Flooding at Gibson

[Lightyear]

True enough, Lightyear. Perhaps I should have more accurately said that due to the levees, when the floods occur they are terrible because once past the levees, a lot of the water can't get back into the river, leaving areas flooded for much longer than they would have been had the water been able to flow back. It's just a bigger mess now...

As for me, I like living on a hill. During Hurricane Fran though, when 9 inches of rain fell in 4 hours, my basement flooded. Hard to fight that much water in that short a time.

True enough.  I guess my point is that you can't screw with mother nature   Disirable land/location often comes with risks - build the levees to keep the flooding river out and when the rivers overfloods them the levees hold in the flood waters. 

I guess the most successful folks at engineering this type of thing are the Dutch.  Believe it or not there's talks of movable levee sea gate type thing to isolate Galveston Bay from the gulf in storm events - the cost estimates are in the billions.

As for me - I built on high land - relatively speaking.  When, not if, the right hurricane comes in we're toast.

[Lightyear]

Not to be an alarmist but I was surprised at Mike's comments, it really doesn't sound good for the company as it exsists presently. The Lakland deal is a very rosey picture by comparison.

Sometimes change is a good and is a needed correction.  Perhaps the new owners will refocus on what made Gibson great.

[uwe]

The brand will no doubt survive, some big music industry  fish will gobble it up or a financial investor in the interim to then sell it to music industry fish in a few years from now.

[Lightyear]

Happens all the time in other industries - by on the cheap and sell off the ancilary operations that aren't making any profit and divert energy away from the primary mission.  Rehab the the company and clean up the books, at least on paper, and sell for a tidy profit.

Uwe, I can type up a quicky business plan if you can bank roll it

[Hornisse]

Sure hope this doesn't mean Gibson is er going under.
One guy lost 50 basses? Damn. I'd like to hear more about that.

Dear friends,

     As you have probably already seen on the news, we here in Nashville
have had a rough couple of days battling with the forces of Mother
Nature. So many of our neighbors lost their homes, some lost their lives,
when the Mighty Cumberland River (which is what I am now calling this
body of water since it has shown us mortals who really owns this valley)
what it can do. We are among the lucky ones. We live three miles from
downtown Nashville and have a creek running through the back of our
property. My husband and I watched, nervously, as it rose to it's banks.
Luckily, it never reached the house. Our basement flooded from the 17.8
inches of rain that fell during that two day period, but we were able to
get all of instruments out in time. Only a few cases were ruined. The
rest on the back porch drying in the glorious and much needed sunshine.
Our phone and the Internet have been down until today, which is why I
have not been able to reply to any of your questions about how we are
doing.
   We were so excited on Saturday night, before the rain clouds opened
up, because my son, Chris Scruggs, was making his debut as a solo artist
(he has played many times before with BR549) on The Grand Ole Opry. His
house in East Nashville was also spared, although his neighbor, who lives
four doors down the hill on a slight decline, was not so fortunate. He
lost everything in the flood.
   The Grand Ole Opry and the Opry Museum took a real hard hit. The
curator, Brenda Colladay, saved as much as she could in the short time
she was allowed (Jimmy Roger's guitar, Minnie Pearl's hat, Roy Acuff's
fiddle and a few other items) before the police made her evacuate the
premises. Everything else, including the Roy Acuff exhibit, country
legends' costumes and all of Marty Robbin's cars have spent the last two
days under water.
   A massive storage facility downtown, where most of our musicians keep
their valuable instruments was also flooded. Dave Roe, who played bass
for Johnny Cash for 30 years, lost 50 of his basses, one that was signed
by Johnny. Vince Gill, Keith Urban, Chuck Mead of BR549 and many others
lost a lifetime's worth of equipment. Music City is really hurting...
    On the upside of this sad story, our president, our governor and all
of our government officials, including FEMA, have been amazing in their
quick response. Vince Gill and Friends held a donation drive on Channel 4
last night and raised over a million and a half dollars for the relief of
those who do not have, and never thought they would need, flood
insurance. Tennessee has rallied with a spirit of camaraderie that makes
me proud to be a Nashvillian. Please don't desert us -
come on back and visit.  My band and I will be performing at the Station
Inn on June 2nd. I hope you all can make it... God Bless you and keep you
safe.

Best wishes,

Gail Davies

[uwe]

I heard that Wurlitzer proved to be a real money drain. I also heard that Wurlitzer produces cigarette vendingd machines in the US and that that business went downhill badly. I wasn't aware of that, Gibson certainly never mentioned that tobacco connection in their group presentations of Wurlitzer.

[Barklessdog]

Uwe will now have to wait even longer for the continental bass.

[Dave W]

Wurlitzer produces all kinds of food vending machines, like snack machines and soda vending machines. Since cigarette vending machines were already in decline well before Gibson bought Wurlitzer, I doubt that was a major factor. OTOH I have no idea how competitive that business is, it could be a major cash drain with or without tobacco.

[uwe]

How can you reopen old wounds like that, John!!! I actually saw and touched a Continental V bass at the Frankfurt music ... 'tis a gaping hole in zü kölleckshün ...

[drbassman]

Just awful.  I can't imagine.  At least these musicians lost equipment and not lives.  There is a bright side.  I won't even think about Gibson's demise, it's not a pleasant prospect to consider.

[Aussie Mark]

Given Gibson's financial situation, I wouldn't be surprised if the flood was caused by a senior exec leaving a tap running in the top floor washroom when he went home on Friday night.

[Hornisse]

Someone at the Steinberger group posted this photo.  Some pretty severe flooding.  It is a pity that the supposed "News" has not even reported the severity of the situation. 

[Lightyear]

Been there, done that.  Nothing sucks like a flood - the sogging wet, fetid carpet, wet sheet rock, mold, stink - it's all bad.  I've helped friends muck out homes way too many times.  There are many open tracts of land down here that used to be neighborhoods - after the houses have been flooded repeatedly folks took the buyout and the lots become flood relief and public land.

[Dave W]

Someone at the Steinberger group posted this photo.  Some pretty severe flooding.  It is a pity that the supposed "News" has not even reported the severity of the situation. 

If that's the Gibson factory and offices, it looks much worse than what Henry J's post seemed to say.

[Psycho Bass Guy]

Someone at the Steinberger group posted this photo.  Some pretty severe flooding.  It is a pity that the supposed "News" has not even reported the severity of the situation.

Having worked in the "news" business, I can say with confidence that the reason that Nashville got so little attention and the dud bomb in NYC so much is that television news will throw every resource it has, needed or not, at a problem literally at its back door, but when it has to travel, then cost versus ad sales comes into play and the accountants make decisions on newsworthiness. Funny that 28 people dead and over a billion in damage is second fiddle to a dud fireworks display. I guess you can't scare people into buying what you're shilling any more after they've lost their homes.