Gibson considering making ukes after bankruptcy reorg

If you want to know why Gibson is in financial difficulty, you need look no further than CEO Henry Juszkiewicz. He's the same guy who is now saying they may make ukes again? Just another bad business decision in a long string of them. Those folks at KKR, the new owners, are pretty smart. I really doubt that Henry will have much say in the business now and will be permanently gone at the end of his two year consulting contract.
 
Uke Don said:
If you want to know why Gibson is in financial difficulty, you need look no further than CEO Henry Juszkiewicz. He's the same guy who is now saying they may make ukes again? Just another bad business decision in a long string of them. Those folks at KKR, the new owners, are pretty smart. I really doubt that Henry will have much say in the business now and will be permanently gone at the end of his two year consulting contract.
Click to expand...


Bingo!


Scooter
 
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Grizzly Adams said:
This....
https://www.washingtonpost.com/grap...f-the-electric-guitar/?utm_term=.4e8fdd409835
Click to expand...

In my opinion, the guitar is not experiencing a slow death, but the manufactures and retailers are still hurting. This has a lot to do with the secondary markets, like Reverb, eBay, Craigslist, etc. At the moment, Guitar Center has about 700 listings for various types of new Gibson Les Paul models. Reverb has over 4000 used ones listed. It is so easy for a person to buy a used guitar online that it is severely disrupting production flows. As I've mentioned a little above, the biggest competition that Gibson (or Fender as another example) is how much of the used market is already made up of decades of their past manufacturing. The choice between a new guitar and much less expensive used guitar in excellent condition bring all sorts of modern problems for old school companies. The big box stores and big time makers just need to work out the growing pains of a new way to reach their customers.

Given the options... would you buy a new Martin ukulele at Guitar Center or maybe hunt down a vintage one online? Personally, I'm gonna try and hunt down a really awesome one from the 50s and probably still pay less than new.
 
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The problem with Gibson and ukuleles is that there is no niche for them to occupy. There is a food chain from custom high end builders to K brands, and a few Martins, to higher Pono and higher end Ohana and lower end Martins, to the Kala and other imports. Then there are the innovators such as Outdoor, etc.

Where exactly does Gibson compete? I would not think Gibson is an under 30 acoustic brand. And Risa, and others, has already been on the electric market. There isn't an open place for Gibson to fill.

John
 
Declining quality, prices going up, the illegal wood (was it ebony?) saga, investing in things that few people wanted- auto tuner thingies (thats like anti commercialism appeal), unless they can get back to doing beautiful instruments that play and sound like the dogs bollocks then it won't matter if they make ukes or big pink dildos, they be f@@ked...and I'm not convinced that the "new owners" care one little bit so long as they get there money back plus interest in a short/mid term, don't forget, they won't be passionate about instruments, just money...
 
I think that if Gibson wanted to compete, making ukuleles in a similar level to Martin they could carve out a space. They certainly have a name that will get them in the door.
 
There is certainly a niche for high-end Martins and such, so why not a niche for high-end Gibson ukuleles as well? I personally think Gibson is perfectly capable of competing head to head with Martin on the Ukulele and Banjouke market. FWIW, Gibson made a couple of prototype concert scale ukuleles in the late 90s. I believe Steve Weber (Mandolin fame) was involved in the project.
 
I'm not convinced that Gibson will go high end. There was a real niche for high end Tobias basses and somehow Gibson ruined that with inconsistent quality. Tobias disappeared and morphed to Toby import basses, have no clue where they are today. Meanwhile Michael Tobias is just rolling along.

John
 
A wild guess -- if Gibson gets into the uke business it'll be much like Fender, sourcing from a factory in Asia and making serviceable but in no way special ukes in the $200-$500 price range (depending on the wood and the bling). They'll capitalize on the name and sell through the big box stores, while Ohana and Kala and Magic Fluke continue making better instruments in that price range handled by smaller outlets that take care of their customers.

The problem with a "brand" building high-end ukes is that, unless they're doing something completely different, the real aficionado will buy from a custom luthier or go with a Hawaiian model.
 
hendulele said:
A wild guess -- if Gibson gets into the uke business it'll be much like Fender, sourcing from a factory in Asia and making serviceable but in no way special ukes in the $200-$500 price range (depending on the wood and the bling). They'll capitalize on the name and sell through the big box stores, while Ohana and Kala and Magic Fluke continue making better instruments in that price range handled by smaller outlets that take care of their customers.

The problem with a "brand" building high-end ukes is that, unless they're doing something completely different, the real aficionado will buy from a custom luthier or go with a Hawaiian model.
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I agree 100%
 
I would like to be hopeful that they follow along the lines of what Martin is doing.
 
Although I have little doubt that Gibson could slip into a niche like the one that Martin occupies, there is still the issue that the market for higher end ukuleles is very small. I can't see Gibson going down this path very long before cash flow becomes an issue. That said, I would love to see some Gibson ukuleles on the market again.
 
In addition to high end Ukuleles, I can see a prime spot for Gibson in high quality Banjoukes. While Gibson has not made a banjo since the flood took their banjo shop out, and they are not likely to retool for a new Granda, (Too many great builders now,) they might be successful with a high end Banjouke. I would be in line for one! :)

Fun to speculate on this stuff, and only time will tell. One thing I am sure of is that Gibson is not going away. When I think of Gibson, this comes to mind:
IMG_5468.jpg
 
I am curious to know how big the ukulele trend really is. I haven't followed the market that closely for a few years, but it feels like it has slowed somewhat since the late 2000s', early 2010s.

Regardless, the teams at KKR are much smarter than I am, so if the market is attractive, I'm sure they'll go in to ukuleles. I suspect that the mid-range of pricing (as opposed to the high-end) is where they'd be more likely to go because anecdotally, it seems like there is an attractive business model in high-quality Asian produced ukes that can be marketed under known brands. (See Kanilea and KoAloha following Koolau into those Asian-produced lines.) Also, if Gibson made a $3000 ukulele, I'd probably never buy it over a similarly-priced Hawaiian K brand.
 
Just wondering... is there anyone under 30 that sees Gibson ukulele as any different than a Fender ukulele?

John
 
Well I for one wish Gibson well.

They still make quality guitars that are coveted (as are a few other brands) as among the very best hand crafted guitars in the world.

If they decide to enter the UKE market then I wish them luck. I'd hope they would enter at the upper-mid to high end. I'd hope they would do something that is a bit unusual or innovative. But those are just my hopes. Any decent ukulele is a positive for our hobby, and any good maker who gets some exposure for ukuleles is a positive.

We have quality Asian brands that now rival Hawaiian K brands in the form of aNueNue that sell great products at high prices and seem hard pressed to keep up with demand. We have great mid-level and high end products coming from places like the US west coast and as well as the UK and EU. There is nothing magical about building a ukulele on an island in the Pacific. Yes some of the worlds best still come from Hawaii, but even the K brands have set up Asian shops and some of those Asian subsidiary offerings (think Pono Pro) are priced higher than parent company Hawaiian offerings. I believe that shows that there is a market at the mid-and-upper production ranges ($650 to $1500). Gibson may choose to enter that market either with a quality foreign partner or with American made products in one of their facilities. Gibson may choose to follow Fender's 'Grateful Dead' $99 series. Gibson may choose to return to guitars alone. Gibson may ...

None of those decisions will be made here on UU.

I simply know that I wish the company well, whatever they choose.

Its an iconic brand and it would be a sad day for music if it fails :(
 
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