors tune is slang for er... a Nasty Habit...?

Supposedly, the song is just about a guy losing his girlfriend and being understandably unhappy about it.  I think the theory that the song was about a nasty habit has been debunked. 

[Chris P.]

Even if Yamaha takes over Gibson, they would be stupid NOT to produce in the USA. I think more brands are owned by foreign companies than we know.

Lotus is a quintessential British car brand, but 51% Chinese. Aston Martin is - I think - owned by a consortium of European, Kuwaiti and Asian companies. Our Dutch truck brand DAF, which is as Dutch as tulips, wooden shoes, windmills and Rob van den Broek's criticism is owned by Paccar, which also has Peterbilt and Kenworth. So Gibson can be as US as it can be and still owned by Yamaha or any other company. 

[doombass]

Yamaha as a brand is no stranger to U.S production. They make/has made for example upright pianos, amplifiers and on the automotive side ATV's in the U.S.A.

[uwe]

I am sure, your new President will see to it that US production is retained and that non-US-Gibson instruments will certainly not be cheaper for the consumer. 

Unless North Korea gets a guitar plant and tariff privileges for abandoning its nuclear arms. 

[Pilgrim]

Introducing....The TariffCaster!!

No, wait, wrong brand.....

[Basvarken]

Gib Son Un?

[Dave W]

Volvo has been owned by a Chinese company since about 2010. They're still building them in Sweden and they're building a new plant in South Carolina. They have opened a couple of factories in China, but that's their biggest market.

Also, not widely known, that all-American brand Tacoma Guitars was originally owned by Young Chang Piano of South Korea. It was started as an offshoot of their lumber mill in Washington.

[uwe]

I have no issues with Asian-owned Western brands at all, they are generally responsible entrepreneurs. Both Volvo (who have also retained their facilities in The Netherlands where the 60 and 40 models are built on the old DAF premises) and Jaguar have benefitted immensely from their Chinese and Indian owners, after decades of being less than love children of their previous Western owners.

It's an interesting development. 

[Rob]

Introducing....The TariffCaster!!

BRILLIANT!




Gib Son Un?

Enlightening