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Mysterious Video Shows Bulldozing of Hundreds of Gibson Firebird X Guitars

sonar

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Jan 10, 2003
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I’m as guilty as anybody for criticizing the model, yet watching the video makes me sick to my stomach.
 

SpencerD

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Mar 11, 2016
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910
So yeah man. Seems kind of labor intensive to do that shit.

Some dudes had to line up all those piece of shit Firebird X guitars on a well graded and level lot to be driven over by a tracked machine.

Then some dude archived it for posterity on his phone --- dog and pony show. WTF? :hee
 

Big Al

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Apr 24, 2002
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14,537
So? More stupid crap for drama queens and those with a hard on for Gibson to get all worked up about. So what?

An entertaining way to remove an epic failure and symbol of Henry era stupidity. They are gone, good riddence and see ya!! WTF!:bigal I see it as a graphic end to the off the rail bonehead focus on gadgetry, gizmology and lame futuristic goodgollymissmologistic bullshitery.:##:##:##

Let the cryin' commence, I allready here the wailing from the idiot sanctimonious youtube assholes.
 

jb_abides

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Apr 6, 2005
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5,274
These videos show more infamous guitar smashing... scored by a great American songwriter!


 

sonar

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So? More stupid crap for drama queens and those with a hard on for Gibson to get all worked up about. So what?

An entertaining way to remove an epic failure and symbol of Henry era stupidity. They are gone, good riddence and see ya!! WTF!:bigal I see it as a graphic end to the off the rail bonehead focus on gadgetry, gizmology and lame futuristic goodgollymissmologistic bullshitery.:##:##:##


Let the cryin' commence, I already here the wailing from the idiot sanctimonious youtube assholes.


I get where you're coming from Al, but I have a hard time buying Gibson's excuse for destroying all these guitars followed by the backtracking, switch the narrative line about Gibson donating "X" amount of guitars. My guess is these guitars could have been stripped of the gadget nonsense, salvaged and put to use. A stripped down guitar husk is unsafe? Really?

I find the process of destroying these guitars, complete with the video, sickening. Maybe they want us to believe it's some weird symbolism disconnecting the recent past from the present, but it comes across as aggressive, heavy-handed douchebaggery. I have problems with this BS, Bro culture gorilla marketing and more importantly, the destruction of guitar stock for said BS, Bro culture gorilla marketing.

Last time I checked the LPF was not a youtube comment section, and unlike that vacuous void of intelligence, this site has proven to have a certain level of influence in the guitar community through the years.

I doubt anybody cares, but my participation on this forum has mostly been about gear, and it's uncommon that I dive into this kind of stuff, but this just put me off in a bad way.
 

sonar

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I get where you're coming from Al, but I have a hard time buying Gibson's excuse for destroying all these guitars followed by the backtracking, switch the narrative line about Gibson donating "X" amount of guitars. My guess is these guitars could have been stripped of the gadget nonsense, salvaged and put to use. A stripped down guitar husk is unsafe? Really?

I find the process of destroying these guitars, complete with the video, sickening. Maybe they want us to believe it's some weird symbolism disconnecting the recent past from the present, but it comes across as aggressive, heavy-handed douchebaggery. I have problems with this BS, Bro culture gorilla marketing and more importantly, the destruction of guitar stock for said BS, Bro culture gorilla marketing.

Last time I checked the LPF was not a youtube comment section, and unlike that vacuous void of intelligence, this site has proven to have a certain level of influence in the guitar community through the years.

I doubt anybody cares, but my participation on this forum has mostly been about gear, and it's uncommon that I dive into this kind of stuff, but this just put me off in a bad way.



Correction. I have since read that the video was shot by a former employee and stand corrected with my false assumption.

I still believe that these guitars were wastefully destroyed by Gibson and find their public comment about the video to be disingenuous.
 

J T

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Oct 20, 2005
Messages
10,501
I read on over musicradar that the guitars were flawed and beyond repair. But why they chose to run over them with a bulldozer is a head scratcher. They usually just saw the bodies in half and toss them in a container.


"The video was posted by a former Gibson employee, BJ Wilkes, who explained to YouTuber The Guitologist that the guitars were unsellable and that the company needed to get them off the books as the new owners looked to change the company’s fortunes after its well-publicised financial problems and former CEO Henry Juszkiewicz’s ousting"

"Gibson said in an official statement that the video footage was of “an isolated batch of Firebird X models built in 2009-2011 which were unsalvageable and damaged with unsafe components. This isolated group of Firebird X models were unable to be donated for any purpose and were destroyed accordingly.”
 
