Within the past 20 years or so I can think of only one Gibson that has increased in value. That would be the Ace Frehley model !!! Only 150 were made and they sold new for less than $5,000.00. Today that guitar has doubled in value. As I said I cannot think of any Gibson guitar that has increased since the 80's. Those $40,000.00 art guitars have all bombed. The Indian Guitar, The Harley Guitar, The Elegant etc etc.

If Gibson put that guitar out today it would probably sell for about $20,000.00; twice as much as an original Ace Frehley in perfect condition would sell for today.

I worked for Gibson in the early 90's, during that time I was hanging out with Ace quite a bit. Ace is a good guy and he's had some good breaks & bad breaks. I know Ace well, under the image,

I really like him. Although he has tried to pick up my girlfriend while I was in the bathroom & used my house as refuge from his rockstar life by staying on my couch all night for three days in a row he remains a good guy in my eyes. We have had countless arguments about Gibson; He is loyal to them even though they have treated him poorly and very disrespectfully.
When I worked at Gibson the sales managers & employees would joke about Ace, they never seemed to get tired of dissing him. I actually told Ace about this. Maybe I should have minded my own business. I'd be lying if I said, I kept it a secret that I wasn't a Gibson fan. In any case I feel his loyalty is misplaced and certainly not appreciated by the people I worked with at Gibson.

This page is dedicated to the belief that certain guitar shapes should be totally generic. I strongly believe that no one person or company deserve to hoard a shape for their own profit after a reasonable time.

As a guitar player and consumer, I would vote for a modest 3 year period of exclusivity and as a businessman and capitalist, I would vote for an incredibly long 25 years. (Patents are active 17 years) Maybe 12 years would be fair. (This is just my opinion)

Do the courts realize that legally an item becomes an antique after 25 years?? I wonder....

I firmly believe that once something is classified as an antique no individual, company, corporation or entity should have the right to try to hoard the intellectual property for any period of time beyond that.

I'm not saying that a company shouldn't have the rights to a trademark. For example a bell shaped truss rod cover or a distinctive head stock or even the name by which the item is called. I don't believe that anyone should ever copy those type of trademarks. I for one have never knowingly done so. Excepting in cases where a particular company has hired me or anyone else to Reproduce or Ghostbuild a custom guitar for one of their famous celebrity endorsers. 'This is altogether another story and, many companies hate me for exposing them for this.' There are people who own these guitars who hate me for my little exposé's, and many dealers who are overstocked with a lot of krap they are trying to sell don't appreciate me for my rants. They don't want the consumers to know things like such & such guitar is made in Korea and assembled in the USA and legally called an American Guitar.

Be aware that many famous guitar players are playing custom made replicas of the brand they are touting as being high quality. The most publicized Milli Vanilli'ish case was Slash', who publicly came out and told the world in several interviews, that his Gibson Les Paul's were all custom made by a small timeGhostbuilder in Los Angeles, who goes only by 'MAX.' Slash was very cool to do that. My respect for him went up about 3 notches when I read that article.

There are numerous photos of Billy Gibbons playing both Gibsons & Gretsch's with a question mark on the headstock where there is usually a brand name. It's an insider joke: No self respecting Rockstar wants an off the rack guitar, so they get custom guitars made to their particular specs. The guitars only look like the originals!! These definitely aren't the garden variety, cheaply made, mass produced, off the shelf guitars like you will find at Guitar Center. (There are some exceptions of course, but very few I have seen as of late)

In my opinion I believe that Fender should have the right to their distinctive trade names like Stratocaster, Telecaster, Precision Bass, Jazz Bass etc etc. I don't believe they should have any rights for names like Katana or Marauder (or any short lived or discontinued models). I don't believe that they should care whether or not someone else copies those models either.

I believe that Fender should have the rights to their distinctive headstock shapes. I don't believe they should water down their distinctive shapes, which happens when they put them on other brands. They have been doing this lately. In my opinion, this activity only hurts & cheapens the original trademark and detracts from the value of the original brand.

Over the years Fender has made mistakes, but eventually they always seem to fix them. This is very commendable for a company as large as Fender. Other large guitar companies just seem to get worse & worse and never correct any of the problems.

For example, Fender initially made some horrible mistakes regarding Guild, which they set about to correct. Now the Guild product is better & even more viable than when it was owned by Guild. They have succeeded with Gretsch where Gretsch had failed over & over again. This is a great credit to them. I often say that large corporations usually have absolutely no redeeming value. Fender is proving to be an exception and I am now quite proud to sell many of their products in my store.

Gibson on the other hand will sue small companies into non existence if they feel that one of their 60 year old sacred body shapes is being copied. I believe they should try spending 1/10 of the amount of money that they waste on suing people, and become more constructive by doing much needed research & development. Gibson hasn't had an interesting new product since I can remember. The one exception being the Johnny A model that is made from real wood.

This supposedly new robot guitar is far from new!!!! that's been on the market 15 years almost. Gibson finally discovered it in 2007. Oy

In my opinion Gibson should take the high road like CF Martin does. They could choose to be a responsible industry leader. They could introduce excellent new products at a rate of one a week if they wanted to.

