Unhappy Gibson Customers & Employees

Hi Ed Roman
I'm glad to see someone else is standing in the wind against Gibson, I have many times wanted to build a web-site called "gibsonsucks.com" I have many more stories that I have amassed in my last 20 years as a guitar repair person in Toronto.  I do repairs for several dealers besides my own clientele. I have been forced to deal with the less than intelligent cretin's at Gibson for parts & warranty issues. They are even worse than Rickenbacker when it comes to helping a customer solve a problem. They have repeatedly lost and/or screwed up guitars, They have treated me like a complete fool when I deal with them. They have lied to me more than 100 times.  F#@K Gibson !!!!!!

Lowell K. Roberson
Precision Guitar Repair
Toronto CA,
 

I appreciate your correspondence, I have considered doing a website that targeted Gibson's screw-ups myself. I just never seem to get around to it.  To date I have a total of 22 different websites.
Ed Roman  10/13/08

Todd Kennedy to me
show details 2:34 PM (1 hour ago) Reply

Hey Ed

I tend to agree with everything you have to say about Gibsons.
However there is one model I have really fallen in love with. I wasn't quite sure why I felt this model was so superior to my other Les Pauls. ( I have several ) but after reading your article and Gibson comparisons, I figured out why.
This guitar has a three piece maple neck (unfinished) as you stated is the preferred wood for necks by most luthiers. It also has an Ebony fretboard also something you feel every electric should have. The guitar also came stock with Grover tuners instead of the old Kluson's.

The guitar is fully bound front, back, neck, and headstock and comes stock with EMG pickups and is made in Gibsons Custom shop.
I picked it up on E-bay for $2500.00 and it has become my favorite guitar to date. I am 47 years old and been playing since the 70,s so I've owned a ton of guitars. Currently have 14 in my collection (two of which are 80,s Hamer's ) The greatest and most underrated guitars on the used market, a sentiment you seem to share with me.

Anyhow the Gibson I am speaking of is a Gibson Zakk Wylde model. It truly is a great guitar. I will never again buy an off the shelf "Jipson" (pun intended) as they are complete crap for the money they charge. However the custom shop re-issues have impressed me and are leaps and bounds better than the off the shelf crap. Most of them are made with quality woods and long neck Tenons and resonate like a good paul should. However their prices are indeed ridiculous .Luckily the used market has recognized this and you can now get a good custom shop 1956, 57, 58, 60 re-issue for around $2000.00. I have a 59, & a 58 and along with my Zakk Wylde model have fallen back in love with the Les Paul.

Zakk Wylde apparently did his homework when he designed his signature model as it does seem to meet all of your benchmarks for a quality guitar. Anyhow just some food for thought.

I have recently retired to Las Vegas from LA. bought a small mansion (foreclosure) and am looking forward to meeting you and spending some of my hard earned baby boomer cash at your store.

I now have the money to spend but still prefer to spend it wisely and get value for my money. What are your thoughts on the above named guitar?  can you concede that Gibson may have actually made a good (although overpriced ) guitar ? or are you locked into the belief that all Gibsons are crap ?

Cheers
Keep the great Rants coming

Todd Kennedy
 

I Will Most Definitely Never Concede !!!
I am still firmly locked into the belief that there are more than 30 brands of guitars that are better than Gibson Les Pauls, SG's, etc etc.

Important......  It's not just the quality that I don't like, You started your letter by agreeing with me on everything I say. I don't think you actually would agree with everything I say about Gibson's In fact I doubt that you have read too many of my articles. I believe you are a really a Gibson lover that is looking for a way around the multitude of problems.

The 22 fret, stubby neck, big heel, improper pickup placement &  set neck are only 5 things that cannot be addressed through quality of construction. Those are all design faults that should cause a complete redesign of the basic structure of the guitar.

Not to mention the angle splayed headstock, the 17 Degree tilt, no volute are not fixable simply by putting a good set of tuners on the guitar.

The spring mounted pickups is a forgivable error only because almost everybody does it. But that still does not make it right.  No amount of good quality construction can fix all these basic design flaws.

True the Zakk Guitar does have a 3 piece maple neck which is a step in the right direction structurally, But a maple neck on a Les Paul is counterproductive to the one good sound it does get. Also the ebony neck is too bright for the Les Paul signature sound.  Most Les Paul lovers want rosewood fingerboards and mahogany necks.

