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Shake-Up at Gibson?


Etienne Rambert

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Yes, the flood of low cost import instruments and the governments war on wood imports have hurt them big time.

Its not just Gibson however. They are just one of the last US companies to face that fate. So many US companies have folded up in the US and outsourced their brands or sold off the brand name to companies overseas.

 

Lest hope they lower the corporate tax this year so some of the remaining companies can stay in business, otherwise there wont be any manufacturing left in the US.

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Its actually been a long time coming, a wonder it hasn't happened sooner, and the whole CITES thing just sealed the deal. Now they cant even compete with the imports which cost half as much. But it goes a bit deeper, I understand the CEO is a real piece of work and upper management are not the type of people many would want to work for. Which might explain some of the QC issues they have, Hello you'd think after all these years they'd have figured out how to get those headstocks to quit breaking off. Any other company would have. Personally I foresee a big shake up at Gibson in the near future. Provided they want to survive as a US owned company

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You can't ship rosewood, ebony and lots of other guitar building materials both in and out of the US without paperwork but almost every guitar company either does the paperwork or finds an acceptable substitute. The guitar that I shipped to T_e_l_e had appendix II materials, I did the paperwork, guitar sailed right thru customs.

 

Gibson attempted to bring in non treaty ebony and got caught - don't blame that on CITES. I just wanted Doublecross to explain his statement.

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Basically you can't ship Rosewood overseas without a crapload of paper work but that's doesn't really have anything to do with Gibson's problems.

 

 

Freeman Keller:

You can't ship rosewood, ebony and lots of other guitar building materials both in and out of the US without paperwork but almost every guitar company either does the paperwork or finds an acceptable substitute. The guitar that I shipped to T_e_l_e had appendix II materials, I did the paperwork, guitar sailed right thru customs.

 

Gibson attempted to bring in non treaty ebony and got caught - don't blame that on CITES. I just wanted Doublecross to explain his statement.

Last edited by Freeman Keller; 10-29-2017

 

OT to the thread but I agree with Sammy Reynolds - except it was Ebony -- not Rosewood. Otherwise, actually employing Americans and building something in the US is such a legal and administrative hassle -- I don't know why Gibson even tries - but I'm grateful.

 

I practiced white collar criminal defense in Federal courts for several years before I moved abroad. The Feds dodged a bullet - big time on this Gibson fiasco. I have rarely seen such a weak case. My advice to Gibson would have been take this baby to trial and enjoy it when the Hindenburg explodes.

 

The obstacles to getting any jury - let alone a Tennessee jury to convict in this case would have been enormous. It should have been an administrative/civil proceeding from the beginning - not a Federal criminal case.

 

What was the crime? Who were the criminals? Why was it a crime and not a civil proceeding? Why did they need agents with firearms to raid the factory? You can bet juries would be wondering about all of these questions.

 

Any competent defense team would have taken those little openings, torn each one open, turned them into massive torso wounds and then eviscerated the Feds in open court. We're talking Little Big Horn here.

 

At the very least, this would not be an easy case for prosecutors to make. But no...the Feds had to put on a show. They had to order armed agents to raid a US factory during work hours. Loads of TV and print news coverage world-wide -- for what? In the end, Gibson paid a $350K fine and made a $50K donation.

 

Think about that number --- $400K to a corporation w/$2 billion in revenue? That tells me Gibson lawyers had drawn a line at half a mil. Beyond that they would go to trial. They were no fools. The Feds offered a number well-south of half-a mil. At that stage of the proceedings, they were no fools either.

 

The Feds had a very weak case and grabbed what they could to save face. Think about that $400K number.

 

1. Armed agents raid a factory during working hours, frightening employees, generating world-wide news stories and

 

2. Nothing happens until

 

3. They settle for a $350K fine & 50k donation to US Fish & Wildlife? (WTF? The case wasn't even about wood harvested in the US.)

 

4. Without even an admission of guilt or liability?

 

Half-mil was the line. And the Feds wanted to get as far away from this train wreck as they could.

 

F****ing brilliant job everybody. But my advice to Gibson would have been let the Feds take this baby to trial. They would have been deservedly humiliated.

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