Instead they repeatedly come out with the same tired old designs. They attach celebrities names to these designs and sell them to unsuspecting suckers who are too blind to see they are being duped. $30,000.00 for a Jimmy Page doubleneck, $12,000.00 for a plywood 335 with the Eric Clapton designation on it. The real kicker here is that the vast majority of people who are purchasing these guitars are of above average intelligence. I figure they have to be to have that much money in the first place. (That's what makes the scam, and yes it is a scam, so perfect.)

I could live with this BS if they priced them fairly. Instead they preload the collect-ability and cache value into the retail selling price. In my opinion this action effectively robs the consumer of his ability to make anything on resale 20 years down the road.

When I worked for Gibson I was told that company policy was to price the guitars high so that the end sucker OOPS! Did I say sucker? I meant 'buyer' would assume it was of good quality.

Holy Dollar signs Batman this guitar costs $20,000.00 it must be good !!!!!

Yeah, dream on Birdboy!!!!

Don't Buy A Gibson On Ebay, It's probably a forgery
There are many many people selling fake Gibsons

Newsday ^ | 18 Sep 07 | Joseph Mallia
Posted on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 5:14:02 PM by Drew68

An Oakdale music store owner was arrested Monday for selling fake versions of the legendary Gibson guitar at his Montauk Highway shop, the Suffolk police said.

Investigators seized 15 fake Gibsons from the store, the police said.

Bernard Musumeci, 44, of 2 Domino Way, Centereach, surrendered to the police Monday night, and was charged with trademark counterfeiting.

After he was released, Musumeci turned over another 18 guitars from his home, and Gibson Guitar Corp. experts will determine whether they're authentic.

The arrest came after a two-month investigation by Fifth Squad detectives, working in conjunction with the Nashville-based Gibson company.

After authorities were alerted that Musumeci may have been selling fakes at Oakdale Music, at 925 Montauk Hwy., an undercover security expert from Gibson determined that several guitars from the store were, indeed, counterfeit.

Suffolk detectives applied for and executed a search warrant earlier this week and the 15 guitars, all of which were determined to be counterfeit, were seized at the music store.

Now based in Nashville, the original Gibson Guitar and Mandolin Company was founded in 1894 in Kalamazoo, Mich., by shoe clerk and musician Orville Gibson.

Gibson now produces what many consider the world's foremost guitars, especially reissues of the Les Paul model first manufactured in 1952.

Authentic Gibsons are pricey. An original 1959 Gibson Les Paul Flame Top guitar was listed on eBay Monday at a buy-it-now price of nearly $100,000. And a 2007 reissue of the same guitar was listed for $4,500.

(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...

Hello Ed..;);)
Greetings from Norway..
been looking at your website for a few hours now and I am impressed, especially the rants section
as I have some bad experience myself with gibson guitars.
first I owned a Les Paul studio that had several glips between the fretboard and neck, think they tried to paint over it or something, didn't work..;);)cost me 12000 kr.(1800 dollars) some 16 years ago ..a lot of money when you are 14..
now the reason for buying my Les Paul was of course slash of guns n roses, my hero.. (See Ghostbuilders, Ed)
and your section on brand loyalty is also very interesting and very true, as I have been there myself, buying all of Gibsons B.S. about their 'hand crafted' instruments.. I have found no such thing in my Gibsons..;);)
my second guitar was an Explorer, brand new 2007 model, and the same damn thing was wrong with the
neck on this one as well. Only the glips was bigger, it looked like they hadn't even tried to fit the fretboard right.. it stood out a couple of millimeters from the neck all the way from 5.fret up to the 12.fret..
poor craftsmanship at best.. I mean even the cheapest of models from brands like Ibanez etc. you will not find major flaws like this..
how the hell can they go on making their crappy instr..??and people are still buying..??
I have now gotten rid of both my gibsons and be sure: there will never be one in my house again...ever!!!
I am now a proud owner of an Ibanez universe 7 string.. and it works and sounds better than I could ever imagine..
will not trade that one for any other guitar, the build is excellent and so far beyond gibson`s sad attempts..
by the way.. any views up`s or down`s regarding Ibanez guitars..??just curious..;);)
oh and I have to mention the Les Paul slash signature model, here in Norway the list price is 65.000 kroner.
that should be about $9.500 !!!!!...what does Gibson do that can justify that kind of prices..??ghost build like you have mentioned..?? Slash probably gets his share I reckon..;);)
Well thats all from me, Use this if you can/want to on your website, be sure I will do my bit to convert people into thinking for and by themselves, not believing all the commercial stuff they read from major corps. like gibson..
Hans E. Beddari
Stjørdal.
Norway.

Thanks Hans for your letter,

Who knows, Maybe it might convince some other 14 year old not to make the mistake that you and I both made when we were young.

Could be, it's useless to try and fight the corporate machine that is Gibson !!!!! I get lot's of negativity slung at me because I choose to call it the way I see it...