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J T

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The only other thing I don't get is what components on those guitars could possibly be considered "unsafe":hmm
 

jb_abides

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"...the guitars were unsellable and that the company needed to get them off the books as the new owners looked to change the company’s fortunes..."

Totally believable, understandable.


"isolated batch [...] which were unsalvageable and damaged with unsafe components. This isolated group of Firebird X models were unable to be donated for any purpose and were destroyed accordingly.”

Far-fetched, albeit possible. Probably they were taking the lazy path. Probably they now regret filming the video, the leak, and are now castigating the responsible party (or wishing they could...).

Unsafe? Please specify --
- Mold infestation from flood?
- Poisonous metals, paint or other toxic elements?
- Explosive lithium ion batteries, capacitors, or other electronic dangers?

We'll never know but I'd wager small bills there'd be a way to manage this, remove the headstock branding, and regift to remote locales for educational programs. Who knows, a future Hendrix may spring from the Mongolian steppe or wherever... I get it, close the door on the absolute nadir of the HJ era. Remove the evidence. Problems being they are out in the wild, and will remain on the internet ad infinitum.

We have to take their word for it, I am not going to rail against them, and sincerely wish the new management the best... but this seems to be the sort of sloppy marketing 'oopsie' spin which characterizes most companies these days... some hope our "beloved brand" would be a strive a bit better, or exhibit smarter business tactics then ret-conning. Be less fancifully imaginative i.e. 'spin' and more innovative. Or at least more circumspect and accountable.
 

J.D.

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May 24, 2006
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My translation:

We couldn't sell these things so we destroyed remaining inventory and wrote them off as a loss.
 

F-Hole

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Sep 2, 2015
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2,171
Unsafe my ass.........where's the product recall for those already sold? FFS, how stupid do they think we are?

They'd have got much kudos for donating the guitars to various school music programs, and probably got a tax deduction too.

These clowns are making Henry appear eminently sensible.
 

jrgtr42

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Mar 24, 2005
Messages
2,308
My translation:

We couldn't sell these things so we destroyed remaining inventory and wrote them off as a loss.

That's pretty much my take on the matter - I've seen videos from lots of other factorys and production sites that do similar - not necessarily run them over with a bulldozer, but chippers, crushers, and any other form of destructive device known to mankind.
I know of several shops that got them in and couldn't sell a single one of them - eventually they were sent back to Gibson.
 

deytookerjaabs

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Nov 6, 2016
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1,592
I never understood the flak given for Gibson throwing **** at the wall. 2015, when they took regular models and changed a bunch of stuff, sure. But, when they come up with guitars that the general Gibson fans don't dig it never bothered me one bit. I'm pretty sure they've always done crazy designs part for "let's see" and part shock value. I can remember seeing real old guitars with a ton of switches, or some with a pickup that went from the neck to the bridge, or the Korina guitars which were originally way out of line with the times, or the built in "fuzz" stuff, or the professional/recording guitars, or the moog stuff, or the cheapo S-series things, on and on and on. It's not like any of this was ever was forced upon 100% of the reissues for any given year the past few decades. There's a lot of guitars I don't like, it doesn't bother me if some of them say Gibson on the headstock as if Gibson was my 16 year old daughter, the die hards are a funny breed.
 

Triburst

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Feb 12, 2006
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4,353
Strange, but I've seen some goofy stuff in finance, marketing, and product development in my times.

No doubt this made sense to somebody.

My personal opinion is close to Big Al's. I think this was an internal video shown at a meeting for key Gibson employees to emphasize the old was dead and buried, and prosperous new times are ahead.
 
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SimonBarSinister

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Aug 24, 2003
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1,874
I don't know the entire story behing this video but I suspect that this has everything to do with not wanting to support the software and the warranties related to these guitars. It's cheaper to make them just disappear.

Even the Auto-Tuners. Gibson getting rid of them doesn't eliminate their support/warranty obligations for the guitars out in the wild. That support costs money...


YMMV...
 

Jim W

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Aug 14, 2002
Messages
727
My guess, Flood damaged, claimed against insurance. Insurance paid out to Gibson, and asked for proof of destruction.
 
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