I've been thinking about the acquistion of Mesa Boogie-you know, those wild and crazy guys and girls out in Petaluma, California? by Gibson, the recently out of bankruptcy guitar people.
The image is of the three codefendants. (credit Guitarworld).
Of course the bankruptcy was just one in a long line of skedaddles that Gibson has pulled over the years. They bailed from Kalamazoo when I was living there.
Plus, there have been periodic attempts by Gibson in its earlier iterations to come up with a credible alternative to Fender, Silvertone/Danelectro, Valco/National/Supro Ampeg and many other amp manufacturers over the years.
I mean, you can see the marketing idea there: buy your guitar AND your amp from us in one neat package.
The earlier amps Gibson made in Kalamazoo were pretty good too and I've owned a few-got a couple on the project track in fact. The slant panel silver and black ones from the sixties were OK too.
But the story's one of low production and general corporate lack of interest.
Then there were sporadic attempts to cash in like the flailings of a beached whale that knows it's not looking good for getting back to deep water.
I'm speaking of the SG amps that were made and designed by what was left of Standel, hybrids which used that awful 8417 power tube and came to grief.
I resurrected one only to find that the phaser and reverb were defunct and parts to repair them were out of production. Somehow the word got around that I could fix these things, and people occasionally call with a dead one. So I say more or less this speech.
"Before we even try and evaluate your amp or discuss what it needs you will go and find a pair of NEW old stock MATCHED 8417 power tubes. You will pay for them and they will cost you over $200 if you can find them, and there will be NO "used tested", "ANOS", *tests great on my tester I bought when the drugstore closed* or any of that nonsense. And they will be Sylvanias or RCA branded Sylvanias, not GE made 8417s. Then we will go ahead and evaluate what else is wrong with your amp and it will be plenty. All repairs will be on a time and materials basis including me sitting at my desk trying to hunt down nonexistent parts. And when it's all over you will still have something that sounds like crap because they were lousy amps to begin with. Still want to proceed?"
Then there was the Trace Elliott-Goldtone debacle and then they got out of the business again. Trace Elliott was good stuff but Gibson turned it into a shit show.
So now they're back at it again? A hair of the dog that bit you as the drunks say?
Now they acquired Mesa Boogie last fall but the deal was in the works before that if you look at the assignment dates on Randall Smith's patents. It's from March of 2020.
I have a theory about this.
How does a guitar company recently out of bankruptcy finance this deal?
Answer: With other peoples' money.
Who are they? VC types, aging hippies who have expensive Gibson guitars but can't really play all that well because they haven't learned their craft. Jeez, it would be cool to have an amp company!
What will happen? Well, the argument's a little convoluted but I figure there's a lot of talk around the office-God forbid any of these guys would work in the repair depot or on the sales floor-about "synergy" and "leveraging" and "iconic" and "merging resources and working together to create a great new thing" and similar bizspeak chatter.
In reality, the people who put up the money are going to want to see a substantial ROI sooner than later-the people who actually are the investors will demand it.
So where do the payments start coming from? I believe Mesa sales are static-growth is limited potential.
Mesa sells communion wafers to the already converted.
So: Let's broaden the base and cheapen the product to get the prices down and bring in the dough to pay the VCs.
Answer: Cooking grade new, less complicated designs will be farmed out to China or Viet Nam and Petaluma will exist only as a rump custom shop and repair depot.
Coming soon to a Walmart near you, trading on brand name recognition.
Why do I think this? Marshall Laney Fender Acoustic Vox and on and on and on. They've ALL done it.
Here's some G2. https://www.guitarworld.com/features/jc-curleigh-cesar-gueikian-and-randy-smith-on-gibsons-monumental-acquisition-of-mesaboogie-and-what-it-means-for-the-iconic-brands
