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The VT Musicians Thread


GarethRDR

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  • 2 weeks later...
58 minutes ago, Xann said:

Gibson are in deep trouble and could hit the wall this year :o

I'm not remotely surprised. By all accounts their quality has gone through the floor, and the prices have gone through the roof. Still got my Gibson Sonex (from 1980), though.

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2 hours ago, mjmooney said:

I'm not remotely surprised. By all accounts their quality has gone through the floor, and the prices have gone through the roof. Still got my Gibson Sonex (from 1980), though.

They were found to have been using illegally looked tropical wood weren't they? Proper dodgy. Serves 'em right, but it's a shame from the instrument point of view and for the employees etc.

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I'm sure in a corporate world where brand is king something could be salvaged if it does. What they have, is the Les Paul let's face it. (yeah ok flying V's and Super 400's are pretty iconic just try holding one!)

Weirdly though if it was still Gibson Guitars maybe it wouldn't be in so much trouble but I wouldn't be surprised if their move into electronics has hit them. They bought Phillips and TEAC, which seemed pretty weird at the time to me.

But you two are both right. Yep they were found illegally importing woods a few years ago. And they have developed a reputation for lack of quality control. I also think they made a massive error letting Epiphone flood the market with a lot of the Gibson designs. It diluted the brand imo and they did it to themselves. Others might argue that Epiphone was them stepping into the global market without moving Gibson production overseas. What would I know? But when your in-house musicians reckon your cheap guys are better than your expensive guys now there's gotta be something rotten.

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Did ALL Gibsons used to have maple necks or jut the higher end ones ? What was that wood  - do you happen to know ? Not a guitarist so no expert but thought Gibsons (pre Epiphone) were ace rock guitars - perhaps not as versatile as a Strat though. Bottom of the range drums now seem to be made of box wood or Poplar  - moving then to Birch then Maple and top of the range = Bubinga which I'd never heard of in the 70's. I think there was some sort of problem with that too. RE. above - what about 330 as used by the peerless Larry Carlton (I think).

 

 

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3 hours ago, blandy said:

They were found to have been using illegally looked tropical wood weren't they? Proper dodgy. Serves 'em right, but it's a shame from the instrument point of view and for the employees etc.

So far as I'm aware Rosewood which is used on pretty much all Gibson fretboards is now a protected species, but this isn't an issue unique to Gibson. It sorta happened overnight and every guitar manufacturer has had to either 1 pay a premium for rosewood and pass that cost onto the consumer or 2 find alternative material (Pau Farro seems to be the replacement Fender are using). 

I went to Guitar Guitar last week and played a Gibson Les Paul Tribute which is one of the lower priced American model. It was the only Gibson in the store worth the price. The rest are meh, okay but expensive. 

It's a shame, because I have an Epiphone Les Paul and I've always wanted an American Gibson, but the quality is meh for the price. 

 

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1 minute ago, PompeyVillan said:

So far as I'm aware Rosewood which is used on pretty much all Gibson fretboards is now a protected species, but this isn't an issue unique to Gibson. It sorta happened overnight and every guitar manufacturer has had to either 1 pay a premium for rosewood and pass that cost onto the consumer or 2 find alternative material (Pau Farro seems to be the replacement Fender are using). 

At the risk of misremembering a documentary I saw, I think Gibson was particularly, er, naughty. The feds got ‘em for importing illegally logged wood from Madagascar. The reporting on the film pretty much showed they knew exactly what they were doing and that it was illegal and banned.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Through the keyhole.

Whose studio is this?

28537503_760192517513711_998401556_n.jpg
 
21584570_760193477513615_431986237_n.jpg
 
Spoiler

Martin Gore's New York set up :o

 

On 2/18/2018 at 19:33, veloman said:

Was it John Birch famous for 'tinkering' with Gibsons ?

Aye.

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6 hours ago, Xann said:

Through the keyhole.

Whose studio is this?

28537503_760192517513711_998401556_n.jpg
 
21584570_760193477513615_431986237_n.jpg
 

 

I've seen some of these pics elsewhere. Seems strange to spend a gazillion dollars on effects processing, and then stick it all in a room that seems to have not been acoustically treated at all - no bass traps, no acoustic panels, diffusers etc.

Although I _am_ very jealous.

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6 hours ago, MrDuck said:

I've seen some of these pics elsewhere. Seems strange to spend a gazillion dollars on effects processing, and then stick it all in a room that seems to have not been acoustically treated at all - no bass traps, no acoustic panels, diffusers etc.

Although I _am_ very jealous.

I assume that everything was DI'd, and nothing recorded acoustically. With vocals (if required at all) added elsewhere. 

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9 hours ago, MrDuck said:

I've seen some of these pics elsewhere. Seems strange to spend a gazillion dollars on effects processing, and then stick it all in a room that seems to have not been acoustically treated at all - no bass traps, no acoustic panels, diffusers etc.

 

2 hours ago, mjmooney said:

I assume that everything was DI'd, and nothing recorded acoustically. With vocals (if required at all) added elsewhere. 

The pics were put up by Solid State Logic, though I didn't include the pic of the console. Here it is...

8texrFB.jpg

Martin's set up is in New York, Dave Gahan lives on the West Coast and has the same console.

They can bounce ideas and tracks backwards and forwards until they're nearly there, then come together as a band into a studio with all the accoutrements you'd usually expect - Acoustically treated spaces, a nice live room, lots of microphones etc etc

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3 hours ago, mjmooney said:

I assume that everything was DI'd, and nothing recorded acoustically. With vocals (if required at all) added elsewhere. 

Which of course is all well and good, but the downside (as with my more modest setup) is playback over the speakers, in what is just a non-acoustically optimised room in a house. Fine for demos though, as Xann suggests. 

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Bah! Came in here to post a picture of my new Eurorack synth case that I made and the first modules I put in it only to be confronted by those enormous room-sized setups posted above!

DXjBnDRW0AA9Om9.jpg.745e27b213732aa3f121b3b7f52cca1d.jpg

 

DXjBnDRW0AA9Om9.jpg

Edited by Lichfield Dean
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