Zakk Wylde is awesome, I have known him for more than 25 years, I wonder how much better he would sound on a Turner model one or on a JET or a Quicksilver.

I have been very merciful towards Gibson on what I have written above,  If I spent more than five minutes on this I could have listed at least 6 or 7 more unforgivable design flaws.

I didn't even mention the backbreaking weight, I didn't elaborate on the glue in neck that tends to deaden the resonance from the fingerboard. I could go on and on.

Zakk Wylde is a great guitarist, he's also very hardheaded when it comes to Gibson,  reminds me of the way I used to be when I was riding Harley's for 34 years of my life.  (Don't try to confuse me with the facts, I've already made up my mind.)

Gibson will never change their design.  If they did, they would be admitting to the world that they were wrong all these years. Believe me that will never happen. It's simply an ego thing !!!!!

They could easily redesign the guitar, when I worked there back in 1991 this was being discussed on a daily basis. No one could figure out how to fix the problems and still save face.

Image is everything to Gibson, building the best guitar comes somewhere else down the road !!!!!

Ed Roman

Another Unbelievable Story About Gibson

Personally I Believe it
  Ed Roman

Ed,
You might enjoy reading this one:

My Story has been followed by a few "long timers" on the Gibson Dark Fire Forum.

My Bio is here:
http://www.futureguitarnow.com/forum/index.php?topic=33.0

I've been playing guitar over 40 years - my prior "new" Gibson was a '73 Les Paul Standard purchased new in 1974 for $525.

Prior to Dark Fire, the most I ever spent for a guitar was $2500 for my Gretsch G6120 Brian Setzer. I own 30+ Stringed Instruments, as I still perform occasional studio session work, and play in a couple local bands here on the Central Cal coast.
I do NOT consider myself a collector - I'm just a guitarist with a broader palette of colors to work with. In my teens, I taught myself Electronics, through my passion for guitar. Eventually I went to college, got my BSEE, and I'm currently employed as an electronics Design Engineer, designing digital audio equipment for the Cinema industry.

My father passed away in October, 2008 - and a small inheritance left me with a "spare" $3500 last December 2008. I joined the Gibson Forum on Dec 8 , 2008, to learn more about this new guitar called "Dark Fire".

I had been following the Gibson Robot Guitar since seeing Tronical press releases in Summer 2006.

Interjection ....

I feel sorry for anyone who bought the Robot  (It looks Like a poor man's Trans-performance been on the market almost 12 years)  Ed

I continue to feel $3500 is quite a lot of money - but the Dark Fire "Package" delivers a unique feature set not offered by other guitars. As a slide player, I was annoyed with the Alt Tuning functions provided by my Variax and my VG-99. The Dark Fire solves all those problems - providing superior tone and sustain for slide playing, and $3500 is typical price for a new Gibson these days.   Ha Ha

I purchased mine Dec. 15 mail order, sight unseen. I took delivery on Dec. 18, 2008 - but had to obtain an RMA, due to paint damage from a loose Volume knob, that was rolling around inside the case. Prior to sending it back to Gibson, I measured the audio performance of the Dark Fire in all modes with an Audio Precision measurement system, and created a "Bug List" which along with my Test Report, and pictures of paint damage - I sent to Gibson Customer Service along with my Guitar.

I posted my Bug List at the old forum on Dec 21, 2008.

I later learned this detailed "Bug List" document got the attention of Gibson management, as they stopped Dark Fire production while they investigated each of the "bugs" on my List.

I later learned that despite the media blitz, Gibson only shipped six Dark Fires on Friday Dec 13 - and mine was among those very first guitars built and shipped in time to be sold by a Dark Fire Dealer after 5:00pm Monday December 15, 2008.

Prior to Christmas 2008, the "Quick Start guide" was the Only documentation available. The RIP was not available until February, 2009. There were no Craig Anderton Guides posted online yet. Later I was involved with proofreading each of these guides. There are a few other forum members who I contacted offline and they each directly assisted in this "proof reading" / offer any corrections - particularly for the latest Dark Fire Rev 4.0 manual.

