Sweetwater does a great job and candy in the box with the guitar. It doesn't get any better. They are smart,they call and check in now and then. Like a drug dealer. Lol Bought my second guitar that way . I told him, you call me again you better have a room for me because I buy another guitar my wife will throw me out. Lol

Yep...great customer service. (and the candy is an added bonus lol).

I was looking back at old email receipts starting back around 2000...and between Pro Tools studio gear, about a dozen different amps and cabs that I went through, studio plug-ins, P.A. gear, stands, strings, picks, etc. ... I think I've spent over $100,000 with them over the years.

That's not true. Fender was also raided:

https://www.npr.org/sections/thereco...ice-department


Why would you say I didn't take the time to read it? I did.

What I am suggesting is that politics had nothing to do with this, for a couple of reasons. First, it's a pretty small amount of money to be politically motivated. But the main reason is that the law is the law is the law.

It's also a small enough amount to probably not damage the company much. What Gibson's main problem is, is cheap competition from China.

Lots of people still like to buy guitars (despite the abundance of electronic music). You and I both own guitars after all.

I own 1 guitar that I bought about 4 years ago. The Gibsons and Fenders were out of my price range, especially since I was just beginning to play, so I bought a guitar off the rack that (a) looked nice, and (b) sounded nice, and (c) was comfortable, in that order. It's made in China. I suspect that others like me buy guitars for the same reason.

Is it good? It seems so. Do I like the sound? Hell Yes. (I can play the piss out of Rammstein's "Du Hast"!) Is it good by your standards? I wouldn't know but probably not. You're an expert on this of course and I am amateur.

Rock on.

The reason I said maybe you didn't read it is obvious:
Gibson was a Republican donor, the C.F. Martin Guitar Company is a Democtrat donor.
Gibson got targeted over and over...Martin did not.

That's abuse of power

Also...I never meant to suggest that guitars made in Mexico or China were inferior.
I was merely responding to a statement that people might not buy "American" guitars if they knew they were made somewhere else.
My answer was to point out that the high end American guitars ARE made in the US.

Having said that...I've owned some SWEET Japanese Ibanez guitars and still have an old RG 760 I bought off the shelf in 1990 as well as a very, very nice Ibanez Prestige that I keep onstage as a third guitar backup.
(Currently using my Les Paul as my main guitar, Floyd Rose Model K Redmond Series as backup, and the Prestige as backup to the backup)

there are plenty of badass, cool, inspirational guitarists rockin today- Guthrie Govan comes to mind. Plenty of chick shredders too.

Gibson didn't go bankrupt due to its guitar business, their guitar business is just fine. They went bankrupt due to their wrongly trying to move into home entertainment business buying a few hundred million dollar in companies like onkyo at the wrong time and being saddled with that debt.

I recall the madagascar drama and posted quite a bit of info re: that here. The FBI raided the Gibson factory! With weapons! Regular folks making guitars on the line were working when the feds busted in with guns over madagascar wood at a 100 year old American institution.

Gibson owns several brands that have manufacturing outside the USA but Gibson branded guitars are all mostly made in the USA.

I don't really care where a guitar is made these days, if it's made well. that said, both my current guitars, Taylor and Charvel, are made in the USA.

Sweetwater gives a ~12% discount when you ask for a deal on the phone.

We live in a NOW society, a "path of least resistance" culture. You see it in sports, politics and yes, even in music. Why take years to master an instrument to play a kind of music no one listens to anymore (classic rock)? Just open an app, fire up your computer, hit a few keys....voila! I'm a rock star! Throw in some auto-tuning singing and you have the next Mick Jagger.

Fucking pathetic. I fucking HATE any music written or recorded after 1999 with very few exceptions.

I’m glad they can restructure and stay in business. Maybe more musicians will get back to buying from them.

Mark, while true computers can help with different sounds, true music fans appreciate the hard work and finesse of playing guitar. You get a Jimi Hendrix doing Star-Spangled Banner or Stevie Ray or Jimmy Page doing unique sounds on guitar, it astounds you. You appreciate the work that went into it, the genius behind it and the magic fingers.

Computers and organs create sound but I get more enjoyment and excitement watching someone make their guitar play magic sounds than watching someone play a keyboard. I’m not a child of the new millennium. I prefer the old style. People hit every key on piano or organ; they didn’t hit an electronic button and have the instrument play back while they danced and pretended to look like they’re having fun.

Compare an older song to a remake version done today. The older is less busy, more musical, more raw and real. New stuff is electronic repeated notes, no errors, perfect timing and canned sound. If you’re used to current crap, the older guitar work sounds quite ingenious.

(Yesterday I got stuck listening to a pop radio station. Every song sounded alike. Electronic, soundboard-created vocals, incessant computer-generated drum beats (boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. No break, no extra beats, no lower or higher range) and it sounded manufactured. Words didn’t tell a story, they filled space. I know it’s today’s music but I’m old school. Real musicians, real singers, real artists who loved money but played for the love of music. After a while I asked that they turn it down or switch to classic rock. “Like Chuck Berry?” the twenty-three old asked. “No, The Beatles, Queen or CCR.” I said. She’d never heard of CCR even by full name. “Stuff my mom likes.” Yeah, sweetie, I’m old enough to be your mom).

Some days you just don’t want to get out of bed and face today’s world.

Probably can't pay out royalties any more. I am sure Angus Young, Eric Clapton, BB King,Slash ect will never see a check ever again.

They get endorsements, not royalties.

FIDDY Sheraton Gibsons! (Anyone get that reference? Hint below.)

I think you would appreciate this story. It's from my rock journalism days. I interviewed the Bee Gees when they had their "comeback" album One. We talked about many things but what Barry Gibb told me has stuck with me all these years:

"What concerns me are the standards today's young musicians are trying to live up to. For us, our generation in the sixties, we had The Beatles and Elvis and Chuck Berry before them to try and live up to. We had to try and sound as good or better than them. We never could, no one could, but that was our standard, y'know?

But today? You can buy a keyboard, hit a few keys and buttons and what comes out pretty much sounds like what you hear on the radio. So in the future this will be the standard? Real musicianship and having to learn how to play your instrument will be lost. That's not a good thing."

This was in 1987.

Pete Townshend talked about the "loss of dynamics" which is pretty much what you summed up in your post. There's no "open spaces", no building of tension, no shifting time signatures, no crescendos and no fucking guitar solos. In other words, no dynamics. Just a wash of sound meant to put you in a trance-like "happy zone" where you aren't really listening or hearing the music, just moving to it in blissful ignorance.

Hey Robbie you may want to jump on this quickly ?

https://www.julienslive.com/m/lot-de...ER-GUITAR-bull BOB DYLAN/ROBBIE ROBERTSON 1965 FENDER TELECASTER GUITAR

any musical instrument requires practice and training, even a "keyboard" attached to a computer. in fact, mastering guitar is easier than mastering a piano keyboard/computer.

Wow, that's a piece of American music history right there.

But no, I don't "collect" guitars. I buy them and then butcher them to make them play and sound the way I like. All my guitars are probably not worth much because changing out original parts decreases value. Mine are meant to be workhorses. :)