Re: Gibson's reasoning for running their retailers offline is now unveiled.
Gearjoneser said:
Jeez, what can you buy these days without someone thinking you're a sellout for supporting a corporate giant?
I do like the idea of supporting small, handmade guitar companies, but those sure ain't cheap either. Not to mention that when their design slightly slips out of style, you're stuck with a guitar that's worth 1/5 of what you paid for it. Anyone out there playing any 70's Alembic guitars? 80's Steinbergers? Those sure seemed like a better deal than a Gibson when they came out, but how about now?
I'll set this straight right now, I love Gibsons!!, just like I love fenders, just like I love etc. etc. etc. I like guitars like I like women, I DON"T DESCRIMINATE.
You know the thing that was really stinking to me concerning gibson and their internet policy, it reminded me of wall-mart like load of B.S. (see last gibson thread concerning gibson wanting to tell the gibson story and getting rid of individual pictures on the internet.) I'm still not sure that it was a legit story, or at least I'm not sure it ws portrayed correctly. BUT, were there is smoke there is fire.
My favorite gibson retailer Music-Machine
www.guitarsale.com never took down their pictures. My #2 favorite gibson website "Wildwood" has never taken down their individual pictures either. This made me suspicious of the story.
This Amazon thing concerns me to an extent, because it adds a little legitamacy to the previous gibson thread, except that the way Evan explaines it Gibson would have no real part in the Amazon thing, just like Seymour having no part in the Amazon sales of S.D. pups. (More on this later)
5 or so years ago Music machine was a little music store, no different than thousands of other stores around the country. They had 3 or 4 gibsons behind the counter along with maybe 20 other guitars around the store. When internet sales became the big thing. Music machine was a little ahead of the power curve, and started marketing gibsons hot and heavy. He even commisioned a couple lines of his own (stinger & real feel). When I recently went there, his inventory was mind numbing. $$$Millions$$$ of dollars of inventory. That is a lot of guitars bought from gibson. When they walked me through their warehouse area in the basement I estimated they had close to 500 or more new gibsons in cases. Music machine is dedicated to gibson. They were the #1 gibson seller last year. They hit the shows all over the country as well as selling on the internet. (now we are finally getting to my point.) NEXT