Saving Gibson Guitars
Vote with your pocket book
As the people who pay Gibson's bills, we have tremendous power to shape Gibson's future by requiring competitive quality and pricing- so why not use our purchasing power to reward good behavior?
1. Make your personal list of the ways that Gibson makes you happy as well as your frustrations- Your list could include products that meet or don't meet your needs as well as:
-
Quality
-
Innovation
-
Pricing
-
Support
-
Dealerships
2. Consider setting aside 25% of your music spend over the next 2 years to:
-
Buy Gibson products, that you otherwise wouldn't purchase-- if the the new, reorganized Gibson changes for the better.
OR
If Gibson continues to ignore your needs, use that 25% to flamboyantly purchase a competitive product.
3. Record your list, actions and investments below to reinforce your case and provide a summary of opportunities that Gibson should be evaluating-
After Market Parts
Guitar You Dream About designs often require hardware and electronic optimization- Here's some of the organizations that we partner with to get your perfect sound:
Perhaps the most diverse manufacture of affordable pickups, you will find Seth Lover's, Antiquities, 59s, Custom Custom, Pearly Gates, Cool Rails, Hot Rails, JBs, Duck Buckers, Prails and tons of other humbuckers and single coils in Guitar You Dream About Les Pauls, Strats Teles and other guitars. The reason is simple, high quality and lots of flexibility!
From the original Super Distortion to Sonic Ecstasy, Air Nortons and Tone Zones, Dimarzio have given us many options for a long, long time- The Dual Sound was the first after market pickup I ever installed and we've installed Cruisers in the mid position of countless Strats!
Barden's distinctive pickups provide a noise free snap and color that make Strats and Teles come alive! Thick and clear, Barden's provide a wonderful alternative to the average Rock/Country sound.
Richmond is close enough to call out our favorite regional, high end pickup creator. Fralin is particularly good with P90s and humbuckers and we're extremely happy to work them into Guitar You Dream About designs.
Another North Carolina power house, Guitar You Dream About designs often include Mojo pickups, bridges and parts.
Some of the best of specialized pickups, we love their approach to the Jazzmaster and Strat and appreciate the doors to alternative tones that Lollars open.
Great Raleigh Bands
VentanaMusic.com is a musician's network, covering great songs from yesterday and today.
Testimonials
I own a full service recording studio and our guitars need to be comfortable and versatile.
We picked up a 1976 Les Paul Pro and asked Michael for ideas to make it more flexible.
It’s got a wonderfully dark and rich P90 in the neck and Michael added a push/pull bypass to bring out the highs for more of an underwound alternate tone. He replaced the old ‘T’ humbucker in the bridge with a Pearly Gates, that adds lots of character, and included a push/pull that runs it in parallel for more ‘Fenderish’ tones.
The other push/pulls received Series and Out of Phase mods so you can go incredibly thin for 2nd guitar parts or searing thick for more of a Queen sound.
So thanks for such a terrific design! The mods are fantastic, our clients have tons of tone variations to choose from, it’s easy to use… and it still looks like a stock 76 Les Paul!
Troy Henry,
I needed to reduce the number of guitars I carry out, so I asked Mike to design a 'jack of all trades' cover guitar. I like long scale necks, so he suggested that we start with an older Nashville Tele because they have 3 pickups (like a strat) and a piezo bridge for acoustic sounds.
He put a Seymour Duncan Little 59 in the bridge and a cool rail in the neck. By themselves, the 59 has a slightly aggressive PAF fullbucker character and the cool rails is kind of a searing, amped up strat sound that I absolutely love for solos.
So at that point I was able to cover the hard rock and acoustics, but needed more strat/tele sounds for country. So he added his spin-a-split/quack mod and it’s amazing because it really thins out the neck and the bridge and the quack in 2 and 4 positions are really strat like.
He also persuaded me to move up to 11 gauge strings on this guitar. It makes the acoustic sound so real and the whole guitar picked up a thicker SRVish quality.
Jonathan H
Michael upgraded my Joe Bonamassa Signature Les Paul Studio and I love the results; I had an idea of what I wanted to be done and Michael walked me through all the options. Ultimately, I went with a straight forward solution!
He installed custom shop Seymour Duncan Skinner Bursts, upgraded the electronics, and rewired using 50s wiring. He helped me get the sound I wanted and all of the work was documented in a detailed provenance report that helps support resale value.
Michael was professional and easy to work with and I would recommend him to anyone who wants to get more out of their guitar or bass.
Scott C
I’ve got a late 80s Strat that plays like butter and I heard about Michael and I asked him how I could get more sounds out of my guitar. He asked lots of questions about amps, pedals and songs and came up with exactly what I needed. He replaced the middle tone (I never used it) with a push pull blender so I can dial in lots of extra sounds and run the neck with the bridge for a great Tele sound. CALL MICHAEL FOR A GREAT GUITAR!
Brian W
The Guitar You Dream About is more than a service, we're part of a bigger community. And a big historical part of that community, Gibson Guitars, is in trouble-
There is a lot of debate as to what went wrong, however, as guitar players, we have a tremendous opportunity to help Gibson become customer-focused and grow, to help keep a competitive guitar eco-system and ultimately grow the market-
And you can help by actively participating in this discussion-
The Guitar You Dream About