Working with the Guitar that first weekend in December 2008, I determined very few things were actually working as advertised. I had a Sticky MCK, Snap Crackle Pop sounds at every turn, Mag PU's were out of Phase, Piezo was out of phase, the Neck P90H made a terrible hum, the Piezo would squeal with feedback ( still does) if you run it at stage volume. and it sounded like a shower of "hissss" with its poor piezo preamp. The Top had nice flame maple, that was not damaged - that was really the ONLY reason I decided to keep my Dark Fire guitar, and not send it back to the Dealer for a total refund. I was very close to just writing this whole thing off - but I decided I would trust Gibson to make things right. After all the principal function of this Guitar in my arsenal would be to honor my fathers memory. I took pics to document the paint damage on the sides and back , including a few of the internal circuitry - just to compare if anything would be replaced / changed during the RMA repair. I sent my Dark Fire with original packaging to Nashville on Dec 23 under an RMA with instructions to fix all items on my Bug list.

I became a regular contributor on the Gibson Dark Fire Forum. On Dec 24, several other early owners were posting on the Gibson Forum that after fiddling with the MCK, they were now "stuck in DADGAD" and could not get the Guitar to return to standard tuning. They were told by Gibson Customer Service to obtain an RMA!

I thought this was absurd, and that perhaps if Gibson had only provided a "Dark Fire Owners Manual" as a downloadable PDF - with the correct information on how to perform a factory reset - then perhaps many early customers could simply solve the "stuck in DADGAD" tuning problem themselves - without the need to send their new guitar to Nashville just to get it retuned to standard pitch correctly.

My Guitar was in transit to Nashville, but on Christmas day - I googled and located the Linkedin and Facebook accounts for Gibson Management.

Still believing the hype - and that all 2000 Dark Fire guitars were already shipped out of Nashville for various final destinations around the globe and soon to be in the hands of equally confused New Owners, on Dec 25, 2008 I sent Gibson a Letter expressing that the Dark Fire Owners were considering a Class Action suit - to force Gibson to supply a Dark Fire Owners Manual for download. I gave them 10 days to post a Dark Fire Owners Manual. I placed a copy of this open letter on the Gibson Forum.

Gibson responded , within 24 hours, the "1st draft" official Dark Fire Owners Manual was posted for Download at the Gibson site.

But it soon became obvious why this document was not initially available, as this was still very much a rough draft "work in progress" - it still contained numerous "comments" regarding "How does the user Edit Chameleon Tones?" and in the back it mentioned the existence of "the Dark Fire Configuration Tool" - which i later learned is a GUI WinXP Editor for the PEQ and Mag Coil selection. ( This is scheduled for completion Summer 2009)

At least we now had access to the Factory Reset procedure ( Function #109) - and many Dark Fire Owners avoided the RMA process, thanks to finally having a Owners Manual.

While my Guitar was away being repaired, I researched "Analog multiplexing", and posted my "theories of Dark Fire operation" on the Gibson Forum after stumbling on a complete Analog Multiplexing Design in the data sheet for the CD4066 Analog Switch employed in the Dark Fire's Bridge assembly.

My "hunches" were correct, and Tronical became impressed with my electronic knowledge.


In January, I informed Gibson they should host a Dark Fire Users Meeting during Winter NAMM, and 48 hours later they announced this would happen.

On Jan 21, 2009 - Just hours before heading down the freeway to Anaheim to attend the NAMM show - I took delivery of my repaired Dark Fire. Gibson repaired the scratched paint, corrected the Phase issues with the Pickups, replaced the MCK, and the guitar had less "static" "snap , crackle, pop" sounds. The Piezo still would feedback, and the piezo Preamp still had a lot of hiss - but overall I was happy.

I attended the NAMM Dark Fire User Meeting, got my Dark Fire signed by each member of the Dark Fire team, and talked to Chris Adams and Craig Anderton for 30 minutes, leaving a good impression with all of my technical skills and understanding of the underlying technology. I was happiest to meet Craig Anderton, who contributed greatly to my early electronics education, as I had been reading all his musical electronics articles in Popular Electronics magazine since 1972.

In Early February, 2009 I was invited to become a Moderator of the Gibson Dark Fire Forum. With the limited tools available there - I tried to implement "order" out of chaos - creating sub forums in the Dark Fire Forum area for "Software", "Settings", "Reference Library", "Polls".

I even enabled File attachments - but this created huge problems for the Gibson Forum Server, so I had to disable those.

But in May, 2009 - i discovered any post older than 6 months old began disappearing. I wrote to Henry Juszkiewicz, but it took a month for Gibson to straighten things out.

So we started a new forum - www.FutureGuitarNow.com, where bulk of Gibson Dark Fire discussions occur today.

In March 2009, Tronical contacted me to become a USA Engineering Consultant.

