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Gibson guitars are now available with the
Buzz Feiten Tuning System
Intellectual Property This is a page 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 time Ghostbuilder 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!!!! Within the past 15 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 they 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. They would joke about Ace down at the factory, 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 knew at Gibson. I say let's fight back! I say let's look at all the smaller
companies who don't play marketing games with our minds. I say look at all the
guitars on this page carefully. See What Else is on the Market Eastman Roman Blues Deluxe It's not a real good idea to buy the Gibson 335
anymore. The Blues Deluxe pictured here is one of many brands that are far better to buy. This one even uses real wood in the construction. Gibson's are all made from laminated plywood. The Blues Deluxe guitar is far better & considerably cheaper. It also comes in a custom shop version for slightly more dollars than a laminated Gibson, and offers a tremendous amount of options that Gibson does not offer. Mosrite 300 Series It's not a real good idea to buy the Gibson 335 anymore. The Mosrite pictured here is one of many brands that are far better to buy. Gibson never has tops as nice as this. This Guitar plays circles around the Gibson and
costs less.
Dean, Alembic, Moonstone, Dean, Gibson, Ibanez, Jackson, BC
Rich
This picture was shot about a year
after the previous picture
Trussart Guitar, with Tom Holmes pickups a real favorite of
Billy Gibbons
Click here to find out all the Les Paul Broken Necks
Custom Guitar
Burny 3 Beautiful Guild Singlecuts I have noticed a tremendous propensity of people who are
collecting copy guitars
Bradley GT Gretsch Elliot Easton Baker Crucible
Ed Roman Maximus
CAN'T READ THE LOGO
EPIPHONE HYUNDAI FAT DAWG MODEL
Morris Sekova Tokai Click here to find out all the Les Paul Broken Necks Much Much Much Much More Coming Explorers & Similar Shapes Flying Vees & Similar Shapes Les Paul's & Similar Shapes SG's & Similar Shapes 335's & Similar Shapes Firebirds & Similar Shapes L5's & Similar Shapes Stratocasters & Similar Shapes Telecasters & Similar Shapes Mosrite & Similar Shapes
Ed Roman is retrofitting many Gibson Guitars with the
Buzz Feiten Tuning
System Ed - I'm getting loads of emails from Epiphone/Gibson,
crowing about their release of the Slash Les Paul. 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 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.
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 |