Occasionally when someone tells me they didn't fall for the corporate BS, I am elated,

Today in the USA most people are brainwashed and programmed before they are out of 3rd grade. I guess we can thank the American Advertising Council for turning our country into a 3rd world. Of course all the wonderful American businessmen who only care about making money for themselves that sends all our wonderful designs to China so they can put all their employees out of work.

Don't those idiotic morons realize that no one can afford to buy anything if they don't have a job... Duh !!!!

Maybe someday our American culture will mature enough to realize what is actually happening to us !!!!

I know that my customers in Norway are all doing quite well because I sell a lot of very expensive guitars there.

Thanks again for your letter !!!

Ed Roman

I'm glad Slash has an endorsement deal, but I've read the specs. It's a plain Les Paul model, bottom line. So is the Zack Wylde Les Paul, the Jimmy Page Les Paul, the Les Paul Les Paul... I'm waiting for a Leo Fender Les Paul any day now. I don't care much that Slash's name is on it; it's still a model that has been done (and copied) to death. If I'm dropping 5 grand on a guitar named for some guy in a stove-pipe hat, it better be Abe Lincoln.
If you have a feel for this whole artist-endorsement-of-a-plain-stock-piece thing (especially when it comes to the names of TWO people on the same guitar), I would very much enjoy seeing it as a future rant.
Respectfully,
Alan P.
Broadcast Engineer & diehard Gretsch player
Washington DC

Ed's Response

Hello Alan

Calling yourself a diehard Gretsch player implies that you don't want to be told about anything new. It implies that you don't want to be confused with the facts. It implies that you have already made up your mind and nothing will change it. it implies that you are not a forward thinker. (Believe me, I can relate to that)
I sincerely appreciate your letter, I love the part about a Leo Fender model. But you must understand, I stand straight & tall in the high winds of ignorance. Ignorance is prevalent because of retarded diehard attitudes.

I used to be a Harley Guy, I thought everyone who drove a Honda was an ass, I thought everyone who rode a Triumph was an Ass. Well in truth, I was the biggest Ass of all for being a diehard Harley dude. I went 30 years as a diehard Harley dude. One morning I woke up and realized that I was no better than a diehard Gibson guy. I mean deep down I knew they were pieces of crap and they were always giving me problems. But I had worn this biker personae since I was 17 and I wasn't about to admit to the fact that I was a complete Jerk.

Well Here I go.... I was a COMPLETE JERK !!!!!!!!

I can remember when I worked at Gibson and the idea of 2 names on a guitar came up. Everyone inside pretty much agreed it was a crass idea and that even the general public wouldn't be that stupid.
Of course they did it anyway with the reasoning, 'We Are Gibson, We can do anything & the Suckers will always swallow it' (They rely on the diehards) Just like Harley, they rely on diehards. That isn't healthy in my book.

While at Gibson I didn't have a vote in the matter, I was just a division commander, I was handling one brand name 'Steinberger' and they had both my hands tied behind my back. Basically I was a puppet manager assigned to such trivialities as training their less than intelligent sales force what a 'trans trem' was & how it worked, & how to sell headless guitars to retarded music dealers who were even less intelligent. NOT MY IDEA OF A FUN JOB.

I ranted about this for years, anyway imagine this Scenario.......

Billy Bob Buford of Billy Bob & The Redneck Toilet Bowl Plungers happens to be a big Ace Frehley Fan. The only thing of real importance in Billy Bob's miserable little life is to bow down on his prayer rug and pray 7 times a day towards the northeast (New York City) towards the home of his lifelong hero Ace Frehley.

Naturally when Billy Bob performs he uses his trusty Les Paul, not just any Les Paul, He uses the Ace Frehley Les Paul that he paid $13,000.00 for when he was a kid and can't bring himself to play anything else.

OK the story is playing out. Billy Bob writes a song about a mass murder chainsaw bloody death massacre and gets a number one hit with a bullet in his little brain.

Gibson decides to honor this geek by giving him a guitar of his own so they can sell them to his fans. Gibson gouges their customers by charging $12,000.00 for a plywood ES335 with an Eric Clapton logo on it. They stick it deep to their customers when they charge $25,000.00 for a doubleneck that used to sell the year before for $1,850.00. Just because they associate Jimmy Page's name with it.

What I don't understand is, Gibson reams their customers repeatedly yet the brand loyalty is strong with the well to do sophisticated educated doctors, lawyers, dentists & accountants. These are the very people who should see right through them. Oh Well !!!! I mean I wouldn't expect some Hollywood. Burbank, San Fernando Valley mindless musician to get it. or one of those lower east side New York hair-heads to understand. But educated intelligent people should be able to see right through their little veil of Bullshit.

Announcing the New ' Chainsaw Billy Bob' , ' Ace Frehley', ' Les Paul'... Sheeeesh how stupid are we as a buying public.

Someone please bury this poorly designed antiquated piece of crap in a dung hill in some third world armpit where it belongs !!!!!!

People !!!! Wake Up .....

Ed