Between March and May - here in my lab in California, I performed work on implementing last minute circuit modifications to each component on the Dark Fire, including the RIP Interface. I tested and documented the correct wiring for the Mag pickups. I designed and built a Mag pickup polarity tester used by Gibson to test pickups used in final production.
I purchased my own airline ticket and flew to Nashville 1st week of May, 2009 - to assist Gibson and Tronical with the restart of Dark Fire production in May 2009.

However, by June 1 - I still had not been paid, I contacted Gibson and Tronical to determine if something was wrong with my work. I was told I should be paid anytime now - be patient.

On June 6, 2009 - I was contacted by Gibson - to see if I would consider becoming Director of Engineering for Gibson USA, in Nashville.

I was keen to learn more, but I entered this scene not seeking a job, I was simply a User - wanting the Dark Fire to succeed - because I'm a believer in the technology, and convinced that IF it ever gets implemented correctly - it will succeed and become dominant in the marketplace. Notice there are a few "if"s in the prior paragraph.

But I'm already employed, one of 3 busy design engineers for USL inc. www.uslinc.com ,where I've worked for the past 8 years and currently part of a team involved in the creation of several new ground breaking cinema engineering projects, supporting 45 employees, here on the central California coast, situated at the base of Big Sur Redwoods, kayaking in Morro Bay, clean smog free air, and in the top ten places to live - according to a recent MSN poll.

I was at Gibson in Nashville June 10-June 14. Interviewed with 6 upper management people. However, my role as Director of Engineering meant I would have only one person to report to - the CEO, and no other Engineers on the staff payroll to "direct".

I found it awkward that during the four days I was there in Nashville interviewing for the job, no one at Gibson could respond to a few of my basic inquiries - like Gibson employee benefits, Pay scale, Reimbursed Moving expenses. I did learn that times were rough and there would be no budget for new engineering tools - which meant I would have to fund and maintain my own personal tools out of my own paycheck.

I was told my ability to support Gibson USA in all aspects on the production floor, to implement new technology, to deliver a consistently higher quality product - was not needed. I learned from the USA Plant Controller there was no budget for tools for this activity. In fact the whole Gibson USA plant on Massman Avenue, Nashville, Tennessee was closed that entire week - because of poor sales, and the need to manage cash flow with 700 employees.

I did learn that if I took the job, my job performance would be judged on my ability to be "entrepreneurial". It would be based on my successful completion of creating several limited edition guitars each year which generated the desired profitability for Gibson. I must work alone, formulate my own marketing plan, cost analysis, and get my suppliers to extend net 90 days payment terms for any custom items. (circuit boards, wire harness, etc) and the CEO has 100% control over all aspects of the final design and product specification - including inserting unobtainable last minute product specification changes.

It sounded eerily familiar.

All the above, and the fact that Henry only talked to me for barely 3 minutes the entire trip - left me perplexed. My prior experience as Electronic Product Engineer at Ernie Ball/ Music Man 1998-2001, provided first hand knowledge regarding the difficulty of converting a wood shop culture into a high tech electronics culture. Add the typical moody CEO in charge of the whole shebang - and I estimated that if I took this job, I would barely last 18 months max under these conditions- and I would have to compromise and get used to the complete lack of things I now take for granted - like having $150k worth of electronic engineering lab tools at my disposal, $2k per year CAD Design software Licenses, Full health + dental plan, 2 week vacations, Christmas bonuses, and attending NAMM shows (I was told Gibson engineers are not allowed to attend) Plus I would be forced to surrender to Gibson all my musical invention ideas, and be prevented from all side businesses of marketing my own custom musical electronics product line. Oh yea, I would be the only degreed Electronic Engineer on the payroll.

The more I looked at Gibson, the more it appeared they were more interested in finding out how cheap they could get me to move to Nashville to work for them, and silencing me on the forums, and placing huge restrictions on my future electronic career growth.

Then I stumbled on the former Gibson employee reviews at www.Glassdoor.com -
http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Gibson-Guitar-Reviews-E6869.htm

and after reading those , I saw they each matched my own personal Gibson experiences.

Call me old fashioned, but I decided that if Gibson wanted me as Director of Engineering, they should settle old business first. Tronical's sole cash flow is 100% from Gibson. I felt my efforts working behind the scenes on the Dark Fire between March and May benefited Gibson's bottom line, enabled them to ship several hundred Dark Fires. This work deserves to be paid in full.
Details are here:
http://www.futureguitarnow.com/forum/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=29

I have made this request to Tronical, and they are still putting me off.

