Whether this strategy works will remain to be seen.
How? well in the Steve Jobs model, he (Gibson's head) believes that the new technology (robot tuners, fake wood boards etc) will appeal to the modern person who thinks, hmmm I want automatic running, old models don't have that, so now I have an excuse to buy new. The source went on to say that the head of Gibson sees himself as a Steve Job's type and believes that the introduction of technology, will be the key to Gibson getting slice of the second hand market buy essentially drawing potential new buyers, away from it. Well the owner of Gibson and to quote my source "Doesn't give a crap about guitars, its just an investment vehicle". So how does this tie in with their new range. Although judging by the cliff face in the second hand values of the VOS instruments, this is not going to work and only increase the number of second hand guitars Gibson have to compete with, imo. Expect decades of 'Vos' incursions into the second hand market (60's Vos, 70's Vos etc.), new disguised as old. The price moves up the chain and this again, could be an issue for Gibson. But as the 50's models become too expensive, the 60's models are next and so on. So an obvious example of that is 50's models being too expensive, thus a new 50's re-issue is introduced to take advantage of this (hence the VOS range) a chance for Gibson to make a profit in this collectors market. Luckily for Gibson second hand prices rise as the years increase. Why is this important to Gibson? Well if your competing against yourself but not earning any profit from this, it directly effects your new sales numbers. I didn't know but apparently for every Gibson Les Paul sold, about 8 are bought and sold through players in the second hand market. Also we touched on the why Gibson have taken this approach and the issue Gibson have with second hand sales, impeding their new sales. We also talked about quality and the issue of the range being far too wide for stockists (to their detriment). Obviously I can't disclose the source but I'm sure many know that the majority of Gibson's line up (mostly les Paul's) will all have robot tuning. I've come to realize that I already own all of the Gibson guitars I will ever need or want.Ī few days ago, I spoke to one of the main Gibson importers here in the UK and had some interesting answers and insight into what the industry thinks. It's a win win situation for both of us! :# However, Gibson USA appears to have stopped making lefties as well. The CS guitars are simply too expensive now ($4000+ for a lefty SG, which I bought for $2300 a few years back), and there isn't a single guitar in the Gibson USA lineup that I want. I guess the silver lining in this is that Gibson has finally cured my GAS. I had high hopes for this model, but like the LP Jr, it just didn't pan out. I suppose that GC employees had probably given up on fixing it. However, after closer inspection, I noticed that the string was not broken, but just extremely loose. The LP DC even had a very loose low e-string, which first appeared to be a broken string. :dang As on the LP Jr the G-Force tuning system did not work on the DC. The first thing I noticed was that Gibson drastically changed the body shape. In addition to the 2015 LP Jr, I looked at a 2015 LP DC that was on display. (I have a 2013 SG with the minetune, so I am familiar with the G-Force system.) :dang I also noted that the G-Force tuning system did not work on this guitar as it was obviously malfunctioning. The neck profile was akin to a late 80s Ibanez. The first guitar I inspected was the LP Jr, which also had an extremely slim neck profile. I have to agree that the wider neck makes the 2015 models very uncomfortable, if not impossible, to play. At one point I was hoping that Gibson would manufacture the 2015 LP Jr or the LP DC in lefty, but I am definitely not interested in either of those models now. I finally stopped by Guitar Center to check out some of the 2015 Gibsons.
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