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I thought the CEO was right when towards the end of the 25 minute or so interrogation by the media. He asked them why they were ASKING THE FEDS about why they were being shut down.
Evidently it is a two year old Indian law that requires that fret boards made out of this Rosewood be shipped finished rather than partially finished. Before that it didn't make a difference. How was Gibson supposed to know the Indian Law had changed and why would the U.S. Government harass an American Company for importing a product from a vendor in India when it was wrong doing on the vendor's side of things?
It just goes to show you that FREEDOM of lack thereof is the issue. We need to show the Government they work for US NOT the other way around.
I think Ron Paul should make a statement about this. He's the only Federal Legislator who cares and has a clue about the Constitution.
This post and the one before show the press is screwing the story up. The wood in question is Madagascar ebony, not Indian rosewood. Indian laws don't apply in the case and have nothing at all to do with it.
The Wall St. Journal got the story wrong, and it looks like everyone else is going with that story, instead of doing their own homework.
They should pack up and move overseas. That is what I would have done the first time they showed up.
There has been a lot of talk about this for years in the musical community. Believe me, it ain't gonna happen!
Gibson is owned by 2 people- Henry and his partner. They have both vowed that the Gibson name will never go overseas over and over.
There is no reason why they would move out, either. The Gibson brand is most valuable right here. Gibson means 'American' to all the world, and as many Gibson guitars are sold overseas as here. I don't know where the current production is going- it may be more overseas than domestic right now.
They already own a factory in China. Before that factory was built, they tried to buy Sammick, the largest music factory in Korea, but the Koreans blew out on the deal. They own several British music amplifier companies. They own a Canadian guitar factory, and several other small guitar companies in the U.S. They also own the Baldwin Piano Co. and it's divisions.
They could move the Gibson brand to any of those country anytime they want, but they never will. They supply lots of cheap guitars built elsewhere, but the Gibsons are the Cadillacs of their fleet.
The Gibson Co. has a long history of taking on all comers. It is the only stringed instrument company in the world that has produced acoustic guitars, electric guitars, banjos, mandolins, amplifiers, steel guitars, strings, ukuleles, and basses with equal success. They pioneered many of these products, and no other manufacturer has a list half as long. The Gibson banjos and mandolins are the most copied in the world, and have been the standard that every other manufacturer aspires to beat for over 80 years.
Mandolin players fork over $175,000 or more these days for a 1924 Gibson F-5 mandolin. A 1964 Les Paul Standard goes for $185,000, a 1935 Gibson Granada flathead 5-string banjo goes for $80,000, and those instruments don't even have to be in mint condition to fetch the price. That's the power of the Gibson brand.
Their main electric guitar competitor, Fender Guitars, has produced 2 iconic guitars- the Telecaster and the Stratocaster. In comparison, Gibson has produced at least 8 that are icons- the Les Paul, the SG, ES335, Super 400, ES 175, ES150, Flying V, and Explorer.
Fender made it's reputation in two major types of music- Rock and Country. Gibson made it's reputation in Rock, Jazz (including Swing, Bebop and every form of Jazz), Country, Pop, Bluegrass and Latin.
Take it to the bank that Gibson will ever shut down in the United States. Those products constitute a large part of what the world considers "Made In The United States" is.
Last edited by banjomike; 08-28-2011 at 06:52 AM..
It's preposterous episodes such as this one, the NLRB 'dispute' with Boeing, and the extremely torturous effort to get a pipeline built from Canada to Oklahoma & Texas, as a downright infuriating editorial in this weekend's WSJ pointed that proves once and for all that Obama can't be trusted.
Despite what he says, he has no intention of lightening up on regulating and remains as hell-bent as ever on micromanaging our economy until the USAs economy is as comatose & underwater as Greece & most of the rest of Europe is.
Ernie Ball guitars?????? Never in my life heard of them. Heck, they don't even list them on their website as a product they make. Are you sure about this???? I've been playing for over 25 years, never heard of Ernie Ball guitars..
Albert Lee plays an Ernie Ball "Music Man" guitar. You do know him do you not? If not, you've missed out on some really great guitar playing.
Wow! Until I saw that video, I never realized that the wood Customs seized in the second raid was ALL wood from India!
Henry is absolutely correct. Every guitar company everywhere uses Indian rosewood and Indian ebony for fingerboards. If the wood stock was cut to final dimensions and sanded, as per Indian regulations, the entire seizure was completely illegal.
I'm waiting to hear what Customs has to say about this. The only justification I can think of is a Customs claim that some wood that didn't meet the Indian regulations was smuggled in with the wood that was legal. This would be nonsense. Those pallets are stacked in India by the supplier, fumigated, and sealed with layers of plastic wrap before being placed in another sealed container, which is also fumigated and sealed, with an Indian government stamp or seal on the container.
There is simply no way a large wood supplier in India would risk smuggling illegal boards. Doing the work needed to make a finished fingerboard puts extra money in their pockets. Shipping rough wood does not.
Henry based his monetary loss on finished products, which is correct. The wood is a critical part of the product, and has a great deal of added value in the American labor that turned a wood part into a completed guitar. Gibson uses no maple for fingerboards, unlike Fender, which does. Every Gibson guitar has either a rosewood or ebony board, so seizing this stock effectively shuts down production once the fingerboards in the body building dept. are used up.
Damn. This is very, very bad. This has to be retaliation by the Customs Dept. for Gibson's action against them on the first seizure.
I've only known them as Music Man instruments like I said in an earlier post. Had no idea or interest in that matter to even know Ernie Ball was involved. I don't use EB products so I never paid any attention to them.
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