I made a request to Gibson USA , to pay my March to May invoices ( totaling approx $4.3k) and they flat refused to pay me.

I told Gibson we have a conflict in our business style, and I would not accept their Director of Engineering position.

I also told Henry that if the duties of my "Director of Engineering" job at Gibson USA meant I was required to be my own marketing department, R&D lab, and collection agency, for creating yet another $3,500 Holy V "Guitar of the Month" and be profitable in this global economic recession - I would be better off selling Amway soap door to door.

I believe that comment offended Henry, with the net result of 3 days later - Gibson removed me as Gibson Forum moderator, and they banned my IP from accessing their web site.

Today, I remain unpaid for my Dark Fire R&D work.

I continue to participate at the FGN Dark Fire Forum because - like you, I'm a Dark Fire Owner, trying to get the most out of this investment.

Ed - IF you ever need help with a Gibson Dark Fire or Robot - give me a call.
Steve Conrad

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Apr 6, 2009

3.0

 

Details

 

Employee Morale	3.5
Recognition & Feedback	1.0
Senior Leadership	1.0
Compensation & Benefits	2.0
Fairness & Respect	2.0
Career Opportunities	1.0
Work/Life Balance	4.0
Communication	1.0

Disapproves of CEO

 

Gibson Guitar Employee in Nashville, TN:   (Past Employee - 2009)

“Greatest Guitar Brand in the World or Confused?”

5 of 7 people found this helpful

Pros

Great people. The people I worked with at Gibson were second to none. Gibson was always somewhere that I was proud to tell people I worked. The company has an amazing history and being a part of that is very gratifying. Being a musician in Nashville, it was also very fun to work with people with whom I had so much in common. Lots of musicians of different types work for Gibson and they're fantastic people. Every now and then Gibson would also throw a cool party or give you a t-shirt or something (who doesn't love a free t-shirt?), but not very often...

Cons

There are quite a few down sides unfortunately. The main one that came into play for me was financial. I worked at Gibson for three years and never received a review or a cost of living raise of any kind. At the point to where we were supposedly going to be given raises and be allowed reviews, the process was stalled for various reasons and eventually we were told "The raises are on Henry's desk, so that's all we can do..." If our supervisors are to be believed, that means that Henry ignored a large percentage of his employees (what else is new) and chose to fill his time with other things rather than make sure his employees were happy and taken care of.

Also, Henry likes to pretend that he runs a tech company. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to realize that he holds the greatest guitar brand in the history of the world in the palm of his hand. Instead of making guitars that his customers want- the Les Pauls, SGs, Flying Vs, etc; guitars with historic value and instant charisma, He'd rather try to reinvent the wheel buy producing guitar that tune themselves (that is, for about five minutes... then they break and the customer is forced to begin the convoluted customer return process).

Advice to Senior Management

Wake up. You run a guitar company... not a tech company. Gibson guitar is not Microsoft. Henry Juszkiewicz is certainly no Bill Gates. It's time for you realize that you have a sure thing and present yourself as that sure thing- the coolest guitars in history... not the lamest.

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Mar 16, 2009

1.0

 

Details

 

Employee Morale	1.0
Recognition & Feedback	1.0
Senior Leadership	1.0
Compensation & Benefits	2.0
Fairness & Respect	1.0
Career Opportunities	1.0
Work/Life Balance	1.0
Communication	1.0

Disapproves of CEO

 

Gibson Guitar Management in Nashville, TN:   (Current Employee)

“CEO is ruining the company.”

9 of 9 people found this helpful

Pros

Great brand, rich heritage, legendary products. With exception of CEO and 1 or 2 others there are some great people at the company.

Cons

The CEO is the most erratic and unprofessional person I have ever met. He is ruining the company's reputation in the industry and preventing the company from meeting its true potential. The CEO conducts unbelievable micromanagement on every detail. Nobody is empowered to do anything on their own. There is a complete lack of internal communication (except for public berating) or any form of a positive team oriented environment.

Advice to Senior Management

Let people do the job they were hired to do and that they know how to do far better than the CEO. Somehow force the CEO out if you want the company to survive.

