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There are always two sides to a story. So far I am only hearing the same one all the time...
The crux of the matter is that the DoJ has NO business interpreting foreign laws the way THEY see it. It's up to the foreign nation to tell THEM how it is to be interpreted and India said nothing illegal happened. End of story. This is just another attempt from this corrupt administration to punish both, their "enemies" and the American people by letting even MORE jobs go away.
Hi, nononsense guy...
I worked in their Montana division twice- the first in 1989-90, and then in 2001-2003. All Gibson's acoustic guitars are made in Bozeman, Montana. The gibson mandolins were made there as well from 1986-1995 (? not sure if that date is correct).
I was hired the first time to be the supervisor of the finish dept., but I hated the job, and after a few months became one of the color sprayers- the folks who create the sunbursts and do all the coloring on the guitars. Almost all Gibsons have some coloring.
I came back 10 years later to do similar work. The second time, most of my job was to antique the guitars- antiquing is the application of a very light coat of yellow-amber on the guitars, which mellows the overall look, especially with the maple guitars, which can look pretty stark when new.
I also have done about 30 custom art guitars, both as an employee and as an independent contractor. These guitars were originally intended to be a modest custom upgrade on any of the standard line- I handpainted roses, pinup girls, longhorn steers, etc. on the tops.
But it didn't take long before customers were ordering guitars with custom binding, woods, inlays, etc. and full art jobs, with hand painting on all sides of the body. Some of these jobs would take as long as a month to do, working 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.
Both times, I also worked occasionally in the custom shop and in setup, where I wet sanded, cleaned the fingerboards and binding, and set up the L-7 guitars, the only archtop guitar made in Bozeman. I also trained folks and established finish procedures.
I had to quit both times due to repetitive injury. The first time it was my right rotator cuff, and the second time was trigger finger in 2 fingers of my right hand. There are a lot of repetitive injuries of all kinds in the work.
Working in a guitar shop is not what people think. The work is repeptitive, physically demanding and requires a high degree of speed, accuracy, and skill. There are no patient gnomes with worn leather aprons patiently shaving one brace for 4 hours while singing 'Hi, Ho!" Everyone is doing 1 or 2 procedures at a pretty quick rate, over and over.
A guitar requires 60% of the work in the finish dept., and the skill level there is the highest. It is very hard to find people who can do it well, and once someone is in finish, they stay there, generally. This work is like the other, with the addition of delicacy and very fine small muscle control.
The labor costs of making a guitar are about 70% of the total manufacturing costs. The wood is only about 15%.
At Gibson, if a guitar has wood flaws that are un-noticed until later, or if there is a worker's flaw that can't be easily fixed, the guitar is cut in half and goes to the wood furnace that heats the place. While this is always shocking to visitors, this is the cheapest for the factory, and all Gibsons are fully warranteed for life on defects and workmanship. They have to be perfect or they are bandsaw bait. Cutting up a guitar in progress is something that doesn't happen frequently but it occurs regularly.
Gibson still makes all it's guitars the old way- there are lots of power tools used, but most of the work is done by hand, not computerized CNC. CNC is used to rough cut the necks, cut the slots in the fingerboards, and cut the pockets for the pearl inlays. The inlays are sometimes cut by CNC, but the custom inlays are usually cut by hand.
Gibson is the last major manufacturer to do them all by hand, not computer. Martin, Taylor, Fender (and it's subsidiaries- Guild and Tacoma) all have assembly robots. Martin has a division that still makes some of their top models by hand in the Gibson manner, but everything from the #16 series down is largely made by robotics. Everyone, large and small, uses CNC cutters these days.
CNC and robotics aren't bad- they both produce very consistent and accurately made products. Taylor's parts are all cut by CNC and the bodies are assembled robotically, but there is a lot of human inspection in the process- that's the real key in either assembly method. Bob Taylor is a real visionary; he has invented many **** and devices that are exceptionally good, and his method of finishing is very advanced. (I tried to convince my Gibson management to try it, but they are extremely traditional.)
I have played several Taylors that really blew my skirt up- I like their 12-strings, and I really like their new thin-body electric guitar. I also think they are an excellent value in a high-grade guitar, and they have some of the nicest wood in the biz.
You're totally correct about the dealership costs. The last I heard, the restrictions had been loosened some, but it still costs 5 figures to become a dealer. The money is spent on guitars and orders for product. Both Gibson and Martin only take orders early in the year, and build to that demand.
All the good brands prices have gone up substantially since I last worked there; I was shocked to see how much they had gone up after reading a post here where a poster checked the current prices, but it's no surprise- the costs of transportation have made everything go up a lot.
I've been playing guitar and banjo for 50 years in December. I seldom buy an instrument these days, and I have a bunch of instruments, so I don't keep up on current pricing.
A top acoustic guitar made by Gibson, Martin, Taylor, Collings, Huss & Dalton, Beourgeois, and Guild will cost around $4000 to $12,000. All or these are made by small to larger shops. Collings has about 12 workers, Gibson has about 85 in Montana.
The labor force of the entire industry wouldn't fill the employee demand of a large urban hospital.
Lastly- no wood used in guitars is threatened species stuff. The most common guitar woods are rosewood, mahogany, and maple, and there are non-threatened species of all. Other sustainable woods that are commonly used are sapele (very similar to mahogany), bubinga (very similar to rosewood), ash, yew (which is still rarely seen, but is very good), poplar, birch, and cherry. Top wood is actually more important to tone and volume than the body wood. The best top woods are: sitka spruce, Adirondack (red) spruce, cedar and mahogany. Adirondack spruce was unavailable for over 50 years, but there is enough mature trees to harvest again. All are sustainable.
Before Madagascar ebony went on the CITES list, Gibson made guitars out of it. They sound very good, but are very heavy.
Thank you for that post. Very interesting, and I enjoyed reading every word.
My flamenco guitar is a cypress body. It is said that the cypress body is what gives a flamenco guitar it's distinctive "flamenco sound" and it also produces less "sustain" which is what you want in a flamenco guitar otherwise the sound becomes "muddied". I have played flamenco on my vintage Alvarez (Brazilian Rosewood body) and it's true.
Of course, my Alhambra is still a "student guitar", but it still cost me $1,000 six years ago. I think they are up to about $1,300 or $1,400 now for the 7 Fc.
It appears that the US Government is determined to run off ALL industry from this country. I don't understand what their motives are for doing this other than to make *everyone* a slave to the government dole through welfare, food stamps, etc.
Gibson is a WONDERFUL company. They honored a life-time warranty on a guitar that I returned to them for service more than 30 years after it was purchased without a peep. They completely refurbished the guitar at NO COST, and paid for shipping BOTH WAYS.
I cannot say enough good things about this company. Shame on the government for treating them so badly.
20yrsinBranson
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