Gibson Guitar Is a Remarkably Unpopular Company

PunkKitty said:
http://gawker.com/gibson-guitar-is-..._source=gawker_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow
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I missed the part where they are putting PCBs in the guitars:

I’m a long time Gibson player and collector. Last year I went into a Sam Ash store to buy either a Les Paul Standard or a Traditional. The sales guy who knows me well told me to open the control cavity first. He knows I like to change pickups and sometimes capacitors to get variations in tone. This is very common among guitar players. When I opened up the control cavity, instead of seeing metal potentiometers and capacitors, I saw a plastic circuit board that the pickups plug into. The sales person told me that they have been turning away customer after customer that wants to change out pickups because the parts to do so aren’t available. Ebay is littered with the new pickup and circuit boards because folks are pulling them out and replacing the guts with what used to come standard in every Les Paul. So, if someone buys a new Les Paul and they would like to change out the pickups, they now have to replace everything which adds an entire new layer to the cost of a pickup replacement.
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Is this true?
 
yeah...

2008_Studio_HC_Sunburst_Faded.jpg
 
dougk said:
Honestly, a slightly different approach to this and it'd be a pickup swappers dream come true. They should have used screw terminals so that you could simply install any brand pickups with hand tools.
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Right. Seems like a pretty obvious leap, doesn't it?
 
dougk said:
Honestly, a slightly different approach to this and it'd be a pickup swappers dream come true. They should have used screw terminals so that you could simply install any brand pickups with hand tools.
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Uh huh.

Yet the chose to be pains in the rear instead. Choices like that is what is messing up their reputation.
 
Gibson has been a non-starter for me for nearly 10 years now. The most interesting thing for me at this point is how the company continues to be successful despite their public failings. And the truth is that Gibson isn't going anywhere. Henry is of the mind that no press is bad press, and he profits with every thread like this one. So really, you're just giving him what he wants.
 
dougk said:
Honestly, a slightly different approach to this and it'd be a pickup swappers dream come true. They should have used screw terminals so that you could simply install any brand pickups with hand tools.
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I never can understand how this hasn’t happened already. How is it possible that, aside from EMG, the guitar industry doesn’t view a solderless pickup system as a benefit to themselves (lower labor costs) and to customers (convenience)?
 
jp_nyc said:
I never can understand how this hasn’t happened already. How is it possible that, aside from EMG, the guitar industry doesn’t view a solderless pickup system as a benefit to themselves (lower labor costs) and to customers (convenience)?
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In order for that to be a benefit to customers, guitar companies and pickup companies would all have to agree on a standard connector for pickups. No one is going to do that, because the behemoths of any industry want to force everyone to do things their way, and other companies wouldn't follow the standard to prevent customers from using someone else's parts.

Then you have the problem of the agreed-upon standard connector being discontinued by the manufacturer, or the manufacturer going out of business.

Luckily, I have a lifetime supply of lead solder so I'll never have to use that awful lead-free solder.
 
jp_nyc said:
No, but engine swaps are very rare. Pickup swaps are common.
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Because they're a pain in the ass.
And the automakers want it that way. Why would they intentionally make it easier for you to install a competitor's product when you make one, too?
Engine swaps would be very common if people could easily drop a small block in a dodge or ford.
It's not consumer friendly and I'm not advocating their position, mind you. Just explaining. I've worked for manufacturers and that's how they look at it.
At least that's how the Vice President Of International Strategic Synergy Leveraging explained it to me.
 
Linux would be the best example I can think of. Open source architecture.
Fender is as close as we have to that. They are the most mod friendly guitars out there.

But not everyone wants that. Some want Custom Built By The Hands Of Elves carved from a single piece of jet black ebony.
 
jp_nyc said:
I never can understand how this hasn’t happened already. How is it possible that, aside from EMG, the guitar industry doesn’t view a solderless pickup system as a benefit to themselves (lower labor costs) and to customers (convenience)?
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Flatspotter said:
In order for that to be a benefit to customers, guitar companies and pickup companies would all have to agree on a standard connector for pickups. No one is going to do that, because the behemoths of any industry want to force everyone to do things their way, and other companies wouldn't follow the standard to prevent customers from using someone else's parts.

Then you have the problem of the agreed-upon standard connector being discontinued by the manufacturer, or the manufacturer going out of business.

Luckily, I have a lifetime supply of lead solder so I'll never have to use that awful lead-free solder.
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Thats why don't use a specific connector but rather a screw/post style terminal. Think something like this

screw-terminal-block-2-pin-35-mm-pitch-side-entry-4-pack.jpg


Course as soon as you do this, then you'll just have everyone complaining that they could come loose one day. LOL
 
dougk said:
Thats why don't use a specific connector but rather a screw/post style terminal. Think something like this

screw-terminal-block-2-pin-35-mm-pitch-side-entry-4-pack.jpg


Course as soon as you do this, then you'll just have everyone complaining that they could come loose one day. LOL
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And they will. I'll take a nicely secured wire with a dab of solder over that in what is a relatively permanent installation.
 
Elias Graves said:
Because they're a pain in the ass.
And the automakers want it that way. Why would they intentionally make it easier for you to install a competitor's product when you make one, too?
Engine swaps would be very common if people could easily drop a small block in a dodge or ford.
It's not consumer friendly and I'm not advocating their position, mind you. Just explaining. I've worked for manufacturers and that's how they look at it.
At least that's how the Vice President Of International Strategic Synergy Leveraging explained it to me.
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This is bad reasoning. Engines are made by manufacturers to fit their specific size, weight, space, mounting requirements.

The guitar industry instead adopted basically 4 standard pickup types, HB, P90 (soapbar), Strat and Tele. There are literally hundreds of thousands of choices for each style that save for soldering, drop in with 1 screw driver. It's more along the lines of the auto industry adopting gas pedal on the right, brakes in the middle, clutch on the left.
 
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