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Mar 25, 2009

3.0

 

Details

 

Employee Morale	1.0
Recognition & Feedback	3.0
Senior Leadership	2.0
Compensation & Benefits	2.5
Fairness & Respect	3.0
Career Opportunities	3.5
Work/Life Balance	4.5
Communication	1.5

Disapproves of CEO

 

Gibson Guitar Anonymous in Nashville, TN:   (Current Employee)

“Corporate management exemplifies best efforts at mediocrity.”

5 of 6 people found this helpful

Pros

Don't know what else you want to do.

Cons

Micromanaged to the nth degree. Culture of bitter employees that are settling because they do not know what else they would do if they did not work at Gibson. Management does not make business decisions. All direction is based on emotion and subject to change with the wind.

Advice to Senior Management

Make a plan and commit to it. Lead your employees. If you believe something is worthwhile and communicate it to your employees, the dedicated people will believe in it too. Oh, and please take down the Gibson Commandments. They are an insult to every deserving employee that has been slighted.

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Mar 2, 2009

1.0

 

Details

 

Employee Morale	2.0
Recognition & Feedback	1.0
Senior Leadership	1.0
Compensation & Benefits	2.5
Fairness & Respect	1.0
Career Opportunities	1.0
Work/Life Balance	1.0
Communication	1.0

Disapproves of CEO

 

Gibson Guitar Executive in Nashville, TN:   (Past Employee - 2008)

“Great brand, horrific CEO....Do not accept a position at this company.”

11 of 11 people found this helpful

Pros

Great brand! If you love guitars, you'll love the products.

Cons

Henry Juszkiewicz, the CEO, is simply a horrific leader. He is the most incompetent executive I've ever worked with. Henry is mentally unstable and incapable a dealing with high quality professionals. Good executives last 3-6 months then leave on their own accord, or because Henry fires them. Not only does Henry lack professionalism, he lacks the self confidence to be around high quality professionals.

Advice to Senior Management

The current owners should turn the company over to professionals. Gibson will always be an underperformer as long as HJ runs the company.

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Mar 2, 2009

1.0

 

Details

 

Employee Morale	1.0
Recognition & Feedback	1.0
Senior Leadership	1.0
Compensation & Benefits	3.0
Fairness & Respect	1.0
Career Opportunities	1.0
Work/Life Balance	1.0
Communication	1.0

Disapproves of CEO

 

Gibson Guitar Account Manager in Vianen, South Holland (Netherlands):   (Past Employee - 2008)

“Gibson, Just a good name on your CV for a better career. Nothing more.”

10 of 10 people found this helpful

Pros

It's a good name to have as an employer in the CV. The brand is widely known and this gives more opportunity for a next career step.

Cons

Everything related to the way employees are treated is negative at Gibson.

Advice to Senior Management

There are very enthusiastic and prepared people working in Gibson. Please invest in them. At the moment you are just having frustrated employees. You are just making an initial investment in employees that after few years are turning to better companies to work for, bringing away all their knowledge.
If you want to make something big of Gibson you have to start treating your employees like humans first of all!

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Feb 22, 2009

1.0

 

Details

 

Employee Morale	2.0
Recognition & Feedback	1.5
Senior Leadership	2.0
Compensation & Benefits	3.5
Fairness & Respect	1.0
Career Opportunities	1.0
Work/Life Balance	2.5
Communication	1.5

Disapproves of CEO

 

Gibson Guitar Anonymous in Nashville, TN:   (Past Employee - 2009)

“You think it would be a good, awesome opportunity... you are SO wrong”

10 of 10 people found this helpful

Pros

Most of the people at middle management and below are wonderful - senior management is fine as long as they make it, but commonly most were out in a mere months. Employees are smart and talented and try to do the best of their ability with the limited resources given to them.

Additionally, Gibson looks great on a resume and if you can work here and make it, you can work ANY where.

Cons

Due to the maniacal micromanagement and whim based directives of the CEO, Gibson sucks the soul from all of its employees. Everyone suffers from a severe lack of resources, consistently changing brand messages, directives and products as well as deal with the continuous revolving door of management and product managers throughout the divisions. Additionally the consistent lack of paying debts/bills, makes any employee’s job infinitely harder as we try to find vendors and businesses that will work with us and attempt to meet the ridiculous, unobtainable goals set by CEO.

*There is nothing fair or humanly decent about having your hands tied by HJ and then having to explain/please people at other divisions whose hands are equally as tied. I was consistently berated by other divisions based on decisions of HJ that affected them and my work for them.
*Everything must be approved by the CEO and due to his own whim it involves a high level of immediacy, however, he will blatantly ignore the needs and review process to get things accomplished.
*There is no recognition on the job other than being fired – no reviews, no raises, no incentives…
*Because of the ridiculous nature of HJ management, directives, lack of paying bills, crappy equipment, etc. Gibson pits departments and divisions against each other. I think people attempt to play nicely and work together well, but eventually people have to fight each other for the sake of their jobs, departments, and directives.
* There is no training because there is no one with experience enough to train. Not to mention, starting work here is like getting thrown into the desert – no corporate/brand information, no orientation on the company itself, no training materials for the phones, copiers, printers, etc., no help from IT on setting up phones, passwords, emails, etc., no company directory (phone #s, emails, titles, etc.), no office equipment or even chair… I could go on and on. Ultimately how do we expect to put a consistent, clear message to the public when internally people have no idea what our goals, messaging, and even the products are?
* The assets to my job – i.e. the servers and technological equipment – are absolutely abysmal. Countless days are spent firefighting in an attempt to keep the websites, not to mention internal infrastructure, from crashing down.

Advice to Senior Management

Most of the employees are an incredible group of people. They work hard and have a camaraderie that can be matched bar none. They all deserve reviews, acknowledgement for their hard work and raises. The extensive process of getting hired proves the caliber of employee and I simply cannot fathom why the people are consistently treated so badly and with such ill regard for their talents and abilities. Not only is it a waste but it will ultimately be the demise of this company

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Jan 30, 2009

2.0

 

Details

 

Employee Morale	2.0
Recognition & Feedback	3.5
Senior Leadership	1.0
Compensation & Benefits	3.5
Fairness & Respect	1.0
Career Opportunities	2.0
Work/Life Balance	2.5
Communication	1.0

Disapproves of CEO

 

Gibson Guitar Anonymous in Nashville, TN:   (Past Employee - 2008)

“Some things will never change...”

9 of 9 people found this helpful

Pros

The prestige of being 1) in the music business and 2) related to the best known, highest quality guitar product going.

Cons

Everything is directed by one person at the top, no continuity in management (3 to 6 mo average life span for execs) and poor overall decisions made for the business which are personal rather than as a corporation.

Advice to Senior Management

There is no real senior management, just a top man. I would say, learn hiring skills (if you have to turn over 24 to 25 execs in 5 or 6 positions over a 3 year time, you must be bad at judging people or knowing what you really need) and then let MANAGEMENT run the areas of the company; not be told everything to do and fired when they can't execute ludicrous demands made without any justification.

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Jan 19, 2009

2.0

 

Details

 

Employee Morale	2.0
Recognition & Feedback	1.5
Senior Leadership	1.0
Compensation & Benefits	3.5
Fairness & Respect	2.0
Career Opportunities	3.5
Work/Life Balance	3.0
Communication	3.5

Disapproves of CEO

 

Gibson Guitar Finishing in Nashville, TN:   (Past Employee - 2008)

“Gibson, great brand name, poor job experience, it ends up in the final product.”

9 of 9 people found this helpful

Pros

Having the ability to say you worked for Gibson Guitars.

Cons

Frustrating work atmosphere. Read the reviews, they are all mostly true. I have worked for other manufacturers. Other places you are not sure if the company will be there in a year, ay Gibson you are not sure if YOU will be there in a year.

Advice to Senior Management

Learn how to treat your employees. At the end of the day we are what make the product and when we suffer, the product suffers.

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Ed Roman Comments

The Product Is The Final Measurement, When I worked at Gibson in 1990 & 1991. Believe it or not I was treated quite well!!! I left the company when my contract ran out because they could not afford me to pay me what I wanted.  I was on a Hiatus from the retail business.  I went back to the retail business because it was suffering from me being an absentee owner.

The product in the early 90's was the best I have seen from the current management,  in 1997 it started a long slow spiral downward.  I think that people who buy Gibson Guitars are foolish and have more money than brains.  This attitude makes me a rather unpopular person on the Internet.
But I am not here to be in a popularity contest. I stand by my convictions that Gibson is an overpriced guitar if they sold them for about half,  I might not be so down on them. 

I am not proud to have worked at Gibson, I have seen

Read What Gibson Employees are saying about Gibson   
If You Are A Gibson Employee Go to this website & Tell The World What The World Needs To Know
Especially if you worked in the repair department or had to deal with warranty issues
 http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Gibson-Guitar-Reviews-E6869.htm